First let's take a look at the credits. Why? Because you'll begin to understand how I was able to shoot such an intricate movie for so little.
Out Of The Coffin --- Running Time: 9:00
Contact: KJN@LapTopPublishing.com
Log line:"Even in a country as diverse as America being a Vampire... Sucks!.
(This short is dedicated to anyone who found the courage to expose their inner self... regardless of the consequences. With the hope that people everywhere will someday realize that we are all different...
yet are still from the same planet... and being treated with prejudice despite of that... sucks.)
Director, Writer, Producer and Editor: Karl Niemiec
Director of Photography: Gil Lopez
Sound and Picture: Square One Video
Sound Track: The Pointy Shoe Factory-
Daron Beck-
Kyle Cheatham-
Tyler Walker-
Julie Carpenter-
Eric Hermeyer-
Ian Bjornstad
Makeup Design: Chris Field-
Victoria Roberts-
Mitchell S. Benson
Clothing Design: Shrine on Melrose
Locations: Denise Richards- William Burch- PCS Properties- Maxine Miller, Pen In Hand - Michael Hegedus- Tom Bartlett
Dressing Room: Iowa Boys - Ageless Coaches
CAST:
Michael Hegedus- Dean Schaller- Noelle Messier- Tim Kahle- Walter Caldwell- Blumen Young- Lurance Johnson-
Kat Turner- Chris Field- Lou Sandoval- Denise Richards - Vaughn James Niemiec- Gil Lopez and Karl J. Niemiec
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WHAT you'll notice first is that I have a very small crew. Just me directing, producing, writing and
editing, plus art director and grip. With Gil Lopez on camera and lighting. And I gave his company Square One Video
a plug for sound.
To fill out the crew and give it a fun look I went with three makeup artists lead by Chris Field and
Victoria Roberts doing Garek and Alanna's makeup. With Mitchell S. Benson doing Dade's and all the other characters.
Often the makeup artist on set held the boom. Or an actor who was waiting for his turn to perform.
If that didn't work, I held it myself, once I was finished staging the shot on the monitor.
I was able to get away with this because I researched all my locations before writing the script.
My short-term intentions for this production was to start my Producer/Director/Writer's Reel and possibly market the
concept down the line as a pilot for a half hour TV Series. Also, it was to show my current students enrolled in my ten-week
screen writing course "Prolific Screenwriter" how easy it was to write a shooting script using this Simple Five Step
Reformatting Technique to a First Draft.
For being involved, the actors ended up with footage for their reels, so did Director of Photography Gil Lopez, and the
makeup people. They also got their music, names and faces at two short film contests on both Coast. Also on all my postcards.
Basically, free publicity. What they do with it beyond that is up to them.
Was credit and a copy a fare deal for all those involved? It really depended on the finished product. Luckily,
the actors in my short did a wonderful job of pulling off their parts in my script. A testament to their acting skills.
I admittedly wrote the script in one day using "Prolific Screenwriter."
Now available at: (Kindle Edition)
ASIN: B003QCIOBG (Paperback)ISBN: 1450590780 EAN13: 9781450590785 - https://www.createspace.com/3432995.
Originally the course was intended for teaching at UCLA Extension, and also available as a PDF e-book here at LapTopPublishing.
I spent a couple hours on the next day polishing the script before handing the parts out to the actors. I scheduled the shoot to be six easy
nights. But, I ended up finishing shooting it in five with, as often happens, four major scenes, and one complete character,
Dade's sister, on the editing room floor/hard drive. By design, I prepped, shot, returned/prepped, and shot and so on.
Never shooting two days in a row. What I ended up with was shooting three days the first week, and two the second.
As you can see by most of these shots, I shot late afternoon (ABOVE RIGHT: Noelle Messier as the prosecuted
wife, Katherine Von Lockwit) and into the night, BELOW LEFT. Katherine's scene was shot in Mike Hegedus' kitchen with
existing overhead light and BELOW RIGHT: Dade Junior's scenes, played by Dean Schaller, were shot just outside the
kitchen door (using natural light)
by the pool. In some cases, through the door.
LEFT: This shot of Dade and Lou McFee - played by Walter Caldwell - was taken at Bluff Side Park with natural overhead
lights from a parking lot and two sets of headlights with jells. The background was lit by the light of Ventura Blvd in Studio City.
You'll notice I didn't go with your stock horror film blue lighting signifying a spooky night. I chose this deliberately
because Dade's makeup was green. I found the added blue tints only overrode his makeup. So, what I looked for in the
natural available light were street lights that gave off an orange or yellow hue so Dade would remain green in the low light.
This left me able to use blue light (below)
when Dade was feeling
blue and red when he was feeling mad. Then I played with it in FCP. Sometimes we just made Dade greener.
RIGHT and MIDDLE: Natural work lights were used on Stanley Crotch (played by Blumen Young) with one added light in Michael Hegedus' driveway.
The background is what is left of his garage due to a studio built there. I then positioned him to make sure his missing tooth makeup
worked with the light. Again I chose not to use jells and bent the light with FCP to make Stanley look as redneck as possible.
In the studio behind Stanley I shot Dade's
coffin scenes (LEFT and BELOW) with him lit in red to signify being angry. I then played with FCP to get back some of the green of his skin.
Leaving a hint of the red on the wall and around his eyes and mouth. This also ended up being one of my poster shots (SHOWN ABOVE LEFT).
The graininess actually came about by me playing with the light to tone down the red.
I was also my own grip. So I chose not to spend time lighting the shot while the actors were there, so I asked Gil Lopez
the Director of Photography and Gaffer to use just one added light outside of natural lighting, including overhead work lights and truck and car headlights.
This in part was the exercise I put upon myself to see if I could make it work using natural night light.
I also cast my script before writing the
roles amongst my friends and their friends.
Left: Is Kat Turner as Alanna. The lighting here was done by a existing hanging stain glass lamp and real candle light.
In fact I lit 90% of the scenes in this location with candle light and a fireplace. This location was provided by Maxine Miller, Pen In Hand. She was a friend of Lurance Johnson who played Alanna's husband Garek below.
Right and Below Left: Michael Hegedus as Count Dade von Lockwit and Blumen Young as Crotch in a scene shot in a fishing boat
owned by Bill Burch and stored in Denise Richard's backyard (Rest Her Soul, for she has since passed on). I shot this scene
with one light. And the lantern for Stanley and a blue candle for Dade.
I then darkened the scene with FCP to hide
the back yard foliage. What we weren't counting on is the four large dogs in the next backyard. I of course decide to shoot
with the dogs. And then sliced them in where I wanted them to make it work for the scene.
One of the main things
I did when it
came to locations was to make sure I turned each location into at least two scenes.
They didn't have to be from the same sequence. They just had to be with the same actors. For example. In this case, I
used a large old tree that was actually standing beside the boat as though it was a new location that went along with
Stanley in a trailer. I shot Dade standing upright looking up with his eyes closed then had him open them. I placed Gil
on top of the garage shooting down. The light was the work like hanging on the garage. I then cut and pasted the ground
and garage out of the shot. I turned Dade upside down and then placed him in the tree, dithering him so that he dissolved
into the darkness of the tree branches. I then shot Stanley from Dade's POV and Dade from Stanley's POV while he took a piss.
In this scene, Dade has just been bit and is starting to crave blood. The location was from Laurence Johnson's house where I
had the Makeup done for the scenes with Garek and Alanna later that night. So while waiting for the makeup to be finished on
them, I had Dade's makeup done for the Cat scene and shot it inside the living room while they worked in the dining room.
While working in the set dressing department
commercials with Tom Bartlett I ran across a prop house that rented stuffed animals. I rented both the Cat and the Rat for
about $150 bucks. The Cat just happened to have a smile on his face, so I chose it, and the rat had two tones to its hide
so I chose that. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feelings when casting extras.
And I had my makeup people on board before I chose what type of makeup I wanted to use.
Notice that Dade's makeup is clearly a different horror style than Garek's and Alanna's.
I did this for three
simple reasons: time, cost and humor.
First: Dade's makeup (CENTER RIGHT) - primarily created by Mitchell S. Benson - would have to be done at least four times.
Doing the Buffy the Vampire masks would be too costly and time consuming.
So I decided to stick with Michael's facial structures because they were perfect for the campiness I wanted him to portray,
due to my shamelessly parodying the coming out of the coffin to coming out of the closet.
Painting him green was in part a choice by Mitchell S. Benson who suggested it and instructed me on what makeup to buy.
Which lead me to adapt my locations to his color.
As far as Garek's and Alanna's makeup, that was Chris Field's input. Luckily for me, Chris who worked at
Cinema Secrets was able to get me discounts on makeup and pretty much everything else I needed.
As it turned out, he already had some available for us to use.
The truth of the matter is that both Chris and Gil were my neighbors where we lived in an apartment
at that time in Sherman Oaks. (I later based Mammoth Towers Mysteries on that same building) I bring this up because we also used this building as seven different locations.
The sister scene I eventually cut. But it was shot in my kitchen. The rat scene takes place in the boiler
room where Dade is forced to suck a rat.
Also the Mad Chef scene takes place at the back entrance to the garage.
The chicken feather scene (NOT SHOWN) is actually the grounds outer gate and vacant lot next door.
The psychiatrist scene (me as the dead psychiatrist) takes place in Gil's living room on his black couch, lit with a soft-white oriental light.
As does the shots of Dade where he is blue. We actually lit that scene with only the aquarium light.
Plus, the scene with Lou McFee (BELOW CENTER) talking about golfing with Dade was also shot in Gil's apartment.
The staircase scenes at the men's locker room (NOT SHOWN) where Dade sucks a golfer was shot on the back stairs to the building. And his body slipping down the wall was shot in the elevator. (NOT SHOWN)
And the Golf Club scene (not shown) was actually the pool area. Of course, all shot in one night.
One of the things I had the
most fun with is finding a way to light Lou McFee in the SUV while Dade gets out to investigate
the sucked body in the car in front of them. I did this by using a natural motion light hung in a yard
beside a house that shown onto the street. And back lit it with the same park lights I used in "Dade's Scoring
In the Evening Scene." ( BELOW RIGHT) I then had a truck park behind the SUV that Dade and Lou
were in for key light on Dade. I made this work by actually having a truck pull up behind them
and had the kids who beat him get out of it.
All I did was have Lou say his lines while shooting over his shoulder (for movement) as Dade got out of the SUV and discovered the body,
reacting to the kids in the truck, getting back into the SUV, only to get dragged out again and then beaten. I later added Dade's and the kids'
POVs.
Of course there wasn't enough light there to actually shoot Lou. And the location was actually next to the 170 Freeway.
So there was no way I was attempting sound there. What I did in both cases: Shooting the body and Lou's dialogue was to
take them down into the parking garage of our apartment building, shut off all the lights, put my
wife's truck behind my SUV, then had Gil use one light to match the overhead light from the yard. We then
placed the camera on the dash and had Walter do Lou's 
monologue as if Dade was getting beat by the kids outside of the SUV in the street.
I had Chris Field and Lou Sandoval
play the kids beating a 
dummy in a rolled up blanket in the street. I of course added ADR and sound effects from that point on.
Once again using FCP to bend and match the light.
One of the hardest things I had to do in the very
low light was to get all the graininess out of the SUV's molding (RIGHT) that did not match the light in
the rest of the shot. I did this by both cutting away and reframing the shot to eliminate the
SUV's molding a much as possible.
In the scene where Dade helps Lou
cross the street I used Chris Field in a passing car to yell "Vampire." But what I was really doing was
using his car to stop any crossing traffic from getting into my shot. I then had him make a right into traffic so only
his car would get into my shot. In case I had to match anything.
I then had Lou appear to be about
to step into traffic and freeze. Then stopped the camera and had Dade step into frame. Using a ripple dissolve on the cut to enhance the moment. Over
this shot I have Lou doing dialogue shot in another location. Then added ADR from Dade as he helps
his neighbor across the street. The greatness of all this is that Gil and the actors were able to nail this
in one take. And Chris timed his car crossing perfectly to clear the shot of all unwanted vehicles. I used
this particular corner because it was well lit by overhead signs and well back lit by streetlight and
a liquor store lights. Of course I then played around with it in editing.
We did this shot, all the
golf shots, and the SUV shots all on the same night. Ending back at our apartment building, Mammoth Towers, in the garage where we also used
a vacant apartment to do makeup and wardrobe.
In editing this short I knew I was looking for a three dimensional montage feel that would evolve
while piecing it together. 
I even used my son's photo (Vaughn James Niemiec) when he was four days old and
Photo Shopped it to make him look as if Dade had vampire tendencies as a child. I had Dade hold
this photo while reflecting on this matter inside the coffin. That way I didn't have to traumatize my
son until he gets old enough to understand what I've done to him in the name of film making.
One of the lucking things to come out of all this was the incredible music I was given to use by
Daron Beck (Seen on American Idol 2005) and The Pointy Shoe Factory. Their gothic sound matched what I was shooting so closely it's as
though they wrote their music for the short. Which of course they did not. I was able to acquire their
music through Lurance Johnson who also got me the costumes for Garek and Alanna where he worked at
Shrine on Melrose. Dade's cape was from Hollywood Costume. The Coffin from Cinema Props as well as
the dummy and blind man's cane. Michael had his own tux and shoes so I went with it. And of course
I got makeup discounts from Cinema Secrets through Chris Field who also brought in Victoria Roberts.
I met Mitchell S. Benson from work and he came on board as a favor because of it.
Establishing shots I shot on my own by driving around and looking for what I wanted. Moon shots I shot by design
to make sure the trailer was lined up to shoot the moon up above it. To speed it up and steady the shot I
ended up using a dissolve from the moon to the trailer to make it work. This was the last shot I used Gil
on. From that point on I took my own camera and captured what I needed. The truth is, in these kinds of shoots
you're never really done or satisfied but you do what you can, get what you get and move on. I did end up shooting
a lot more than I used. Not that the actors didn't do a good job, it just turned out not to be needed to get the
idea across and pacing to where I felt it needed to be.
Who knows, I might use this unused footage in "OUT OF THE COFFIN - AGAIN." Where Dade gets sued for divorce.
Locations were provided by Denise Richards-William Burch-PCS Properties - Maxine Miller, Pen In Hand - Michael Hegedus- Tom Bartlett
And Dressing Room by Iowa Boys - Ageless Coaches, which I also doubled as a location for Stanley Crotch
and Dade to camp out in while fishing.
In conclusion to all this, I would like to extend my thanks to all those involved. I of course could
not have done it without them. Hopefully, some day I'll make it up to them.
We also shot in many locations around the LA and the Valley such as parks, staircases, cemetery, hotels, bridges, houses, dead-end streets.
Thanks for reading this all the way through.
Karl Niemiec
Writer/Director/Producer/Editor
Coconut Productions
