This is the second in a series of blogs about the making of my passion project “Stories”. If you missed the first one, you can click here to catch up!

Once again, let me start off by saying that I am NOT an expert at any of this. I've only been doing this acting/filmmaking thing for five years. I've retired twice and don't really have to work anymore, but I do drive Uber to get out of the house on occasion when I'm not making something.

Having said that, I’m not opposed to learning from others. But please do not come at me with “I know the best way to do this” and then crap all over everything I’ve done, only to avail yourself as the savior of my projects to get a paid gig for yourself. I see you coming a mile away. Now, on to preproduction.

Preproduction:

Preproduction on this thing actually started when I was 12 years old, when I wrote the original short story for English class. But for our purposes here, it started when I finished the script in September of 2024.

Getting locations here in Central PA was actually pretty easy. Of the five locations called for in the script (yes, I know that’s a lot for a short), only one asked for payment of any kind, and of course, that was the museum we were using as the haunted house. Everyone else was just happy to say that a movie was filmed there and gave us access to their spaces. The coffee shop that served as our restaurant scene was actually closed while the owners were on vacation and they gave us a key! Shout out to Brew Cumberland’s Best Coffee in New Cumberland, PA!

Getting money was actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be, either. I have a friend who has agreed to basically trade off giving each other $10k. I knew we were working with at least $20k, which is nice for a short film. I’m returning the favor in January when we shoot our next short “Pockets”, about an autistic kid who can create pocket dimensions, not unlike what you saw in the new Superman movie (but we had the idea first dammit! Lol!).

So, we were all set to film in March of this year, when…

Life (once again) gets in the way:

One of the great things about making a good movie that wins awards like “Turbo Cola” did in winning Best Indie Film of the Year in 2023 (according to Film Threat and their Award This! event for indie filmmakers), is that you get to talk about it for a long time. Years, as a matter of fact!

So, to make a long story short, our state film commissioner, Gino Pesi, wanted the “Turbo Cola” Director (Luke Covert) and me to attend a panel at the Pennsylvania House at South by Southwest. It was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up. So, we went to SXSW and had a GREAT time! Highly recommended that you go if you haven’t been.

Then, I also got the opportunity to go to Cannes, once again, based on the success of “Turbo Cola”. In addition to “Turbo Cola,” my short film “Calls” (currently available on a few streamers) and the script for “Stories” had all made it into this guy Darwin Reina’s film festival (The North Film Festival). With a threepeat of success at his festival, he gave me a call and asked if I wanted to go to Cannes and stay at his Villa. To quote Ace Ventura: “Gee… let me think!” So, I also got to go to Cannes in May.

When I got back, I needed a vacation from my vacation. I didn’t want to work on anything at that time, but this was MY passion project. It wasn’t going to get done unless I did it.

It was also around this time that SAG started throwing roadblocks in my way. The answer to their demands was always “more money” in the budget, which I just didn’t have. Don’t get me wrong, I REALLY wanted this to be a SAG project so I could work with a couple of friends of mine in New York. But alas, I just didn’t have the cash to do what they wanted AND what I wanted. So, I made the hard decision to tell my SAG friends that working together would have to wait.

Buckle Down:

I got to work on a new draft of the script in June. Nothing big but enough to warrant a new table read.

I also called around to all of the locations to make sure they were ok with switching the shoot days to July. Much to my surprise, they all were! It was all coming together.

A Schedule and a Tech Walkthrough:

I was able to get my DP, AD, Set Designer, and a few others together for a one day Tech walkthrough of the locations.

I would like to say that everything here went off without a hitch, but it didn’t. There were two locations we were not able to get into. One, I was not worried about, as we had filmed there before for the Indiegogo campaign, and we were basically recreating those shots. No biggie there. But at the other location, an office, we were not able to get in.

For the office location, we decided that all of the “cool” shots we wanted to do would NOT be done here. It would be a basic wide shot followed by over the shoulder/over the shoulder. If we had time (which we ended up having because we combined a few things), we could get more creative. We’d save the cool stuff for the haunted house and the parking garage gun fight.

Production:

The first two days of production were a dream. Monday and Tuesday were normal 12-hour shifts. The crew was amazing! The DP and the Gaffer spoke like they were talking in a completely different language and understood each other.

The Grips and the PAs were “Johnny on the Spot” with everything from gear to crafty to lights. The Actors were pros and showed up to set knowing not only their lines but the lines of their counterparts. I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. All I really had to do was sit back in my chair and watch it all happen. I just spoke “Action” and “Cut” on occasion.

Wednesday was a short day. Only five hours on set because that’s all we were allowed at that location. I think everyone appreciated having the night and the following day off.

Thursday was our night shoot. And boy, did things go off the rails.

Attack of the Karen!

Thursday night was the night of our big gunfight in a parking garage. We were just getting ready to call “action” when two cars pulled into the shot.

My producing partner was the first to intervene. He made contact with a man who was very standoffish. Not your normal Pennsylvania (and let's face it, the entire northeast) standoffishness. This guy refused to move his car.

I arrived and began talking to him, and explained that if he was turning in for the night, it was perfectly fine if he wanted to leave his car there. It would just be in our shots, and that he was actually helping us out because this parking garage was virtually empty to the point that I had the crew park there so we could get some cars.

He seemed to soften a bit to that idea and seemed cool with it…until…

His wife was in the second car and rushed over to us, claiming that my grip was trying to set her car on fire with our hazer and that she was calling 911, which she promptly did.

At that point, my DP, God bless him, took an Actor and the Sound guy and left the area. I found out later that he was getting the internal car shots that we needed later. Basically, he just did them first while the Producers handled Karen.

The Police and the Fire Department showed up. The Fire Chief asked if I had a permit. I replied that I didn’t need one after 6:00pm on a weekday, in that particular garage, as per the York County Pennsylvania Facilities office. He nodded. He also knew the name of the guy I spoke to. Apparently, they were neighbors or something.

He then asked what we were using for smoke. As if on cue, my Gaffer came up with our bottle of Haze Juice and pointed to the part that said “water-based”. The Chief was satisfied.

He then said that the lady was complaining about a gas smell. I indicated that it was probably from our generator outside the garage. He asked to see it, and upon arrival in the very safe location where we had it, he asked how old it was. I told him that it was literally out of the box two hours ago. Once again, he seemed satisfied and rolled his eyes while apologizing. No apologies needed, sir!

After the Fire Chief left to go talk to Karen, it was the Police Officers’ turn to ask me questions. They seemed amiable and remembered an old colleague of theirs who also happened to be one of my old martial arts students! You couldn’t write it any better. Once again, there were eye rolls towards Karen.

Suffice to say, she left in a huff, and we continued our day. By then, the DP had returned with the car, the sound guy, and our Actor, so we really didn’t lose any time!

Back to Normal:

Friday was our shortest day. Only about four hours. And we officially wrapped on “Stories” at the Coffee House I spoke of earlier.

Saturday was another four-hour day, where we shot the teaser trailer for our Indiegogo campaign for our next project, “Pockets,” shooting in January.

And that’s how we did it. I’d love to answer your questions in the comments below, and feel free to follow us on Instagram to see pictures of our progress as we head into post-production, the festival run, and possible distribution.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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