Behind You '03-'04 Synopsis:        In a sleepy rural suburb on a snowy winter night, a group of friends rent a movie only to discover that they have been given the wrong disc. As they keep watching, each story in the "movie" grows darker and the group begins to experience strange occurences themselves. One by one, each of them will discover the horrifying truth. Production Notes:        It should be noted that the “snuff film video rental killer” idea was based on an original concept by Wes that was written well before ‘The Last Horror Movie’, as evidenced by time stamped backup CD-R’s, or the slew of other “killer with a camera” movies that followed.. And, the idea was not inspired in any way by films such as Man Bites Dog,The Blair Witch Project, or Repulsion, having only seen The Blair Witch Project before shooting had wrapped. In fact, Wes has revisited and developed the original concept into it’s own project, which takes the idea that inspired ‘Behind You’ into a completely different direction with an entirely new story. *Ahem*, back to this production... determined to finally complete a feature length film, Wes redrafted ‘Behind You’ several times using his experience from his previous productions to mold the screenplay into a draft that was bulletproof, by piecing together 4 smaller stories into one feature length story. This allowed certain advantages such as being able to film all necessary shots within the appropriate seasons that the stories took place; summer, fall, and winter. As well as, being able to control the number of characters that needed to be included in any given scene, so that the schedules could become more flexible and managable.

After reaching a satisfactory version of the script, Wes began casting and location scouting, in addition to having meetings that led Wes to reteam with Anthony Thill. Once locations were locked and roles were filled, Wes purchased his own camera and lighting equipment for the production. As pre-production was underway, they hit a few snags with the locations that had been secured as well as roles that needed to be recast as a result of the problems with the cast.

Production was delayed until new locations could be secured and the roles were finally recast, and a second attempt to begin production began. Everything was lined up perfectly with secure locations and reliable people committed to their roles. On the first night of prinicipal shooting, half the cast and crew met on the set and the other half were no shows, including those that confirmed they would be there, by phone, while on the way to the shoot.

Slightly discouraged, but mostly disappointed in friends who should have been a sure bet, it would be months before Wes and Anthony pulled everything together again to make the third attempt at getting the film into production in 2003. Wes and Anthony worked with their new cast around the clock, in between school and full time jobs, averaging less than 6 hours of sleep a night, while rewriting scenes during school and work, to resolve their conflicts for scenes that were scheduled to shoot the same night.

Unable to begin shooting at certain locations until after hours, after a full day of work and school, forced to rush lensing so all the shots were filmed before the cast passed out, proved to be extremely challenging. Not to mention the locations where the only option was to film during business hours around actual customers, or in the homes of families with multiple children, much less anyone’s home where they (often times parents) were good sports about being shuffled from room to room as filming progressed. In addition to both handling directing and camera operation, Wes and Anthony also hauled the lighting, props, wardrobe and handled script supervision.

Miracuously, 99.9% of the shots were filmed and production wrapped on principal photography. Leading way to the incredibly daunting tasks of digitizing & editing the tons of footage into the feature cut and behind the scenes footage, designing the audio, recording sound effects, adding the special effects, composing the score, marketing, and distribution.


Fun Facts:


1. The 30 minute behind-the-scenes / blooper reel / making-of featurette is fantastic and makes a great comedic companion to balance the dark tone of the movie.

2. Even though Wes was formally trained in music production and a composer was set to score the film, the final print was eventually sent a composer in the San Fransisco area after 2 years of post production.

3. The film was intentionally shot in 4:3 format so that artificial black bars could be used for the cinematic portions of the film, while full frame Hi-8 footage could be used for the footage from the killer‘s camera, switching between the two perspectives throughout the film.


**Added Bonus- Excerpt from Wes’ commentary for the first scene of the film:


Scene 1: “Massacre on Ice” - “This is the 4th version of the first scene. This scene takes place after the events of the movie-within-the-movie stories that the main characters watch later in the movie. I wanted to shoot a massacre to pad the body count, but I didnt want it to be a meaningless bloodbath. It worked out great though because the character’s deaths are actually tied into the story and their deaths effect the decisions of the main characters throughout the film. Which, was the kill’ers intention all along.

This version of the scene was originally written for 5 characters, but we could only get 4 actors / actresses for that night, which getting organized was a longshot anyway, so the scene had to be reworked that day before the shoot. Which, is a great example from the number of times the same thing had to be done with numerous scenes. Normally, I would be completely against such an compromising process, but it’s not like this was a professional production with a budget or scheduling.

Even though we had planned to use the same car as the killer’s car for the entire film, the owner of the car went out of town for two weeks just before the new snowfall came, that we had been waiting for since the snow had been melting rapidly between shoots. It worked out better though because explaining that this is the way the killer obtained the car he’s seen driving a few scenes later, gives the impression that it is the same way he obtained the car he is seen driving later on in the movie-within-the-movies.

This is Katie, I met her for the first time that night and she volunteered for the role of the girl who gets sick from spinning around in the car and pukes. We were filming on one of those seasonal skating rinks intended for ice hockey, where the ice is poured after its cold enough to freeze, but then it melts when it warms back up and is gone for the year. The lights around the ice rink were normally left on at night, which is half the reason why we chose the location, but they never came on that night for some reason, which is why the lighting in the scene is horrid. So, chicken noodle soup looks great as puke without the noodles, and even though the lighting was terrible, Katie still puked that chicken noodle soup like a champ. When you see her puking in the movie, just know that it isnt just water.

Speaking of filming on the ice rink, we got lucky that night because I was never able to get ahold of the park supervisor, Paul Olsen, and he never returned my calls so I wasnt able to clear the shoot at the park. We were also supposed to notify the city police, since we had a 250 lb guy cloaked in black running around with an axehammer while chasing blood splattered girls.

The park is located right between a neighborhood and a large office building, but aside from the occasional car leaving the office building, we were never interrupted by police or security cars. There were, however, the occasional skiers who happened by while skiing through the park. Even with all the screaming, I think they were all aware of the filming taking place and that no one was in real danger. I’m pretty sure every one of them smiled and waved as they passed.

Something that isnt groundbreaking by any means, but I am still particularly proud of, is how the spinning car sequence was shot. Several takes were filmed from different seats within the car so that when the scene was edited, the shots would cut back and fourth between the passengers making it seem as if the audience is in the car along with them, unaware of the cameraman who was also in the car the entire time, but never revealed on screen. Part of the way this was accomplished was that I had to switch seats with girls, revolving around the car between takes, and whoever wasnt in the car at the time was waiting in a seperate hidden car out of view, which was left running with the heat on so we wouldnt, literally, freeze to death. It was somewhere around 10 degrees that night, which isnt all that bad until you start to sweat from working with heavy clothing on and the sweat starts to freeze underneath.”


The Handwritten Pages:


Story re-writes, script rewrites, shotlists, call sheets, scheduling, lighting diagrams, storyboards, general notes, contact info, timeline, charts, blocking, choreography, pieces that were cut up and taped back together, etc.-