THE CAMERA WAS 90 MINUTES AWAY
Planning the film proved very difficult. The cameraman lived over 90 minutes away and had his own life and own obligations. Considering that he was also one of the stars, this made the production a touch and go event. I wanted to set shooting dates, but much of the time, I didn’t know if the camera would be available for the shoot. I had almost zero control of the film it seemed and I was very broke at the time. Buying pizza for the cast and crew (not much of a crew) was even tough considering my lack of cash I could spend, but the film had to be made.
CAN YOU PICK ME UP & GENO, CAN’T THIS WEEK
Another terrific issue that I had to contend with was many of the actors had no transportation. For a normal shooting day, I would drive over to their houses/apartments and wait for them to come down so I could bring them to the shoot. The worst experiences is when I was waiting there for a half hour or so and the actor would come down to the car and say “Geno, can’t this week,” noting something else that took priority. Being much younger, I was far less assertive and just rolled with the punches.
This was something that did not go unnoticed by the viewers, but beggars can’t be choosers. I had to take the fat guys to fill these slots.
I DON’T WANT TO BE DICKY…BUT I DON’T HAVE 5 GRAND EITHER
Although I’ve acted in a couple of my early films, it wasn’t something that I intended to do for very long. I see a lot of indie guys casting themselves as the star or doing the cameo, but it’s always been cheesy to me. I wanted no part of the acting side of this game, but desperate
FAT SCARECROWS
The finished version of RISE OF THE SCARECROWS is far different than the original screenplay. I used to always say “trust me, it was supposed to be better” and still do, but I had to make several sacrifices to make this film happen. The tall, lanky, menacing scarecrows that I had in mind were filled by rotund actors. This was something that did not go unnoticed by the viewers, but beggars can’t be choosers. I had to take the fat guys to fill these slots.
I DON’T WANT TO BE DICKY…BUT I DON’T HAVE 5 GRAND EITHER
Although I’ve acted in a couple of my early films, it wasn’t something that I intended to do for very long. I see a lot of indie guys casting themselves as the star or doing the cameo, but it’s always been cheesy to me. I wanted no part of the acting side of this game, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I was connected to an actor through a friend that took the role of “Dicky,” the mechanic, and a day before shooting, he stated that he wanted five thousand dollars to do the role. My budget was 500 dollars. This was not going to work and I told him to screw himself and scrambled for an actor, only to play the role myself.