Crew and Helpers
Last Words: Mary was a "covid film." The first weekend of shooting was February 29th and March 1st of 2020. The second weekend of shooting was supposed to be near the end of March, but, as you know, the world shut down before we could get there.
We were more fortunate than some, however. During that first weekend of shooting we shot all the scenes that required the perfect house in Cary where a number of films have been shot; that house become unavailable shortly after that. And, we were able to attract a great group of extras for a reception scene; getting 25 people in a small room become impossible soon after, but again, we were lucky to get that done.
The remaining scenes mostly involved our three principal actors and half of those scenes took place outside, so we were able to shoot most of the rest of the film in October of 2020. V. Arden Shepard was our health safety officer for the October shoot which made everyone a bit more comfortable.
Piper Kessler was, once again, a fantastic asset as sound professional on this project.
Ajit Prem shot this film on our Ursa Mini Pro and provided important feedback in post as well.
V. Arden Shepard was an incredible force helping with this project. (We're really sorry they had to move away!) From toting and fetching to calling slate to good ideas, working with them was great.
Tim Reinhardt was great, driving the "camera car" and Jack Kadis shot a lot of fascinating BTS during our first weekend. His photograph is the image on the poster. And Larry Evans and Cyn Mcgregor was great assisting with the location and its set dressing.Konrad Arnold helped as a driver for some greenscreen plates of traffic needed late in the post-production cycle.
And, of course, my wife, Bev Koester, put up with many disruptions and assisted in many ways on many days.
