McCracken: Truck Stop - The Making of a Micro-Budget Web Series

After spending the most on budget for McCracken 3 we had to cut costs on McCracken 4. After discussing we decided to go back to Wayne directing and thus regrettably had to leave Laurence out for this Ep, which was a shame after he really had brought something different and lifted the game with Ep's 2 and 3. He was still kind enough for giving me notes on the script for Ep 4 which was fantastic feedback and helped make Ep 4 arguably the best Ep yet. His feedback was that he "didn't really know what the characters want". "What does McCracken actually want from Boss? "

This is so important in creating your web series, or any form of story telling for that matter. What do your characters want? It's easy to just piece together funny or entertaining episodic events/episodes but if there is no through line, ultimate character motivation or underlying themes being explored then it doesn't really mean anything. It will be an empty story. So it reminded Wayne and myself to put the hard yards into the script, because if you make the script tight as can be, then that sets the precedent for the rest of the production.

The most important part of filmmaking is the script!

Wayne's Directors Notes on McCracken Script

And this is one area where it won't cost you any money, just hard work, so do it!

Once Wayne and myself what McCracken really wants it elevated the script enormously and as you can see from watching Ep 4 there is plenty more going on than the previous episodes.

Anyway, on top of having to direct it ourselves we also had to find a cheaper cameraman, as we could not afford Kearon for this one. Wayne had someone in mind that he had worked with who made wedding video's. He was keen to do something creative and Wayne negotiated a small fee suited to our micro-budget. His name is Steve Favaloro and has done some grew work for us. Like Kearon, Steve could take care of good sound also.

Another important note; When hiring a cameraman on no-budget find one that can do sound also. These days there are plenty who can do both and many advantages to finding them. Not only will you get more bang for your buck but you will have one less thing to worry about, not to mention a smaller and less complicated crew on set which I personally am a fan of.

Steve Favaloro, Wayne Bradley and Tim  Roberts on location up back of ANL for the McCracken 4 shoot.

This was another exterior location set at ANL. The episode consists of burying the body so we found a quiet bit of bush up the back of the landscape yard away from the constant noise of the trucks. It was the smoothest, quickest and cheapest episode we've shot… and probably one of the best! Win win all around! Shoots like this are great, especially after you've been through some difficult and expensive ones.

The main reasons for this was:

1. Minimal props - just a shovel and cigarettes
2. Private, almost quiet location.
3. Small crew who just got on and did their jobs.
4. Wayne and myself settling into our roles and subsequent confidence/efficiency

Mike Kotsohilis was on set again to assist Steve and basically help things run smoothly. By the end of it all we'd spent was around $250 bucks on the whole shoot. And that included paying and feeding the our two man crew. And we finished under schedule, with the whole shoot wrapped after three hours!

So the moral of this story is filmmaking doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. Plenty of preparation and keeping it simple can result it a smooth shoot… and you get to have fun while doing it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Ze0AbHiic

Film Shoot - McCracken: Truck Stop - Episode 3 "The Body"

So we had created and uploaded the first two episodes and were receiving hundreds of hits which was fine with us. Before we got into really marketing and getting the series out there, we felt we had to establish it as an ongoing series first, and it didn't feel like a series until we had at least three episodes up . We had set the goal of one episode a month for the rest of the year, so it was time for the next shoot.

So for Ep 3 we decided to move it outside of the office and the basic two hander we had shot so far. For beginning filmmakers on a no-budget, I highly advise starting off with simple two hander scenes (two actors talking to each other) as it allows you to learn the filmmaking basics plus it's cheap. (Except if it's set in a space shuttle, so just stick to a regular room)

This episode involved McCracken showing Boss the dead body in the back of the truck. So first off we needed a location, a cheap one. Our DOP just so happened to have the perfect one next door to his house. An old empty piece of land that had been on the market for years and was now fenced off. It was just the industrial shitty look we were after. And, most importantly, it was free.

Next was the truck. Wayne took charge of this and set about finding us a truck. It turned out a friend of ours from drama school, Mikey Kotsolhilis, had access to his uncles truck and would bring it on set for the day. Mikey ended up becoming an integral part of our production team and is slated to play a main character further on in the series.


The biggest challenge for this episode was a certain prop - a dead body minus a head - that needed to look realistic. I called special effects and animatronics houses but was quoted in the thousands. Expensive business coming up with a corpse. Wayne suggested we kill Abe, our first cameraman, as he is being charged with murder anyway. This would have been a cheeper solution but unfortunately we couldn't get to him as he's behind bars. I ended up turning to a mate who was in my half-way house that  I new loved horror films. He was a horror film fanatic and way he'd at least two a night. So I told him what I was doing and his face lit up with delight. He asked if he could make this his personal assignment - to come up with a corpse minus a head. I said sure. I'd never seen such enthusiasm and excitement before in my life. It was like he was getting a hard-on over it.

So Kearon went to work. His ideas were both genius and a little worrying. First he said I needed to buy the torso of a mannequin, some fake hands, chicken wire and old clothes that I didn't want. Then he said we needed to go out to the abattoir… "What?"
"The abattoir", he repeated.  
"What for?"
"To get the blood."
"Can't we make fake blood."
"Na, it's too light. Cows blood. Looks like the real thing."
"I don't know how Wayne will like handling cows blood… or me, for that matter."
"As long as you get none in your mouth, it'll be fine."

So off to the abattoir we went. For those who have never been to an abattoir they're not for the faint opt heart.

Keiran in his element

Keiran was right into it. Telling the meat men exactly what he wanted to achieve and asking what they would recommend… for a headless corpse with a neck stub. By the end of it we walked away with one lambs neck, some rabbit skin and ten litres of cows blood! And I still hadn't told Wayne we would be using real blood.

As of writing this I just found out McCracken: Truck Stop has been accepted into the LA Web Fest and I am absolutely stoked! Not bad for a little web series with no budget!

Anyway, back to episode 3 "The Body". Keiran used chicken wire to to make a mould out of his arms and legs which he then attached to the mannequin torso. We attached shoes and socks to the bottom of the legs and a great pair of fake hands (ordered from a store in Adelaide) to the arms, with a long sleeve shirt covering the chicken wire.

The fake hands

Keiran kept the lambs neck, rabbit skin and cows blood stored in my fridge (somehow my flatmate didn't notice) to be kept fresh for the shoot. On the day the finished product was pretty impressive. He attached the lambs next to the torso and stretched the rabbit skin over onto the shoulders whilst pouring the cows blood over the neck stub.

Keiran was extremely proud of his creation as was I of his work. At the end of the shoot it was hard for him to let the corpse go and he got quite emotional… I worry about him.

Budget:

Chicken Wire  -  $10
Mannequin      -  $15
Lambs Neck, Rabbit Skin, Cows blood - $15
Camera/Sound - $150
Director           -  $150
Production Assist - $50
Food/Beverage   - $40

Total  -  $430

This turned out to be our most expensive shoot so far. Lucky we got the location and truck for free because it would've ended up being more. Not to mention Keiran's genius work on the corpse for free. I would never forget the favour though.

On set Kearon (cameraman) and Laurence (director) didn't seem to be seeing eye to eye on everything and the shoot was slightly stalled and went unnecessarily overtime. This is no ones fault, it's just creative or technical differences and happens on a set. The problem was, however, Wayne and myself let it affect it us and we found it hard to solely concentrate on our performances. Laurence actually said to us it will serve us well if we take our producers hats off and just be actors whilst on set. This was good advice. Wearing a lot of hats on set, which us no-budget filmmakers are forced to do, can get overwhelming at times. Try to just focus on the one job at a time. Towards the end we were too conscious of time and rushed the last few shots. We later regretted not getting a close up of the body. This was because we were trying to do too many things at once.

It was about an hour/half overtime and all in all I was pretty happy for our first exterior shoot. We packed up and not knowing what to do with the body, Keiran and I threw it in a garbage bin at a local park… I hate to imagine the persons reaction who first opened the bin and found what looked like a pretty real corpse inside… I'm sure the cops were called.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO0VNNKuS9Q