Production: The First Day

The first sequence we filmed was "The Tractor Chase"--yes, a chase involving two lawn mowers. As an action sequence, we knew it would take a long time to film, but we planned as well as we knew how to make it take as little time as possible. There were about as many people behind the scenes working as there were in front of the camera.

We filmed at my friend Alissa's neighbor's driveway. It was so long that it looked like a dirt road, but without any chance a real vehicle would drive by. Using a trailer, we brought my Dad's tractor over and Alissa's Dad's tractor from next door.

I knew that the noise from the engines would be a problem for sound, so I decided not to bother using the dialogue captured in the moment. This decision led to some funny confusion on later days when some of my friends thought that the entire movie would have no dialogue.

Despite the silliness of the action--Slim chasing and being chased by nuns with machine guns-- everyone took the event very seriously. My favorite memory of the day was when my friend Jacob, dressed as a nun, had to make a U turn with the tractor he was driving in order to return it to the original spot. Somehow, he managed to lower the mowing deck and he was kicking up a cloud of dust! He didn't notice it, of course, but the rest of us were quite entertained.