In the basement of a funeral home in the middle of the night, three people dressed as sheriff’s deputies mingle around a collection of live firearms, camera equipment and an open three-ring binder full of dialogue. Crowded into the corner of a small basement office and surrounded by the “ting-ting-tinging” sounds coming from the large collection of ventilation pipes snaking their way around the room stand two young men huddled around a DSLR camera on a tripod. Perpetual grins touch the faces of everybody in the room. This is fun. This is creation. And in whatever small way, this is what some people call “living the dream.”
Some of the cast and crew, like lead Heather Liddycoat@@http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Silence/189331681146086?sk=info@@ and makeup artist Juliette Sanchez@@same link@@, have never worked in film before. Still, others like lead Matt Musgrove @@same link@@have been acting for years with classical training.
The ragtag film crew has all come together by word of mouth, professional acquaintance and even Craigslist ads to lend whatever skills they have to the production of an indie film titled “The Silence,” written and directed by a bespectacled man in his late 20s by the name of Nick Blacketer.@@same link@@
In his day job, Blacketer works for a local health-food wholesaler. But since December 2011, every spare minute of his time has been spent writing, directing and shooting video.
“I started out in maybe sixth grade. Got my mom’s little home-video camera and made some little stupid shorts,” Blacketer said. “I was working full-time, @@in sixth grade???@@not doing anything with my life. And then I started doing it on my own. I’ve done maybe 10 short films and a couple of music videos. It’s exhausting but worth it.”
Blacketer continued, “There’s never enough time, there’s never enough money.”
The film was funded entirely on a shoestring budget of close to $1,400. Of that, over half was collected via Internet fundraiser site Kickstarter@@http://www.kickstarter.com/@@. The proceeds went to the purchase of $900 of audio equipment.
“The Silence” is being filmed with a Canon 60D. With it, an indie filmmaker can produce a professional-quality film appearance at a fraction of the price of the historical film or digital cameras used by mainstream production studios.
The director of photography is a 20-year-old man named Michael Sherman. He is a student at Lane Community College and he owns almost all the equipment that is used to shoot the film.
“I don’t own any light kits. I check those out from school,” Sherman said. “My instructors said we should check out the lights to go mess around with them and figure out how to use them. So I checked them out and made a movie with them.”
Frequently, Blacketer and Sherman commiserate over which angle to use for shots. With well-composed shots and clever uses of lighting, Sherman’s talent is apparent.
Not everything is smooth sailing for the film crew — often a lack of planning plagues production.
“A lot of trouble was had with preproduction. Everybody said, ‘Oh yeah, preproduction is so important,’” Sherman said. “I didn’t have time to get shot lists down or anything like that. I guess I understand better after having gone through it.”
“There always seems to be a lack of planning,” Blacketer said. “There’s always something I forgot to do, or forgot to grab. We don’t have time to take a couple of days for each shot. We’re doing multiple scenes in a day. We’re constantly scrambling on set.”
Hunter O’Guinn@@same link@@ is one of the supporting actors, playing Deputy Dillon Eskel@@http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=189788874433700&id=189331681146086@@. He definitely looks the part with his shaved head and Burt Reynolds mustache.@@http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000608/@@
“I found the listing as a Craigslist ad,” O’Guinn said. “It was initially for crew. I got the wrong date for the crew auditions and accidentally showed up for the actor auditions.”
After O’Guinn goofed around with a Russian accent in the audition, Blacketer took a shining to the man and hired him on the spot for Eskel.
“It’s a lot of really cool people with a lot of really cool skills, and I just feel blessed to be able to work with all of them,” Blacketer said.
“The Silence” is a thriller centered around the murder of a twin brother and a dark mystery revolving around a small coastal town. It will be released around September 2012 in local independent theaters.
