Behind the Scenes in the Woods
Here's a little collection of behind the scenes information for the movie.
• The film was assigned to Bryan MacAfee as the final exam in Professor Eric Worstell's Film and Videology class, during MacAfee's Sophomore year.
• MacAfee typed out the 14 page script in one draft and hand delivered them to the cast about three days before shooting began.
• The script refers to Bill watering the snow covered ground. When this was written, there wasn't any snow on the ground. But, the day it came to film that scene it snowed just enough to make the commentary true. MacAfee was going to film without the snow if he had to.
• A House in the Woods, as the film would leter be called, was shot on location at MacAfee's House in the days following Christmas in December 1997. Two days were dedicated to filming.
• During production, the film went under the working title Christmas Cookies, a name suggested by star John Manton.
• All the music in the film is stated in the script, with the exception of one. It's I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper, by Erika Eigen. I can be heard
playing when John enters Torgo's room to wake up Kristine. It was added at the last minute, during filming of the scene. (Thanks for the lead, Jake!)
• Joshua Gulch was initially supposed to wear an old woman mask, but that dissappeared at the last minute, and so had to go without, wearing a dress and all.
• In the end, Gulch is intending on getting even with MacAfee for making him wear a dress. The script for the upcoming film Shumi-Shumi Man VI, written by Gulch, features MacAfee wearing a dress.
• MacAfee wrote Kristine's line "Admit it! We're lost!" as an homage to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. As the scene was filmed, she was saying "We're lost" until MacAfee told her to pronounce it "Ve're lost", as it's said in Star Trek.
• The "nuclear winter effect" seen out the doors and windows not intentional.
• The top page on the clipboard that Detective Jakab scribbles notes onto when talking to John's parents contains Joshua Gulch's preproduction design for Grandma Borg. It was apparently Jakab getting right on the case. SEE ALSO: A Few Things to Think About.
• Every once in a while you can hear the microphone boom banging against the ceiling. Hey, it was hard to control!
• To this day, Professor Worstell still shows A House in the Woods to his students.
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This page engaged 11 December 2000.
Last updated 14 December 2000.
©2000, 2001, JG Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
