Dr. Zack

We had to complete production within two long, arduous days. We often had to take breaks in order to allow Dimitri to compose himself and focus his energy, while Turgut and myself would utilize that time to set up for the next scene. We were interrupted by a neighbor who had decided it was a great day to bring out his chainsaw for some wood cutting, dogs barking and the next door neighbor holding a boisterous birthday party. We shot the scenes in between the intervals of noise from our surroundings. During the shooting of the bathroom scene, the water got cold and Dimitri had to be rushed to a heater numerous times in order to regain his regular body temperature. We had discussed utilizing basic lighting to emphasize the harsh reality of the surroundings; however, we had a small area to work in and had to labor hard to conceal the light and the boom mic. from the camera while ensuring the scene was well lit and the actors had enough space to move around in. It turned out that at the end of the first day, we didn’t have enough time to shoot all the scenes. That night, I had to revise the script, taking out a scene or two and restructuring it so that the story was still in tact, with two scenes missing. Meanwhile, Turgut was busy shooting the scenes with Lou Israel (Dr. Zack) in my garage. Turgut worked hard, to ensure everything was shot and we were on schedule, his contributions to the project are immense. The bedroom scene with Zack and his father was essential to the script and one which required excellent acting. It took quite a few takes. Nick’s acting was so convincing that Dimitri was somewhat shaken after the scene was shot, but being the trooper that he is, he managed to dust off the emotional effects of the intense scene and move on. As the sun began to set, we quickly shot the remaining scenes and managed to complete the project.