shoot in the woods: a memoir

• It was a stop motion music video that was awesome, but super detailed… setting up one frame took about 5 minutes… 24 frames = 1 second… MV’s are usually from 3 - 5 minutes… so you can imagine
• started at 11pm, ended at 3:30am… the first thing the director says to me:
  “Do you believe in ghosts?”
  “Uhhh… kind of…”
  “Just be careful cause the owner of this property scattered his sister’s ashes here”
  “O_______O, thanks for telling me.”
  and yes, there was a ghost on set… I was in the back towards the trees, and something lifted up my shirt.
• We were surrounded by coyotes, and they kept getting closer as the night went on.
• When we got deeper into the woods, all you could see were eyes in the night… the only lights we had were the tiny lights on our heads.
• We were being stalked by a noisy raccoon that screeched and moaned every time a shot was taken.
• using the bathroom in the woods… next to a tree -_______-.. first time for everything
• sleeping in a cabin (that’s only used for the winter, so it’s designed to keep heat in and cold out) the beds were lofted, and I slept directly under a window that was 2ft away from my face.

SCARIEST MOMENT OF THE NIGHT

there was this super tall guy on set with long red hair who was helping out (I’m gonna call him Bill) We added to each image in rotation. My job was to shine light on the trees,  and his part was to draw water ripples with light. As it got later, he started stumbling around saying how tired he was…

In my head, I’m thinking, stop bitching, we’re all working and we’re all tired. But he got  sympathy from the rest of the crew, and the director told him to go sleep in the car.

30 minutes later, after shooting the final scene, we turn around to go back to the cars…

(now remember… it’s pitch black, and we only have 2 head flashlights)

I hear a twig snap.

I turn my headlight into the direction of the sound, and a tall man was standing in the spotlight, shirtless, with a long, nasty blue robe on and giant deer antlers coming from his head.

I held my breath and started to run while the rest of the crew were frozen.

IT WAS FUCKING… BILL

when they realized it was him, they laughed and clapped

“that was awesome dude!”

“ha ha.. classic Bill”

uhhh… didn’t you just cause attention to yourself saying you were tired and shit?! You play too much, it’s fucking dark, all we have to see with, are 2 weak ass flashlights, and you’re playing dress up while we’re working… sigh

seriously though,  when I first saw him, I though I was in a Rob Zombie horror film, and I seriously thought I was gonna die…

cause everyone knows the token black person dies first…

#woods  #camping  #film set  #filmmaking  #scary  #rob zombie  #ghost