This is our first movie, and we made it on a shoestring. It grew from just two actors and a machete … to several actors and a handful of homemade weapons in the middle of a vast and punishing desert. 

 

Many of the actors were still in school at the time, so we had to shoot during the summer, which got so hot that the limited gear we had got destroyed. The glue that held together our tiny mail-order Steadicam from India melted in the sun on the first day, the tripod irreparably broke, and we ultimately had to go handheld for the camera for the entire shoot or quit the movie altogether. So, we shot. 

 

All of our costumes, props, the camera, and food and things we needed to survive in the desert fit in the back of a Mini Cooper, which we drove far off-road to scout locations daily as we filmed. There was no crew and there were never more than 5 people on location at any given time. Many times there were just 3 of us. 

 

Some locations took 30 minutes to hike to, all of the fight scenes were done without stunt doubles, and actors played multiple characters to pull off the “Sun Disease” idea: in this world, if your eyes are exposed to sunlight you get Sun Disease, which causes you to see your face on every other person’s face, though their clothes and voices remain the same. We had to record all the dialogue and sound in post- production because of that, and because of environmental and budgetary reasons. It took a lot of careful planning and specific acting to do this effect without  the use of CGI.

 

A distributor changed its name to look like something different that they thought would sell better in foreign territories, and they used images in their artwork that aren’t in the movie (vehicles, different costumes, extra guns … an a-bomb). That was an interesting experience, which only added to the unique trial by fire this was. But it was fun, and really difficult to do, especially for a first movie. Walking into the desert with a plan, having to drop that plan, then eventually walking out of the desert with a movie was an unforgettable experience.