The Night Shift: Hallelujahs & Halloween

The Night Shift is the production diary of Fighting Owl Film's new independent supernatural-adventure-comedy of the same name currently in "post" 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.

Hallelujahs and Halloween

As I type this, the sound people are doing their thing, the special effects guy is doing his thing and the composer is ... well, in class, actually, but as soon as he gets out, he'll be doing his thing. This movie might actually get finished soon. Hallelujah.

This past weekend, Khristian (Rue Morgan, our leading man) and I (Claire Rennfield, at your service) recorded the little bit of dialogue we needed to loop, and filmed a couple of insert shots: Some hand acting, one close-up that was forgotten, etc. I think we spent about four hours total over the course of two days, and part of that was spent eating pizza. We still have to record all of Herbie the skeleton's dialogue, and we have to go in and trim any dead spaces (no pun intended) in the video, but with those shots in place, the editing work is basically done. Now we just have to wait for all the pieces to come together.



Here comes the fun part - for me, anyway: Clearing the movie props out of my guest room closet. We're keeping some of the more recognizable costumes (the cowboy demon, the wolfman, Rue, a couple of zombie outfits), and I'm transferring a couple of Claire's dresses to my closet (they're cute, and I paid for them), but a lot of stuff is getting recycled. Case in point: my mom has a kickin' front yard display for Halloween.

Tombstones, cobwebs, fog, body parts - even Herbie's making an appearance. Nobody bought Halloween costumes this year. My brother called dibs on a Reaper robe; I'm using some of the greasepaint to be a ghost, and our little ghost girl from the movie is reprising her role for trick-or-treating. Thomas is going as a Ghostbuster, probably so he can take out some pent up aggression toward the undead. Just a guess.

We had hoped to have this finished by the end of the year, and barring disaster, we should make that goal. It hasn't been easy, but we somehow managed to film on schedule, stay pretty close to budget and turn out something that, while still unfinished, we're already proud of. Now, we just need to sell it so you guys can see it.

We're very, very close. Thank you all so much for bearing with us.

We're still plugging away at this thing. In the meantime, you can follow The Night Shift at www.thenightshiftmovie.com. You can check out the poster, trailer, cast and crew, and some fun downloads. Heck, if you like, you can even be our friend on Facebook and Twitter (@NightShiftMovie), where you can follow more of the progress of the movie.