On The Set - Fear of Girls

In August of 2005 I shot the twelve minute short, Fear of Girls with Ryan Wood of YNGTurk Film. Within days of release it was picked up by Slashdot.org and has gone on to receive over 1.5 million downloads off of Google Video.

Here are a few candid shot from behind the scenes. All photos by Travis Holzfaster.

The mockumentary segments -- like this interview on Doug and Ray's couch -- were the most fun for me. We got to improvise and play off of each other a lot. It was a great way to refine the characters and to develop their backstory. Unfortunately, the footage describing the many, many villains in the game did not make the final cut. However, it is the point at which I came up with the line "My campaigns are multi-layered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your 'hobbyist' gamer."

Scott Jorgenson and I study up on our lines while waiting for the crew to get set up. Scott had never gamed before so I had to give him a quick tutorial on the basics of D&D combat.

I hauled out some of my finest OD&D gear for this shoot. I remember staring at the images on that DM's screen for hours while we played D&D, hoping many of them would happen to my character.

Putting the 'ACTION' in Live Action Role-Playing, baby!

Krunk is apparently the benefactor of both blink and haste spells.

The scenes with Ian and Mary Ann were the first things we shot, starting about 2pm on a Friday afternoon. Right from the get-go we had the opportunity to go off book. The dinner prayer to the Elemental Lords of Evil, the frisbee scenes, and the 'Mary Ann is sterile' line all came out of free-form takes. That's the advantage to shooting digital video and having great people like Charles Hubbell and Emily Hansen to work with.

Another improvised bit, the infamous ham-eating scene has only been shown at festival screenings. It was a little to long to make the initial online release. If you need proof that I have a big mouth, track down this footage.

The joggers scene was shot on Sunday morning at Lake Nokomis. It was hot and noisy. Ray's ice cream bar kept melting and his sunscreen ran off his face in continuous rivulets of sweat. We had to shoot quickly and cleanly because the park is right next to the Minneapolis airport and a new plane came through every three minutes.

I think this shot pretty much sums up the whole thing. Yes, those are my socks.