Portfolio Details
Project Information
- My Role: 1st Assistant Director & Co-Producer
- Distributed By: Sony Pictures Classic
- Project date: 2021
- Project URL: www.sonyclassics.com/film/eastofwall
Project Synopsis
EAST OF WALL is an authentic portrait of female resilience in the 'New West' inspired and played by the women and girls who live it. Set in the Badlands of South Dakota, Tabatha, a young, rebellious rancher, who rescues and resells horses, must make hard decisions to deal with her fractured family, financial uncertainty, and unresolved grief, all while providing refuge for a group of wayward neighborhood teens.
My Experience
Wrangling Wild South Dakota
This was a crazy ride in every sense of the term. As 1st AD, I was wrangling a group of absolutely feral teenagers and the family, ALL right on their home. It had to be wildly disruptive for them to have a film crew take over their property, but also to have to manage their day-to-day (ranches don't wait for movies in case you didn't know), but also to manage call times and long days of pouring their actual story out on camera.
Working with Kids, Animals and the Prairie
They say don't work with kids animals or stunts on low budget films. This movie revolved around kids surrounded by animals and riding horses at events. It was amazing to watch the story come out onscreen.
Weather was INSANE
One of the most interesting overnights I've experience on any project was on East of Wall. The weather apps showed we would get a thunderstorm, but the radar showed that it would likely go just around us. We expected a short lightning hold, but we got an insane one.
About 40 minutes before lunch, we went on lightning hold for the safety of the crew. We couldn't all fit in the family's house, so we hunkered down in the barn. Glamorous, I know.
The weather wasn't letting up, and we were just burning time. We checked the road and it was almost impassable. We decided at this point, we just needed to get everyone home....but we were stuck.
We discussed it and realized we would have to get creative (Indie film, amiright?). The Director of Photography and I both drove 1st Gen Toyota Tacomas with really aggressive tires and the Executive Producer had rented a Jeep Wrangler, just in case.
3 people at a time, we moved people over the washed out road in our trucks and the Executive Producer drove them to the hotel. It took us around 3 hours to get everyone out of the location, but at least we didn't have to sleep in a barn...
Remote Locations Are Hard
Remote locations are hard. That's it. That's the story. Imagine giving directions to drive down a gravel road then turn into a field and follow it through a fence then turn left (where there is nothign but grass) and just drive and pray. And also, there's no cell service in some of these places. That's how it is when you're filming on a ranch or deep in the badlands of South Dakota.