Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production,
what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen. This month I’m going to talk about The Curse. However, since the Curse is a
complicated TV Show with quite a bit of behind-the-scenes back-story, I’m going
to split this into three posts.
Production Diary
The Curse, Part 2 – The First Half of Production
Previously on Production Diary – The Curse we learned where the
idea for The Curse came from, saw some of the original plans for the story and
how they changed, discovered alternate casting choices, and basically spent
eight pages listening to Yibble babble about her own project. How did you survive reading all that? Are you a masochist? If so, would you
like to film next Saturday?
The Curse was filmed and edited in the Winter/Spring of
2001. It’s a landmark show for
Sine Fine Films for a number of reasons.
To find out what they are read this. In Part 2 we’re actually going to talk about the filming
(about damn time) – well the first half of it at least, everything up until Spring
Break.
THE FILMING
The shoot ended with what felt like a gloomy atmosphere and
I was seriously depressed. I
wasn’t sure if the girl still wanted to play the part and I offered her a way
out by saying something along the lines of “I know it’s not what you’re used
to, I’m not used to using equipment like lights and mics because I don’t really
have any. I promise the next shoot
will be better, but if you don’t want to keep going just let me know now.” She replied with something like “No no
no, it’s fine really. It’s okay.” And said she’d be back to film for the next
shoot, which was a week later. I
called the girl during the week leading up to the shoot to make sure she was
still willing to be in the show, but I wasn’t able to get a hold of her so I
left messages. She called me back
late on Friday or early on Saturday to say that she couldn’t make it to the
shoot that day. I should have
realized then what became so obvious by the end of the weekend. 
I’m not sure if I talked to her late on Saturday night or
early Sunday morning, but I called her to make sure she was still coming to the
big shoot at Goreville and that’s when she told me she didn’t want to do the
part anymore. It wasn’t what she
was expecting it to be like, she had other commitments, etc. etc. She tried to find a way to politely
tell me that she just didn’t want to be associated with or waste her time on
such an amateur production, and I got the idea. I wasn’t angry with her or anything – although she could
have told me sooner so I had time to
recast before the morning of the shoot, that ticked me off – because I suddenly
understood what my film set must have looked like to her and it made me
question a lot about my style of filming and whether or not I even wanted to
keep going with the project or end it there. I decided I had put in too much effort to the project to
back down now and figured that if I could find a Maria and make it through the
Goreville shoot I could do the show.
Now keep in mind that I am bipolar, was unmedicated, and was
heading for a breakdown at that time so what she said and what I heard might be
vastly different conversations.
However, since that I time I have always tried to stress to new people –
anyone I’m bringing in who doesn’t know me or know anyone who’s been in a
production with me – that this is a no budget, no equipment kind of production,
and to not get their expectations too high. I’m not sure I talked about that to people for The Gift
Bearer, Dream Chasers, or Eidolon because most of the people there knew what
they were getting into…sort of, but when I have to advertise for an actor like
I did with Twisted Tales: Cinderella, I make sure to stress how amateur the
production is and how it’s just supposed to be fun. I don’t want to end up in a
situation like that again where an actor shows up and is shocked and/or
horrified at the production quality.
The second day of shooting was several scenes for Episodes 2
and 3 (and 4 as it turned out since Episode 3 grew in the edit bay and doubled
in length), in Thompson Woods with Mordecai (Mike D), Labarta (Bridgette), Atholton
(Chas), and of course Zandra (Liz Schafer). The first part was spent filming the “evil trio” scenes from
Episodes 3 and 4, and as I recall it was pretty fun – especially when Mike,
dressed in full sorcerer regalia, ran into a low tree branch and ended up
swinging from it and flying several feet (flying sorcerers yay! Didn’t catch it on film…boo). Then we filmed scenes from Episode 2
between Zandra and Labarta and ended up at Campus Lake to film a fight scene
between the two girls and watch Mike cast a spell, then crack up for several
takes in a scene between him and Bridgette. I actually had crew on this shoot (yay!) – Peter Normand,
the location manager and tree wrangler, and Morgan Thomas, a newish girl at the
station who thought helping out behind the scenes sounded fun (little did she
know….mwahaha!).
And suddenly…there was Morgan Thomas:
**cue
angelic choir**
She had showed up to help out behind the scenes as general crew. She was female, could walk, talk, and
was breathing – she was perfect!!!
I asked Peter if he thought she would be okay playing the part, and he
said “yes” or “probably”…he said something. So I asked her if she would be willing to jump into the part
of Maria Sanchez. Best. Decision.
Ever. For me, not for her…well,
hopefully for her as well.
Here’s how it
basically went:
YIBBLE: So…Morgan, right? You wanna play Maria in the series?
MORGAN:
Well…um…I—
YIBBLE:
Great! Here’s the script –
she’s only in a couple dozen scenes (and 8 more episodes). You can read it in
the car.
MORGAN: I get carsick.
YIBBLE: That’s
okay. I’ll give you some time to read it on the set before we film.
MORGAN: Really?
YIBBLE: No.
MORGAN: Do we have time for me change into better clothes?
YIBBLE: No.
MORGAN: Can I
at least put on some makeup?
YIBBLE: No. You
look great! Now get in the car.
MORGAN: Am I being kidnapped?
YIBBLE: Yes.
You don’t need to eat right? Cause I didn’t bring any food.
Here’s how Morgan remembers it in her interview:
So I showed up at the student center at the
ass-crack of dawn to help behind the scenes and here comes Peter Normand, with
this grin that frightened me terribly, and says “you’re gonna be a star!” And I
said, “I’m gonna be a what?” Here
I am, you know, not dressed up at all for a part, and I’m replacing the role
for Maria – which was fun… I couldn’t read in the car because of motion
sickness to even know what the hell was going on in the script. I sped read on
set trying to figure out what the hell the character is about - “Quick! What’s
your motivation? Um...I’m a bitch? Okay go with it!”
I pretty much – almost literally – threw her in front of the
camera to film the first scene in the parking lot across from the Student
Center. Then I kidnapped invited
her join us, and we all headed out to film. On February 4 around 10am, ten people in three cars arrived
at Ferne Clyffe State Park near Goreville, IL, ready to film. We started with the scenes where
everyone is introduced to each other and then headed to the cave…and what a
cave it was (and still is). 
I’m describing this shoot in detail because it was hella
important and just happens to be one of my top 5 favorite film shoots. I
promise I won’t wax poetical about all the shoots. Before we got there – or was it when we got there? – Peter
let us know that the biggest thing we had to worry about was hibernating snakes
that were likely to be found in piles of dead leaves or in dark places in cave
– both of which were kinda everywhere in the back of the cave. And sure enough on the climb to the
cave (which include suitcases of props and costumes) there was a big sign that
said basically - DANGER snakes. Proceed at your own risk. This would have been good
foreknowledge, but…oh well. No one
got bit by a deadly poisonous snake (or any snake at all) or ended up in the ER
for any reason, so it was good shoot (to be clear neither of those things
happen on my set – well, not the snake bites at least).
We filmed a little bit of everyone arriving at the cave as
we were going there, then stopped to set up the scene. I couldn’t costume Mike
before we traveled to the cave due to the danger of long robes and the sheer
silliness of it (not that either of those things have stopped me in the past). So the first thing we did when we
arrived there (after gawking in amazement of course) was to suit him up – or in
this case, robe him up. Then we
picked the spot for Mordecai’s grave and set up the props. I think Michelle and
Morgan set up the display of artifacts in a very lovely and artistic way while
I was busy setting up the area for the “corpse”. 
There were nifty stone lying around and I’m not sure who’s
idea it was to use them to make a circle around the corpse, but it was a good
one. We pick out some cool looking stones and Mike chose one to use as a pillow
– a decision he probably regretted.
Come to think of it, the rock pillow probably wasn’t his idea. Sorry Mike. Anyway, I had actually prepped really hard for this shoot
because we were trying to film a LOT of scenes so I had to be prepared. I even made a diagram on the back of
the back of the script of props needed for the “awakening ceremony” that I had
designed and positions of props and Mike for it (along with some notes from a
class apparently – clearly I mocked this up during a lecture hall – tee
hee!). 
After that we read through the scenes with Maria, Cory,
Atholton, and his crew in the cave, then filmed them. Michelle and Morgan really seemed to
click onscreen and the scenes were quite funny while still keeping a serious
undertone (not sure how that happened – my brilliant directing or luck? Probably luck). Then we stripped Mike (out of his
costume not his clothes, gutter brain!) and head back to the set of the
archaeologists’ campsite. Better
known as the foresty-stream area in front of the parking lot (my general woods
locations are so classy). 
We filmed the rest of the Maria, Cory, Atholton, and his
crew non-cave scenes, Michelle got to learn how to insult in Latin (well, read
a long insult at least) and there was more fun time banter and bits between
Morgan and Michelle. Then we
filmed some montage stuff, Adam stole the scenes as a frolicking extra with a
gun, and then we took a break. I think.
At some point people ate lunch, but lunch on a busy day of filming is
usually a eat-when-you’re-not-onscreen sort of deal. 
We got ready to film again while the girls ate lunch
(probably), robed up Mike, and filmed him killing Atholton and the extras. During this we learned three things –
1) you probably shouldn’t have your hands in your pockets when you’re about to
be shot, 2) Steve really knows how to fake being shot, like flying backwards
and everything, and 3) If you let Adam decide how he’s going to die, he’ll
probably end up in a silly position mocking quick-setting rigor mortis. 
At this point I needed a break, so I did my usual thing of
taking a little breather while the actors read through the next scene two or
three times. Then we filmed a
bunch of scenes with the girls and Mordecai, said farewell any actors playing
Atholton and his crew who wanted to head home since they were no longer needed,
then headed back up to the cave to film the scenes with Zandra and
Mordecai.
After a quick read
through of the scene, while the other actors played around in the cave, we
robed up Mike again, filmed the first real confrontation scene between Zandra
and Mordecai (one of my favorites), then got set up to film the giant bunch of
scenes (including montage bits) of Zandra casting the spell to wake up Mord and
his ghost talking her through it. 
Somehow filming all that seemed kind of magical to me – not
like ooh spell magical, but like this is gonna rock, I’m loving this sort of
magical. I remember there were
only two real problems we had with this scene. The first was that Mike’s hair kept falling in front of his
face during a few of the shots and we couldn’t seem to fix it so he wasn’t
suddenly eating his hair halfway through the mysterious ceremony. 
The second was that we had been filming
all day and the light was starting to fade. As filming continued it got darker and darker. This caused a some issues - especially
script wise since the very end of the scene, after Mordecai is woken up and
disappeared and Maria comes back to yell at Zandra, was filmed during the
daylight hours. So, I just decided
that as part of the ceremony there’s a huge storm where the sky goes black
until the ceremony is over. It
actually worked really well and in my opinion is kinda creepy.
The cast and crew who were not needed in the rest scene left
before it got too dark, but those
in the scene and me and Pete stayed behind to finish filming. In the end it was pitch black and we
only had the candles on the set and a few flashlights to provide enough light
for the camera to keep filming.
Once we were done, we packed up as quickly as possible, tried to avoid
snakes, and carefully headed back down the sometimes narrow and down hill
trail…in the dark…with two flashlights…and I’m scared of heights…even if I
can’t see them. But we all made it
safely back to the parking lot, packed up the cars and headed home.
When I got back to the dorm, I was covered in dust and dirt
from the woods and cave, but I was so excited about how well the shoot
went. We had filmed 24
scenes (some of them very long) in
one day – a record number that wasn’t broken until three years later during a
shoot for Eidolon, and still holds second place. Liz even complimented me about how well organized I
was. I think that was the last
time I ever got that compliment from anyone, but that’s not really a
surprise.
And now I don’t really remember what was shot when after
that, so I’ll just hit the highlights and try to keep it somewhat short since
you just suffered through four pages about one film shoot.
Peter got us into an architecture drafting room place thing,
that we used as the anthropology lab for the scenes in Episode 1 when Zandra
meets Fernando. Fernando only
speaks Spanish, so poor Kenny had to read the script since speaking the lines
was hard enough and even then there were some funny bloopers. The actors were fantastic that day and
it was a lot of fun (and not too long).
There was a day of shooting some of the pick up scenes from Episode 2 in
the woods between Zandra and Maria since the original Maria didn’t show up for
filming on that day and although Morgan was on set as crew that shoot, we had
no idea she’d end up being Maria…or being so awesome.
We filmed some of the student center scenes with Zandra and
Cory for Episodes 1 and 5, as well as some scenes with the girl trio from
Episodes 2 and 3. Then there was
the day of filming some Cory and Maria scenes in the student center from
Episode 2 where Michelle had the amusing idea of skimming through a dental brochure
while Maria talked on the phone.
We also filmed some very funny scenes in the student center with Kenny
as Fernando exploring the modern world and being fascinated by vending machines
and escalators in between arguments with Zandra. 
We filmed the big explanation scene at the end of Episode 1
where Zandra figures out a way for Cory to talk to Fernando since she speaks
Spanish and can translate (and lucky Michelle just happens to know Spanish and
did a great job speaking it).
Also, Kenny finally got to say some lines in English (yay!) but it was a
long monologue so he still had to read it. We also filmed the scene with Fernando in Zandra’s dorm room
(aka my room), and I learned how to sing a song about Cinco de Mayo (thanks
Kenny!)
On a random day I arranged to shoot the White Feather
scenes with Erica. The costume
wasn’t great, but it worked okay, the hill I found wasn’t great but worked okay…sort
of…maybe. I only had her for one
day so I filmed as much as I could with her, including montage shots as well as
lines. I’ve ended up using that
footage in three shows and a parody movie so…yay. Since I knew I would never be able to film with her again, I
realized that if I wanted her to appear in the final episode to remove the
Curse – which has to happen because she’s the only one who can and it’s a built
in ending – I had to film it then and there. So I quickly wrote some dialogue on a couple of back pages
in the script. It was a cheesy and
slightly vague scene where Zandra gets de-cursed and shot White Feather’s lines
from it. In the end, I couldn’t
use it for the Curse because I was stupid and insane and we’ll get into all the
reasons in Part 3. However, I was
finally able to use it in Eidolon, and thank god the scene was written to be
vague. 
Then there was the burial mound shoot. The mound we found
didn’t really look like a burial mound, but it was a large hill so we called it
good. It also didn’t look like an
archaeological site, but an actual burial mound currently being archaeologied
in the winter that would allow us to film a scene about desecrating human
remains is hard to find. And no, I
didn’t really look for one. I figured there probably wasn’t much point. Now that I think about it though, I
should have brought some of the little orange flags on sticks and string to
fake it. Oh well, it’s a little
that for that now…like twelve years too late.
The shoot itself was fun, but highly vertical for Peter and
Morgan. Thank you for the aerial
shots Peter, because I’m scared of heights so it wouldn’t have happened
otherwise. The hardest part of the
shoot was actually trying to film a shot of Zandra running, making it look like
the camera is running beside her.
We didn’t have tracks and a dolly so we used a car, but matching the
pace between a running car and a driving person—crap, reverse that—a running
person and a driving car is not easy.
Seriously dude, it’s as hard as comprehending words first thing in the
morning before you have a cup of coffee.
Another fun and memorable shoot was filming the Madame
Maggie scenes from Episode 2 at Liz’s house. The scenes themselves were a lot of fun, and Liz’s house was
a great location. Some of the fun
things that happened that night were Liz actually falling asleep during the
scenes where she was supposed asleep (method acting?), Michelle dancing with a
pot, kicking ass, and getting to say “dude” a lot, Morgan being a goofball and a bad ass, and Gillian rocking
the role of Madame Maggie. 
Some of the not fun things that happened that night were bad
blocking on the not-so-much-of-a chase scene, Morgan’s foot getting smashed
with a candle stick, blowing wax on the carpet, and discovering that the potato
chips I bought as a prop were the fat burning (aka laxative) kind, and poor
Gillian had to eat a bunch of them in one scene.
What I remember the most, however, was Liz’s awesome performance
as the possessed-by-a-killer Zandra.
She was amazing, creepy, and kinda scary. She looked like she was having a blast and it was a wicked
fun scene seeing Michelle and Morgan as Cory and Maria having to catch her,
trap her, and exorcise the demon inside her. That was definitely the best part
of the filming in my book, and in the episode actually. 
Other shoots involved Liz cowering from an answering machine
for Episode 1, filming Liz walking down a hallway while several “ghosts” bother
her and Adam totally hammed it up as a headless ghost that kept losing his
skull after he found it, setting up a tent in the room at the end of a hallway
on the 15th floor of my dorm to film the tent scenes from Episode 3
(which became Episode 4 because it was too long for one episode in the end),
filming Liz walking all over the campus for the opening of Episode 1, and badly
faking a cabin using the dorm lounge for the indoor Atholton scenes in Episode
4.
By March we were filming scenes for Episode 5, which introduced
one of my favorite characters – Tony Tarino – played by one of my favorite
actors – Neil Cappetta. He gave
Tony the fun quirk of always playing with a yo-yo and which was great as
another way for him to annoy Zandra.
Neil and Liz did a great job playing off each other with bantering,
arguing, and helping each other out, and it was a wonderful episode (my
favorite of the Curse, actually).
We also get to see Cory lose it and yell at Zandra for basically being a
selfish bitch – which was a really fun scene to film with Michelle. Michelle and Liz had good chemistry on
screen and rocked the best-friend vibe all through the show. 
One of the shoots for that episode involved Zandra running
for her life through multiple hallways in the dorm at night, knocking on random
doors, and screaming for help. I
had to clear it with the RAs on each floor and shout a warning before filming
that it was a just an actor and no one was actually in danger. We didn’t get arrested or anything, so
I call it a win. 
I somehow convinced CB – a guy I actually took at class
with in Champaign, small world ain’t it? – to play the part of Mike the Serial
Killer (apparently that’s his last name, cause that how I always refer to
him.) He played it creepy and
another level of creepy was added when we used Neil’s room as the serial
killer’s dorm room/evil lair because Neil (being Neil) had decided that instead
of a bed he would set up and sleep in a tent that semester. For Neil it’s an amusing idea, for a
serial killer it’s just plain creepy.
We filmed most of the scenes for that episode including
shoots with Luis, one of my advisors at SPC-TV who really wanted to be in the
show, as a detective, some bad prop action with a camera pretending as a voice
recorder, a big confrontation scene between Tony, Zandra, and Mike in the
student center where Neil was awesome at getting strangers to sit at the tables
in the shot to do their homework so we had extras (thank you Neil!), and the
fight scenes at the end in the dorm which involved heavy books, phone cords,
bad blocking, fights and falls on a staircase (sorry dudes, glad you’re all
alive!), and too much flirting in my opinion. However, my opinion was highly distorted and probably incorrect
due to being an unmedicated bi-polar idiot and on the verge of having a nervous
breakdown. At this point we
luckily hit spring break, so filming paused for a little while. My insanity, however, did not.
Stay tuned for TheCurse, Part 3 – The Second Half of Production, where we’ll meet some new
actors, some guest directors, and a giant purple lizard. We’ll watch a brave actor cover himself
in dirt, mud, and fake blood, discover how much dark bobby pins do not work on
a white hooded cloak, skip a whole episode, not film a bunch of important scenes,
let Mike and Michelle improv while locked in a room with a few board games, discover
a new star who will get his own spin-off show, and go on a treasure hunt to
find Yibble’s sanity after she completely loses it, has one hell of a nervous
break down, then cancels and ruins the show. Who will live? Who will die? Who will find a psychiatrist
and force feed Yibble meds? Find out next month in Part 3 of the Cursed
Diaries! I mean…the Production Diary for the Curse…although Cursed works too,
considering how it all ended.
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