Ashes of Man: Part I

At last, here is the long awaited first installment of Stranger Things Studios’ film, Ashes of Man.

Ashes of Man follows the plight of two separate characters as they attempt to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the American Heartland.  Part I revolves around the onset of a nuclear World War III, and how one of the characters attempts to survive.

Visit Ashes of Man’s Main Page to find links to the other installments, as well as the trailer and the behind-the-scenes outtakes.

*Spoiler Alter: I recommend you watch Part I before reading the director’s notes.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

Even though this is the opening to Ashes of Man, these sequences were the last to be filmed.  We started filming in January, so naturally we had to wait until summer to film the rest.  By then, we were a lot better at this whole movie thing.  It went a hell of a lot quicker, and there was a lot more time to goof around.  You’ll see exactly what I mean when the outtakes air August 25th.

The highway scenes we filmed a good twenty minutes south of the Twin Cities.  The fallout shelter’s interior, its exterior, the farmhouse exterior, and the farmhouse interior were filmed in three completely different locations, ranging from Cottage Grove (southeast of the Cities), to east side St. Paul.

The most entertaining set of the entire movie, by far, was filming outside the fallout shelter.  Finding a location was challenging in its own right.  I needed something woodsy, yet adjacent to civilization all at the same time.  Strangely enough, the perfect location was dead center in the middle of the city.  Near my stomping grounds growing up is a cluster of about eight city blocks that never had the roads built through them.  The interior of this mega-block is completely undeveloped.  In the center of the wooden area is the field you scene in Part I.

The scene called for a dusk / night-time setting.  However, in real life, true night would have been so dark that the camera wouldn’t have been able to pick up anything.  Instead, we had do everything starting from the moment the sun hit the tree line, to the moment the last of the sunlight was gone.  At best it was a two hour window.

We lost some of that two hours because construction of the fallout shelter doors took longer than planned.  Some of that two hours might have been lost thanks to the goofing off we did.  Oops.

Ultimately, darkness fell before we could finish.  The camera wasn’t picking up enough light, and I was worried that we would have to reschedule, if that was even possible.  We’re not professionals; we have no high end light equipment, and even if we did, we don’t have a portable energy source to power it.

Many of us, however, do own cell phones with really bright flashlight apps!  You would not believe how effective they are.  A few off-screen people aiming their phones just right, and we were good to go.

We left that field around 10:30 at night.  I’m sure anyone seeing the single file line of us walking through the east side covered in fake blood, carrying shovels, boards, tools and a roll of plastic sheeting would have been concerned.  Fortunately, we had everything in our vehicles just as a patrolling cop car drifted by to bust a extremely loud party going on nearby.

That’s nothing next to what one of our actor’s did.  He had to leave early to head out of town.  Being that he played the dead farmer, he was covered with an excess of fake blood.  For some reason, he thought wandering into the neighborhood gas station was a good idea.  Dragging his leg as he shopped for vitamin water struck him as an even better idea.

The clerk ringing him up asked him,

“Dude, are you okay?”

He grabbed his purchase, looked the clerk with a deadpan expression and said,

“Just another day at the office.”

~Jonathan Strong