SPLIT SECOND (1996)
After landing a stable job at Stillwater Productions I decided to independently produce a feature length dramatic film. I mainly did this for the experience, to learn what went into making a feature length film.
My wife and I wrote the story of Russell Baker, a conservative radio talk show host who loses everything in a split second. His wife and unborn child, even his hopes for a nationally syndicated radio show all come to a tragic end. When all seems to go wrong in Russell’s life, a dark secret from his past comes back to haunt him, an illegitimate son. As Russell rebuilds his life with his lost son, he makes a startling discovery about his wife's death.
Since I did not have a whole lot of money, I called upon a lot of favors to make this film happen. We filmed this on 16mm film using short ends I purchased from Paramount Pictures for about a cent per foot. We ended up shooting about 12,000 feet (over 5 hours worth) of film stock. Everyone, the actors and crew, worked for meals, credit and a personal copy of the final film. Shooting took a total of 7 days over Thanksgiving break, ensuring that people would be free from their day-time jobs.
There's a lot that took place during filming that made things difficult. I had an actor walk off the set because we were not filming fast enough. This required us to re-write the rest of his scenes using other actors. But this process actually made the story better. We had a lock break on the house-set one evening, so some of the crew and myself spent the night at the house to safeguard the equipment. But over all, everyone worked well together and we had a great time making the film.
The film is almost 90 minutes long; and thus I am unable to post the entire project. What is presented is the opening sequence. I have the film available on DVD. If any of you would like a copy, please send me an e-mail and I can ship out the DVD to you for a small fee.
