The Night Shift: Confederacy of Indie Film Soldiers

The Night Shift is the on-set diary of Fighting Owl Film's new independent supernatural-adventure-comedy of the same name currently in pre-production in Mobile, AL. Over the course of the next several weeks and months, you'll get an insider's peek at what it's like for filmmakers to craft a new entry of paranormal pop culture from Erin Lilley, a producer and actress on the film.

Confederacy of Indie Film Soldiers

At this point in production, nothing surprises me anymore. I have stepped over bodies to vacuum the living room, chatted with zombies around my kitchen table and, strangest of all, Thomas and I spent Sunday afternoon in a cemetery, running away from Confederate soldiers.

The strange part is that the soldiers had nothing to do with the movie.

Thomas (director/dear husband) and I met Sunday with the Director of Photography/Cinematographer, James. He needed to see each of our locations to determine what kind of lighting we would need, and figure out how to rig those lights.

Our last stop was the cemetery we'll be using for the majority of the shoot. Now, Mobile, AL, is about as deep South as you can get without hitting water so Civil War re-enactments are not uncommon. That said, I'd never personally seen one, but I now know that they don't like it when you swerve your Nissan through the action. Luckily, one handsome young Rebel understood, tipped his hat to me and winked. I do declare, my heart did a-flutter, and I thought I might faint dead away from the vapors.

Aside from dealing with lights and flirting with soldiers, we've been beyond busy the past couple of weeks. The interior set has been built, thanks to the help of our wonderful cast, crew and one really nice Facebook fan with a table saw. Thomas and I, along with my friend and bastion of sanity, Genna, started decorating the set over the weekend and it's looking pretty good. Actors are starting to pick up their costumes, crew positions are being assigned, and the fights are almost completely choreographed.

Our most recent major undertaking was the prosthetic fitting. Three of our actors have extensive prosthetic work. The pieces are store-bought, but still had be cut to fit each actor's face, then painted and detailed. It took several hours, but the end results were fairly impressive. There's still some work to be done, but they can only look better from here, and I'm really excited!

All in all, we're in a good place right now, but my stress level has hit eleven. I find myself looking at cruise brochures, not so much to plan a trip, but just to look at the water and imagine I'm on the boat, mai tai in hand. Oh well, fantasy over. Back to work!

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