Hollow Ground

For Novice Star's first film we decided to keep things simple.
We knew we were on a limited budget and that would mean
a more practical story. We figured we would do a horror film
since it would be easier to shoot. Of course at the time this
seemed easy but in fact was very difficult.

The next step was to acquire the equipment. The producer,
Sean DelGatto, had to make a decision between using video
or using film. He found some relatively inexpensive 16mm
cameras for sale, but then it would require a lot more work
to use them. He knew that consumer line camcorders would
never give him the satisfaction he wanted, but they were
cheap and easy. It would also make some of the other
beginners working on the project a little less tense knowing
that they are not wasting valuable film.

The cabin in the film was actually an old house that
belonged to a friend of theirs. Using trick photography and
some composite shots they were able to make it look like the
house was in the woods. Another difficulty was that the
house only had one bedroom; the house in the story had
three. In order to give the illusion that the house had more
than one room they created model hallways and rooms.
Then with tricky editing, they put the pieces together to
create a three-bedroom cabin.

Film shoots came and went with a little luck and quick
thinking. On some days it seemed like everything was going
our way, and others it didn't. We pushed are way through it
all and still came out on top in the end. It was a wonderful
invaluable learning experience.

We have learned more making this movie than we could
ever learn from a book or classroom. Since this film used a
three to four man crew the workload was horrendous. We'll
never make that mistake again. The "one man band" is an
exhausting position to be in when working with film. No one
wants to be filming a scene aiming one camera at a set of
characters and in the other hand aiming at another. Also
holding under his arm the shotgun mic.

Another lesson learned, bigger cast. Hire a casting director
to get a big enough cast to support the story. Since we
needed to cut corners for this film we ended up using crew
for extras, even our director (who really didn't want to do it!).
More equipment: camera jib, steady cam, lighting units, and
etc.

"Hollow Ground" will always be a constant reminder of what it
is to be a truly independent artist. It stands as a testament
to the fact that with willpower, imagination, and tenacity a
group of friends can accomplish anything.