Joe Anderson Talks About The Producers and Crew
RACHELLE RYAN (producer)
I met Rachelle very early in the process, recognized her wisdom from the start and wanted to be in business with her for the long term. As a manager of actors, writers and directors, as well having just produced the feature film “Spiral” – and owning several entertainment related businesses – she is well-versed in all facets of production.
Rachelle was able to guide a large part of the start-up process in working with Sean and me in the business dealings that would allow us to legally raise funds and proceed into production. We also relied on her skills when it came to the casting process and she was able to help us cast two young up-and-comers in Nick Richey and Alicia Lagano as well as the balance of the show.
JASON STEWART (producer)
Jason came to us after an extensive search. We had one heck of a time finding someone to spend our money! We met a lot of Line Producers but their vibe was in telling us what can’t be done when we were more interested in what realistically can be done – despite a limited budget. We also wanted a person that was ethical and honest and could tell it like it is. It turns out that Jason had all of those qualities, could stretch a dollar something fierce and take the reigns of the production like it was his own baby. Refreshingly, he saw investor money as his own and treated it as such. A rarity at this budget level!
Primarily a Line Producer of multi-million dollar TV commercials and one of the youngest in Hollywood to ever achieve that position, Jason became more than a number-cruncher, he was also a creative producer and we relied on his experience to shape the show.
Sean, Rachelle and I were able to sit down with him and talk through every aspect of what we intended to do and he was able to work several vendors we had already chosen. Jason hit the ground running and within a few short weeks we were finalizing the budget and off to Missouri to make it all work.
BARRY CURTIS (co-producer)
As they say in Missouri, a good guy is a “good dog” and with Barry we had a jack-of-all-trades maestro working the angles for us during pre-production and while on location.
A college friend of Sean McEwen, he had just arrived in Los Angeles on an extended vacation after working for his cousin Grant Curtis who is a producer on Sam Raimi’s “Spider Man” features. Barry initially saw Sean and me slaving in a hotel room trying to draw our terrible little stick figures for storyboards. As we plotted out the shots Barry looked at us like we were morons and secretly wondered how we could ever assume to direct a movie if we couldn’t draw! After he took pencil in hand, he showed us how to work those angles. His passion was a grand one for this and as he worked he regaled us on everything “Star Wars” and “Spider Man.” Sean and I decided to elevate him to Associate Producer and just prior to shooting we bumped him to Co-Producer status after he helped Jason Stewart arrange a whole host of things on location in Missouri. If there are two words to describe him, it would be “galactic enthusiasm.”
RENE JUNG (director of photography) – www.jurifilm.com
When you work with a cinematographer you want someone that not only has the technical knowledge to shoot pretty pictures but to be a collaborator as well. Rene was born and raised in Germany where he was classically trained as a cinematographer. His keen eye toward lighting is based on frugality and what quickly serves the story in terms of the overall look. He’s not a flashy guy, has more of a circumspect approach, but one with precision at its core. He’s unique to work with because he can change his mind and move right into another idea. It’s shocking at first but you realize you’re getting more production value and there is no time lag in that final move.
It also must be said that he’s the hardest working guy I have ever seen. Has more energy than most and is usually found shooting something while others are at lunch or wrapping for the day. He’s the kind of guy who will drop all of the fun gadgets and simply drop down into the mud and get the shot. He’s also the perfect cross between the art and technical. Two worlds almost opposed to each other but yet so completely intertwined. Rene owns the shooting and post facility, JuriFilm, in Los Angeles and is the “go-to” guy for German television producers.
DAN O’BRIEN (editor)
As the chief editor at big-time commercials house, Blissium (Los Angeles), Dan has worked on hundreds of national TV campaigns as well as co-editing several features films with noted director Randall Miller (“Bottle Shock”, “Noble Son”). Dan’s sensibilities allow him to take the story much further than imagined and he’s one of a few in the business that can tell you something won’t fly but do it without ruffling any feathers. His creative skills are vast and he enjoys fruitful collaborations with everyone he works with and it was a major plus to have him as a trusted creative team member.
Our on-set video playback operator, Adam Sonnenfeld, was mentored by Dan over the summer of 2007 in the intricacies of several editing software programs and work as his assistant before heading back to his final year of college. Adam was then able to come back to Los Angeles and step right into cutting low-budget features – most notably in the RED camera work-flow. His skills earned through the generosity of Mr. O’Brien.
SCOTT ROCKENFIELD (composer) – www.scottrockenfield.com
I met Scott while in high school in Redmond, WA. I never knew he had any interest in music, let along playing drums, until I was traveling in Australia and noticed the first album from his band Queensryche. Years would go by before I got the idea I should contact him to create some music for a movie. Little did I know, he had already done so and was composing for both film and television outside of his Queensryche duties.
Scott has a classical sense and is almost completely self-taught. I can relate to that as it’s so much easier today with the digital equipment where creativity is at your fingertips on a whim. Not to say that he doesn’t have his old-school sensibilities. He mentioned composers of the past more so than his contemporaries and that told me all I needed to know that we would get a well-crafted work. His score was both haunting and serene. If you understand that half of the art of a film is the music, Scott served us well. I look forward to working with him again on a project we are circling now.
JASON BARNETT (creature design / special effects makeup) – www.impfx.com
I had my wacky interest in make-up as a kid and though I never went any further with it I found it all coming back, and more, after I saw what Jason could do. The creatures he and his team cooked up for “Albino Farm” are so first rate that, upon close inspection, you are hard-pressed to see where the appliances meet the actor wearing them. His masterpiece for our shoot is surely the nasty pig-faced hag, Pig Bitch. A one-of-a-kind hot chick but with a nasty mug and a mean disposition.
Jason’s work is overwhelmingly technical and yet he is an artist with a precision that I have never seen before. There is a mastery of a craft that most would find amazing even if not into horror films or make-up effects in general. To be in his shop and watch him make casts from a person’s entire head and then go through the process of creating an appliance is pretty darn cool.
It should also be said that Jason has a deep interest in anatomy and has a database in his brain of pretty much every horror or sci-fi movie creature. Since he has worked with most of the leading make-up effects leaders in the business – Dick Smith, Rick Baker – to name a few, it’s not hard to see where he gained his knowledge.
CAT CACCIATORE (production designer)
For a local Production Designer we really lucked out finding Cat through the hiring process of local Missouri crew. She came to the project late in the game and in a matter of weeks we were shooting on her sets! I was pretty impressed with her and despite a lack of a decent budget to work with, she rallied her troops and we never missed a day.
When I mention certain production jobs like this you should simply just let someone do their craft – which is what Cat did. She picked up on so much more than was in the script and when we had to compromise on things, we let her have her way. Those were the simple decisions but you have to trust that person in order to do this as well!
A case in point was the “bone tree.” This tree is where the ancestors of the farm hang various bones of the deceased. It’s not so much a hanging graveyard as it is a piece of art. It’s also rather gruesome and acts as a warning to intruders not to venture further into the farm. I had originally picked a tree that looked iconic but there were some logistical concerns as well as an overall lack of definition in dealing with it. Cat made her case and even though I felt strongly against it, I realized the night we shot those scenes that we would’ve been up against and not seen the artifacts in the backlight. Good lesson to learn from a person who takes their craft seriously!
A. JEFFREY SCHOENBERG (costume designer)
You would hardly think that the word “passion for detail” would be so consuming as to be used for what I regarded as “mere clothing.” Jeffrey, our costume designer, suffers no fools – including me! I had no idea the magnitude of his job and the detail in which he would do it.
As this was the first film I worked on that had five to ten sets of clothing for each actor, I could see the daunting task Jeffrey had in front of him – but only now! He created at least fifteen separate character’s costumes. And among them were the various sets that were made for each successive day’s use in the timeline of the script. The continuity he had to deal with was enormous and he was only budgeted a few assistants along the way.
When I went to his Burbank-based shop I saw hundreds of period costumes that he makes for various stage plays. I found a new appreciation for a craft I knew nothing other than what the job description was. Every last detail is looked at and figured out and there is a historical element that he works from as well. Even in the face of all of the logistics of working with the actors and keeping track of everything, Jeffrey is an easy-going guy and a good chap to hang with. To say I found a higher appreciation for his craft is an understatement!
BRET BOLTON (visual effects supervisor) – www.dv8fx.com
About halfway through the shoot Bret showed up for a few days to help us shoot some specialized effects sequences. He was the visual effects supervisor and his job was to advise on the best way to position and shoot two sequences that had some creatures getting burned alive by an explosion in a cave, as well as the lead actress being blown out of the cave.
I remember we were far behind one night and Bret was there all day just waiting for his chance to work. We brought him over and told him that we had only a half hour to shoot one shot and that we would not be able to do any specific separations to help him composite the characters in the fire effect. I was miserable about it and could see his frustration but he did what he could and we got something of the shot. A month later, we got an email from him containing a video snippet of the work he did on the sequence with CGI and his other tools. He made the shot look so real that we were stunned beyond belief. We thought we never got him anything to work with yet he came back to us with this shot, plus ten others, and made the movie look like we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars!
His work was the eye-opener of all the technical work that we dealt with on the show. We then had him work other shots to create or disguise certain things in the tent revival scene where he used match-move and image distortion technology and made an entire sequence out of six or seven extras who had a facial or body feature to rearrange. Computers are great toys for this but you do need the artist with the genius behind it!
