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Yes, another “GallowWalker” post (oh, hey, I’ve only written six. Seems like a lot more). I do owe the end of the “Making of GallowWalker” story, and I’ve been debating that for a long time, as it would ruffle a lot of feathers, some that don’t deserve to be ruffled and some that should have been ruffled a long time ago. But from all the bad that happened on a daily basis, there was a lot of good, honest creativity, ingenuity and all-out fun.

A recap for those who just stumbled in … several long years of my life, helping to realize a zombie western (that’s a western with zombies) started in 2004 with “The Wretched”, a script by Joanne Reay, to be directed by Andrew Goth. You can find a plethora of information on that film scattered around the various sections of this blog (just use the “search this site” box at the top of the page). Through many, multiple rewrites and cast changes, a new project was born in 2006 which was to star Wesley Snipes as a man hunting down the undead gang that was responsible for the murder of someone close to him. You can find items on this blog following the development of that project starting here, which lead up to some behind-the-scenes videos.

Along with the rocky start the production had on location in Namibia, with the main investor dropping out at the last minute, a lot of panicked penny-pinching started happening with the new line producer and new lead investors, who had little or no knowledge about what went into making a film on this scale. Subsequently, a lot of departments suffered, but no more than Second Unit, which I was responsible for, which was very much ignored for the bulk of the shoot.

I knew the work needed to be done, so, I’d steal the secondary camera away from Main Unit whenever I could and shoot whatever I could with whatever other resources were available to me, but there was no way I could continue this way for the entire shoot. Often we’d be ready to turn over on a shot and we’d get the call that the camera was needed elsewhere, so we’d have to go with the first take.

It was only when time came down to the crunch that it became clear to the powers that be that main unit clearly wasn’t going to be able to physically plow through the entire script, so, Second Unit finally got the green light a little more than halfway through the shoot.

We had a very big job ahead of us. We’d lost a lot of time already and had the full slaughterhouse action sequence that happens in the middle of the film to film, plus miscellaneous insert shots and a growing list of whatever Main Unit didn’t have time to get through on their regular daily schedule.

I was blessed to have the best crew in all of Africa, and doubly-blessed to have the great Vincent Cox as D.O.P., thanks to my good friend and Namibian smoking buddy, Henner Hofmann. Despite his stature, Mr. Cox understood that it was the responsibility of a Second Unit Cinematographer to match what the Main Unit D.O.P. was doing, and he managed to do that in spades, despite the fact that we had no rushes or dailies to look at (the production having not paid Technicolor’s bill and not thinking it was all that important to do so).

With the insane rate that we had to plow through shots each day, I feared there was the possibility we’d miss something out if we just worked off a shot list, or an old storyboard that was put together early in the production. In a perfect world, we’d have an editor, working with the rushes, assembling as we were shooting, so we could see if something wasn’t working and needed to be explained visually with some extra shots, but, as we had no rushes, we were all pretty much shooting blind.

We did have VT footage though (video-tap playback, from the camera, recorded onto Mini-DV tape, so you can watch a video version of the action back from a rehearsal or take), which I diligently imported at the end of each day’s shoot, into Final Cut Pro and started assembling, roughly, with scanned storyboard frames and temp music to make sure everything we were doing made sense.

Fortunately, I’m an Apple fanboy, so, when I was done each night’s edit, I could transfer what I’d done to my later generation iPod and show it to the crew on-set the next day. As well as being an invaluable blueprint to what we were doing, it was a terrific morale booster as well; sure, everyone had seen the video playback after we shot it, but seeing it assembled and coming together, second-by-second each day gave a real sense of accomplishment I think.

Although “GallowWalker”, on the books, was a multi-million dollar production, in the trenches, it didn’t seem like what money there was ended up in the right places. Early in the shoot, before any camera equipment apart from a couple of sets of sticks could be secured, Henner Hofmann had to improvise on one shot with a skateboard (purchased at a local shop) and some sandbags. There was a lot of inventiveness like this going on; later in the shoot, on Second Unit, we couldn’t have access to the crane, because it was being used on Main Unit, so camera operator Peter Belcher, with the help of the props crew, rigged up a canvas chair on a pulley. I know it doesn’t sound like it would work, and I gave him only an hour to prove his hair-brained scheme, but, I have to admit, the final result (after four or five takes) did look quite convincing.

The same team came up with a very ingenious rig for a studio shot of Snipes’ stunt double, Clay Fontenot, falling through the floor of the slaughterhouse onto the killing floor below. It consisted on dolly tracks, standing vertically, the camera strung to the top, a pile of sandbags at the bottom and a bungie cord in between. It was a one-take situation (the initial setup for the shot was six hours) and looked amazing first time out of the gate.

I think, with a lesser crew, under more ideal circumstances, there would have been a lot of throwing hands in the air saying “it just can’t be done”. But, with the pressure we were all under, in less than ideal circumstances, we pulled together and made what had to happen, happen.

I looked at the director’s cut of the film a couple of days ago (that’s a whole other long story that I’m not going to get into here) and liked what I saw. Goth has done an amazing job piecing together what he can from various rough assemblies on DVD with his owon copy of Final Cut Pro (on a far better laptop than mine, and I’m jealous). Watching the film again reminded me of what a rewarding experience being in the middle of Hell with so many talented people was, even if the film that eventually ends up on the screen or on DVD is only a mere shadow of what it could be (as I know the footage actually exists, it’s only a matter of putting the shots together in the order that Andrew Goth intended).

At the end of the Second Unit shoot, I truly felt a sense of accomplishment, on that day, shooting well past the point of safe lighting, grabbing the very last shot on our list, knowing it was a “bonus” shot that director Goth wanted, but wasn’t crucial. True filmmaking is like this, pulling together to get what you need to tell the story despite what’s going on with wages and bank accounts and politics. I guess I was very lucky to find it when I did in the place I least expected I would find it.

Related posts:

1. GallowWalker Production Stills
   Below are my production stills from the "GallowWalker" shoot in Namibia, Fall-Winter 2006. The film starred Wesley Snipes, Kevin...
2. Making “GallowWalker” - part 2
   [a continuation of my own experiences on the making of the film "GallowWalker". You can read part 1 here] With...
3. Making “GallowWalker” - part 3 (with video!)
   For this installment of my own recollections of the making of the film "GallowWalker" in Namibia at the end of...