Day 1: Making Killing Charlene

Nov. 12, 2022- After about 4 years of planning and writing , a small crew which consisted of my brothers Eric, Julian ( affectionately known as Bean) and myself geared up and declared this moment as Day 1. We loaded up the phone booth that has been sitting in my garage, waiting to be a focal point in this movie I’ve obsessed over , day after day, after day. It made me a little nervous, and souls were tired from the relentless work week we all individually had to endure ( Bean worked the graveyard shift till 3 a.m. so needless to say the orginal 7 a.m. set time would need to be postponed to midday), but my small cast and crew showed up with great spirits. After loading up the truck with gear, we set off to the first location not straying too far from home base, because forgetting something would be inevitable, since it was our first time out filming since making “The Last Chance At The Sundance Motel in 2018.

Now being November the days are a bit shorter, so having a late start only allowed us around a 4 hour window for filming in day light. Around the corner from my house, a parking lot over grown with weeds, and a set of stairs that lead you into what would now be the ghost of the module trailer that used to be Jets Video, one of the few local video stores we had in town is now host to our first location to start filming. The set not only a relic of memories from childhood but also contained within the scene, views of the local cemetery that also appeared in The Last Chace at the Sundance Motel.

As we set up, a few neighbors gawk and comment on how cool the phone booth is. We wave and proceed to get ready to hit record. A few takes in and everyone is finding an enjoyable rhythm , smiling between takes and contributing input of the performance. We were losing daylight, so anxiously we try to wrap up and head to another location to capitalize on the light we still had left. Due to our collectives overwhelming excitement, we did a messy job of looking at script details, and forgot an important detail of the story, the placement of a booger on the phonebooth glass. It wouldn’t be till I reviewed footage that I have this realization and also discover my makeshift boom pole ( a hollow metal piece of extra dolly track) was creating a undesirable reverb and audio also captured what is more than likely cell phone static. So needless to to say this scene will have to be shot again

The shoot proceeds with a quick cruise scouting sites to film, passing a little church that may or may not have had occupants in a trailer in the back of its lot. We try to ask a neighbor if anyone lives there but the language barrier didn’t get us a clear answer and left us all confused.

We continue driving to the next location on my list of potential maybes, landing us in the middle of town. Another module trailer that has been empty for years now but used to be Party Time/ Bronco Video. The site had been touched up and maintained through the years and displays a local real estate company’s for sale in the window. The buildings future uncertain but seems primed to be bulldozed to make room for another Dollar General type store in the future. So I felt it would be great to document and archive its existence in the movie. We start to set up when my equipment slowly starts to not cooperate. I run back to the house for another tripod (also a piece of crap but kind of works) and make it back just in time for the golden hour. This footage looks great. Unbeknownst of how bad the audio from the first location would be, we had made a instinctive decision here to actually tape the mic on the backside of the non-functioning coin operated payphone in the booth. As a director I make a note, this will now be a common practice for the rest of it time on this project. We wrap up the day optimistic and excited knowing that this was just the beginning of this film.