Cinema Retro columnist Mark Cerulli has long championed indie horror films. They generally have one thing in common: the need to use innovative methods to compensate for less-than-extravagant budgets. Cerulli finally decided the best way to experience what it's like making one of these films was to participate in aspects of its creative process. Here is his report.
BY MARK CERULLI
As
a writer/producer for HBO, I had been on a number of film sets to do interviews
and shoot “B-rollâ€â€¦ tolerated, sometimes even welcomed but never a part of the
actual film. As a scriptwriter I had also piled up an impressive number of “passesâ€
(my favorite was from Steven Seagal’s nutritionist!). Then in a Hollywood coincidence I met
director Sean Haitz at the premiere of Rob Zombie’s Three from Hell. We
discovered that we shared an interest in Area 51, the mysterious military base
in the high desert outside Las Vegas and UFOs. We batted ideas around, agreed on a story and I wrote a first draft. Sean came up with a catchy title - AREA 5150
– and revised the script. At age 34, this
would be Sean’s 4th film. (His latest, Cannibal Comedian will be
out soon.) He gets things done. Last
December, we even took a quick trip to the real
Area 51 to shoot some exteriors, all under the watchful eye of “the Cammo
Dudesâ€, the private security force who guard all approaches to the base.
After
10 or 11 drafts, Sean’s very capable Assistant Director, CJ Guerrero, imported our
script into studio software where it underwent further changes. My first inkling of that was when Sean cheerfully
said, “You might want to wear a cup.â€
Oh
really?
At
the end of February I, along with the cast and a young crew of 15, were in Morongo
Valley, a quiet desert community about 30 mins from Palm Springs. Sean had the run of a sprawling vehicle graveyard
– cars, buses, construction equipment and the abandoned property next door (“a
trap house†as actor D’Shae Beasley called it). Set decorator, prop master and makeup artist Andrea Davoren turned the
vacant house into a functional-looking home – albeit without heat, running
water or even plumbing. Much mayhem
ensued with the walls pierced by hammers, screams and a custom chainsaw. And, of course, splattered with fake
blood. (Fun fact: there are two
varieties – one for the body, and a minty version for spewing out of your
mouth!)
The
most surreal event was staging a dinner scene that Sean wanted to do as an
homage to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Since the house had no electricity we had to use an outside generator so
the floor was always a forest of cables. (My dropping an axe on one, cutting
the power didn’t help!) Since our script
had a crazy father role, I asked to play it as I had acted in high school and
college and took some classes in NYC before chickening out on pursuing it full
time. Even so, I underestimated what was involved in being in front of the
camera…
Inside
the house, the only source of heat was the old hearth, which production
assistants thankfully kept filling with branches from the overgrown
property. As it got later and later, the
temperature dropped into the 30s. By the
time we got ready to shoot dinner – around 2AM - we were all freezing. The others
at the table – Aaron Prager (star of Sean’s upcoming Cannibal Comedian),
lovely Claire Brauer (a real trooper in a skimpy cutoff t-shirt) and Rob Wight
(playing my dimwitted son #2) were all professional actors. Assistant Art Director August Kingsley played
my mutant offspring, Timmy, under a custom latex mask. I had foolishly written
a speech for my character and suddenly realized I had to deliver it. My first take - sometime after 3 AM - was…um…
lackluster. “We’re all tired. You look
it and sound it…†the director said from behind the monitor. I took a deep
breath and remembered what Bruce Glover (who teaches acting when he’s not
trying to kill James Bond) said about “locking upâ€. I managed a better delivery and we finally
wrapped for the night.
For
a small film, Sean Haitz managed to get maximum bang for every buck – like getting
a helicopter for a key scene. Original
landing location dropped out? No problem:
he staged a landing on a side road next to a busy highway! Our female lead
tried to get away in a car so my (screen) daughter, Ruby Rose (played by our
special effects guru, Matthew Lucero) crushed the car and flipped it over with
a backhoe! We benefitted from having a
great young Director of Photography, Kraig Bryant, who was shooting his first
feature after working on music videos. He and cameraman Josh Wagner made full use of every hour of daylight,
literally shooting until the sun went down.
Every
movie villain deserves a wicked death and mine was a doozy – involving a circular
saw and a certain body part. (Hence the cup.) I was wired with tubes running up
my pants to a compressor tank filled with a gallon of fake blood. The result was a spectacular Tarantino-ish
shower of gore! I drove back to the
hotel drenched in drying blood, praying not to get pulled over by a cop.
After
8 long, exhilarating days, over 8 terabytes of data were digitally “in the
canâ€. We had a movie! And I had a new cinematic family – we had all
grown close during those days in the desert. That is the part of making Area 5150 I
think I cherish the most.