October 31, 2010
October was an interesting month out here on Burcham Farm. Someone drowned in a pond, another person was hung in our corn crib, another was shot in our kitchen, and still another got his neck whacked with a lawnmower blade! Bill and I are still cleaning up spatters of blood!
Not to worry, no one was actually hurt. It was all part of a movie that was being filmed at our house. A few months ago, a friend of a friend was looking for a location to film a movie. The requirements were: 1)farmhouse 2)barn 3)cornfields 4)dark, scary basement. When the director, Dan Lennox, saw photos of our house on FaceBook, he contacted us and the next thing we knew, it was lights, camera, ACTION!
I’ve never seen a movie professionally filmed and now that I have, I have a whole new respect for the movie industry. I learned what a camera jib is, that Campbell’s Cream of Potato soup makes great fake vomit, that makeup artists have more makeup than Mary Kay, and that that the big furry thing that they brought in was not another animal for me to rescue - it was just a large fuzzy microphone (I petted it anyway.) I also realized that you have to be VERY quiet when filming is in process. We even had to turn our furnace off. I think the film crew learned some things, too. Like how windy it can be out here - they learned that the hard way when they walked away from a $2300 camera and it blew over and broke. That probably hurt more than pulling fake latex wounds off a hairy chest.
So for anyone who may have passed our house in the last few weeks and saw a “For Sale/Sold” sign in the yard and a police car in the driveway, they were merely props for the movie. We aren’t in trouble for anything and we aren’t going anywhere. We love it too much out here in Jamestown, mostly because we have the best neighbors. For example, Riner Enterprises graciously left some rows of corn up around our house for filming, Gary Hendrix donated pumpkins to use for the sound effects of someone getting their head hacked with a lawnmower blade, and the VanDivers let the crew film some scenes in their pond. Thanks, everyone!
To see the trailer for "The Basement" click below. Prepare to be scared. And if you’re in the market for a recipe for fake blood, just let me know. I’ve got a good one.
The Basement Trailer from Stage Left Films on Vimeo.
Back to Journal Page