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ON THE
SET OF CROSSED
In May, I was asked to visit the set of Bart Mastronardi’s VINDICATION for a weekend, where I was on hand for some key scenes in the film, and had met Bart’s crew of his former students now turned filmmakers. I had met Stolis Hadjicharalambous, who had informed me of the other film that the crew was doing together, an action/thriller called CROSSED. He asked me to visit the set during an effects heavy scene and I had accepted. CROSSED is the story of Frank Archer (Christopher Otis) caught between honoring his late father, a hitman, and going straight. He is encountered by The Ripper (Javier Rodriguez), a rival who doesn’t take lightly to the fact Archer wants to leave the business, and challenges him to a fight to the death. The scene was being filmed at the HILLTOP DELI in Mineola, New York and it’s very simple how Stolis was able to use a deli for filming: his father runs the store. The main scene that was being filmed involved The Ripper gaining revenge on a former associate, played by Richard Thor Wenzel, by abducting him and his family, played by Kristen Opderbeck, Tim "Van Damn" Wanek, and Jessie May Laumann, where he has them kneeling on the floor bound and gagged before he sadistically murders them one by one. The scene would film in the deli’s basement, where it had to be 120 degrees, presenting a challenge to the cast and crew. Now I kept on hearing that this is an action/thriller, but from what I saw on this day, you can safely call it a horror, as it will have more gore than your average horror film. This is mainly due to the fabulous effects work done by Henry Boriello. Scalpings, throat slashings, chainsaws revving up, the works. The highlight was an effects sequence where Jessie May Laumann, playing one of the victims of The Ripper, is scalped. The effect is simple, but done extremely well. One of the biggest challenges of this scene was the closed space, as there really wasn’t a lot of room, and the clever use of lighting: one Home Depot spotlight hung up above the victims with a green gel setting the perfect tone for atmosphere, along with a spotlight behind the signify the presence of The Ripper. For a scene with no dialogue aside from muffled screams, the actors play their parts well, especially Javier, who exemplifies a suave callousness in his slaughter of his victims. Bart Mastronardi, who’s still filming VINDICATION, serves as director of photography on CROSSED and this day marked his first use of the Fig Rig, a device that looks like a steering wheel that you hook the DVX 100 (or any camera) to optimize stability and flexibility. This is an exceptional tool that every filmmaker should have in their arsenal as Bart was able to take some very creative shots in such a closed space. Now, the DVX almost became a casualty as during a throat slashing scene, the amount of blood spilled was too much and wound up spraying several crew members (including myself). All in all, everyone laughed it off and went back to work minutes later. Despite the heat and the lengthy time between takes due to the heavy involvement of special effects, there was absolutely no tension on the crew at all as there is such a family atmosphere, even to the actors on set for the first day in meeting everyone. Being this is my third encounter with the crew, I felt more like a crew member myself, helping out when need be. Bart and myself were the only ones in attendance that day over the age of 21, but age doesn’t matter, as this is a tight and professional crew that are more than capable of handling all jobs with ease. Stolis is also very attentive to detail, and showed no nervousness in filming such difficult scenes, especially in the fate of Richard’s character, who would be burned alive. Unfortunately I had to leave before the scene was filmed, but my visit lasted a full nine hours before thanking Stolis and the crew. Look for CROSSED to be completed by the end of the year. You can check out the film’s progress at www.myspace.com/crossedmovie.
PHOTO GALLERY
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