As you may have already read in the LA TIMES ARTICLE (Press Room) Katherine Griffin, the films' writer, director, actress, producer & editor, GAVE UP HER APARTMENT (and moved into her car) for almost nine months while working three waitressing jobs and re-writing the script. She did this to save that much more money and to focus on nothing else but getting the film started. That car, a Honda Prelude - not exactly one's first choice to sleep in, was then driven out to Indiana and lasted as the craft service car until the very last day of shooting.

"The Innocents" was made for LESS THAN $100,000. A combination of CASH, CREDIT CARDS and gracious DONATIONS of both money and services. (And, unlike many low budget films, we're proud to say, no deferred pay.) This is the real amount spent to make (pre-production, production & post-production) the film.

FINDING CAST AND CREW

Katherine who plays Maggie in the film, cast REAL-LIFE BEST FRIEND and actress Kama Lee (A Stranger in the Family) in the role of her on screen best friend, Jane. Also in the film is Brad Carroll, a fellow TV performer and one of Katherine's former acting instructors from PCPA. All of the remaining cast members were hired in Bloomington, IN.

The actor ORIGINALLY CAST to play Brad Carroll's role (Jane's father) had to leave the production unexpectedly two days before shooting began. After fervent rescheduling, Brad agreed to take over the role and was flown to Indiana the day we shot his scenes.

We had a permanent crew of twelve including the Director, and five floaters who worked whenever they could or as we needed them. We brought out the cinematographer, her gaffer, the 1st and 2nd camera asst.'s and the script supervisor from the Bay Area. This was actually a CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE then hiring anyone we could find in the Indiana area. The rest of the crew were hired in Bloomington.

Of the eight performers in the Barn Scene, five of them were found an hour before we started shooting. The original PERFORMERS DIDN'T SHOW (probably because we were shooting the scene on Father's Day, and couldn't pay them anything), so the Director took the van and drove through town asking people if they wanted to be in a movie. That was one of our more tense days. But luckily it turned out fine.

This problem of local people not showing up for their scenes seemed to be a prevailing problem. Most of them weren't actors anyway since there isn't a big acting community in Bloomington, so we resorted to casting regular people - unfortunately, regular people who didn't care if they were in a movie or not. As a result, all of our crew appears in the film at one point or another. Some appear more than once. The biggest collection in any given scene - Bongee's tavern, seven crew members in all.

THE TECHNICAL STUFF

We SHOT THE FILIM IN 18 DAYS. Two five day weeks and one six-day week with Second Unit Photography on company days off. The Second Unit consisted of Producer/Editor Jon Bachmann, the camera and the two lead actresses (if needed) shooting everything possible without sound - everything except the apple truck footage since Jon was always driving that on screen (filling in for an actor who didn't show).

We cut the entire film on a MOVIOLA 6-PLATE FLATBED set-up in Northern California. This flatbed was retrofitted for either 16mm or 35mm and was used to cut parts of "The English Patient" at Fantasy Films. We used it to cut approximately 19,000 FEET OF STOCK. The finished film was 102 minutes, though we recently did a re-cut of the picture bringing the running time to 97 minutes.

We filmed an AIR-PLANE VIEW SHOT that followed the girls in the back of the apple truck. Even though we shot everything in slow motion, it was not used in the final film because it was still too shaky and too far away to be of use.

The entire film was shot in and around Bloomington, Indiana except for two of the SWIMMING HOLE SCENES and everything with ANIMALS. These were shot in California by our infamous "2nd Unit", referred to earlier, and a sound person when needed. We didn't shoot any of the animals in Indiana because we couldn't find one location (a farm) that had all of the animals we needed. We had to return to California to find a farm with a wide variety of animals.

MORE HORROR STORIES

During the airplane shots, the 1st A.C. became air sick and had to leave for the remainder of the day. With her gone, no one else thought to make sure the camera was put back to 24 fps. As a result, the rest of the day (the Barn/Dance scene) was ACCIDENTALLY SHOT IN SLOW-MOTION (30 fps). After optically step printing the Barn/Dance footage to 24 fps (so that the dialogue would be in synch), we ended up combining both the slow motion footage and the real speed footage throughout the scene. The end result is a very stylish, uniquely playful dance scene that came about quite by accident.

The film takes place in the summer. We shot it in June, but it was the RAINIEST JUNE EVER recorded in that part of Indiana over the last twenty years. As a result, we rarely showed the sky when shooting outdoors. We also had to stop shooting on our third day because of a 'severe tornado' warning just ten miles away. The things that make shooting a film so fun...

The RED 1950 FORD TRUCK seen during a third of the film had to be serviced in a garage three times throughout the shoot. At one point it wouldn't run at all and we had to push it to get it moving for a scene. And the apple truck, an early sixties Chevy flatbed-pick-up, wouldn't run for more then a few minutes without cutting off. This is the reason we only see it running for brief moments at a time.

We almost LOST OUR ENTIRE FILM and our flatbed when the small digital facility that offered us a free space to edit our film vacated the premises in the middle of the night without telling anyone - including some of their employees. Luckily, our film and flatbed were among a few things left piled up in one of the back rooms. We quickly re-located to another, more stable location (parents' house) and finished editing. To this day we still cannot find them.