The Walking Stick, like The Medea School of Melodrama, is a short film that was
originally made for an SPC-TV production called Tape & a Stick.
The basic idea was that each week
there would be two objects that you had to include in your short film and there
were three films per episode. I think it was a cool idea, since there
were multiple people who submitted shorts so you could see how others would use
the objects. However, it only lasted for three episodes – Tape & a
Stick, Balloon & a Sock, and Soup & a Cow. As one of the producers on the show (Morgan Thomas and LT
were the others), I tended to do as many shorts as we needed to fill up the episode. Sometimes
it was just one, sometimes it was more.
The Walking Stick was produced for the first episode and the objects were – of course – a
tape and a stick. Since you could
use any type of tape and any type of stick I chose to use a camera tape and a
nice, period looking walking stick (i.e. a cane). It’s hard to say if the plot came first or the objects or if
they sort of popped up in my head at the same time.
The story is based on a common theme in ghost lore – haunted objects. A ghost can haunt a house, a park, a cemetery, or the land itself - most people are familiar with that idea. A little less well known is that ghosts can haunt people – they often manifest as poltergeists but not always, and some are thought of as guardian angels. Spirits can also haunt objects – the most famous type is a haunted doll, a toy like a stuffed clown, but any object could be haunted. Beds, chests, books, anything that could have a personal significance would work. So why not a walking stick? Someone had an expensive cane made especially for her and decided to stay to take it with her when she died – or at least go wherever it goes.
The plot is very simple – which
is good for a short film (although simple plots are I rarely do, even for
shorts). A woman named Jennifer is
walking past a store when she sees a nice looking cane sitting outside the
shop. There is a price tag of $2
but no one is around and the store is closed so she just steals it and heads
home. 
That night she hears the sound of
someone walking around downstairs using a cane. While she is trying to work up
the courage to go see who or what it is, suddenly a ghost appears in her
room. The semi-transparent form of
a women dressed in late 19th century clothes sits on the bed next to
Jennifer and stares at her. She is
holding the walking stick that Jennifer stole that day.
The next day Jennifer calls her
friend, Frank, and he comes over.
She tells him about the ghost and the haunted walking stick and he
doesn’t believer. That night she sets up a camera on night vision in an attempt
to capture footage of the ghost and prove the ghost is real. The same thing happens as the previous
night with steps and the ghost appearing in her room.
The next morning Jennifer checks the tape, sees footage of
the ghost and then calls Frank. He
comes over, but when he looks at the footage he doesn’t see anything – the tape
is blank. Not only does he think
she’s going crazy, he’s a real jerk about it – which earned the character the
nickname “Frank the Bad Friend”. A
bewildered Jennifer sits on the sofa and stares at the stick after he leaves.
The last shot is the cane leaning against a wall back outside the shop where
she found it.
Simple story, easy to shoot –
which is good because we had no script and filmed it in a few hours on one
night.
James McKinley, LT, and I were
staying at my parents’ house over Easter weekend in April of 2002. We were bored on Saturday morning and
decided to make a movie for Tape and a Stick. I had Horatio with me (my first camera), but I guess I didn't have any tape, low battery, or maybe it's just because we needed a camera as a prop that we didn't actually film with him. Instead we ended up using James' camera and tapes to film it.
Anyway, I brainstormed for a few hours with James and LT and then whipped up the ghost story idea, made an outline, and set about casting the parts. LT wanted to play the ghost, James was willing to play Frank, so that just left Jennifer - the main character - uncast. I had recently filmed with Margaret Olson for some episodes in Season 2 of The Gift Bearer, so I immediately thought of her. I called her up to see if she was available to film that evening and amazingly she was! (FYI - the ghost's name is never mentioned, but we
ended up calling her George (short for Georgina). I
have no idea why.)
The first thing we filmed were
the store scenes where Jennifer finds and leaves the cane. The location was actually pretty easy
to chose. We needed a store that
sold a bunch of cool, random stuff and that was relatively close to the
Homestead.
Le Shoppe – a store in
downtown Champaign – was perfect.
I was well acquainted with the owners after spending several years
buying costumes from them for various productions including Destiny III, The
Dragon & the Unicorn, The King of Elflin’s Daughter, and a crap ton of vests for Pandora’s
Box. It’s a great place to
shop.
The store was closing when
we got there, but since it’s a small and often crowded place I had no intention
of filming inside – I just needed to borrow their exterior window area which
they were happy to let us use. They are nice people (i.e. please shop there).
After shooting those two scenes,
we returned to the Homestead to film the rest. The scenes with Frank-the-Bad-Friend were next. It didn’t take long since the scenes
were ad-libbed and I did very few shots for each (another mistake). We talked about what each scene needed
to contain in terms of information and dialogue before filming, then pretty
much just let the camera roll. 
We ended the night with the ghost
scenes, since we had to wait until after dark to film those. We shot the stuff in the hallway first
with the ghost walking back and forth, then did the scenes in the bedroom where
Jennifer wakes up when she hears the noises, then sees the ghost and freaks
out. We filmed that scene a few
times to make sure we got it right, then called it a night. I’m not sure if we watched footage that
night or the next day though, but I’m pretty we did watch it at some point.
The next day was Easter Sunday so
we dyed Easter Eggs with my family.
James decided to decorate an egg as an ode to the Walking Stick, and
drew the different characters on it.
It was totally awesome.
It was a spur of the moment film
shoot with a general and somewhat generic storyline – and no actual script,
which is rare – but it was a lot of fun to film and I think it turned out okay. It was the best kind of shoot: short,
sweet, and memorable.
