On Monday, February 10, 2024, a professional film crew spent the day aboard Afterglow and on the dock filming a movie sequence. The film is part of a series of crowdfunded films: The Gamers II: Attack of the Pwns. Though the sequence is near the beginning of the movie, this was the film crew's final day of shooting.
It all started a few months ago when the film company asked CYC if any members would like to volunteer their boat for a film scene. Afterglow was one of several boats who volunteered, and after being scouted by the Director, Gabriel, Production Supervisor, Cheyenne, and Director of Photography, Doug, was selected as the location for filming. From that point on, Allen became a part of the film crew and attended several more location scouting trips and online meetings. He was very impressed with the level of professionalism and also the flexibility of the crew when planning for three possible weather scenarios.
Speaking of weather. Allen enjoys weather forecasting and had a hand in long range forecasting, sending forecasts out to the film crew every few days for about 12 days before the shoot. The day of the shoot was not too bad, with highs n the mid 30's and no precipitation and about 6 to 12 knot winds from the North. It was partly cloudy with plenty of sun but a bit of a wind chill. Allen sends thanks to his dock neighbor on M.V. Alki, who provided a warm place for the cast and crew to shelter when they were not busy on the film.
The protagonist, a vampire, was played by a non-swimmer, Jake. Allen, who introduced himself as "the skipper," asked that everyone on the crew do what made them most comfortable on and around the water. The vampire chose to wear the skipper's inflatable life jacket under his cape, and the director was fine with that. After about an hour on Afterglow, I noticed he had set the life jacket aside and was quite comfortable for the rest of the day.
Believe it or not, one scene had FOUR men all crammed up into the V-berth! The camera man, with his not-too-small hand-held camera was way up in the tiny space in the front. Two actors were lying down, and the vampire was looming over them from inside the door.
There's a scene where the vampire punches through the entryway hatch (mocked-up with balsa wood). In the photo to the right, the sound engineer is about to poke her microphone out the galley porthole. In the foreground is Cheyenne, production supervisor. The skipper was amazed with how hard working and professional this young woman is. I'd say she was the busiest person on set, and she maintained a great attitude and firm control throughout a very long day.
After shooting all the "night" scenes below decks, it was time to go out into "open water" (off the Elliott Bay Breakwater) and get the "sunrise" scenes. The film is a bit of a comedy, and in the script, a (modern day) barbarian is towing Afterglow, using oars, from our dingy. The skipper gives a big thanks to Corinthian Yacht Club Community Sailing Center's (CYC CSC) own Jack Killalea for bringing a Boston Whaler around from Shilshole Bay. That whaler was the reason the open water scene was possible at all! Matt, the actor playing the barbarian, got into my biggest Type 1 orange kapok life jacket and bravely got into the dingy, tied to the front of Afterglow. He rowed her upwind and into the swell. It was a bit tricky getting aligned with the wind for the long-shot taken from the Elliott Bay Marina breakwater, but they got a satisfactory shot. We also took some "B-Roll" footage from a second camera onboard, and Barbarian Matt delivered his lines to a confounded Vampire finding himself "at sea" at sunrise. Kudus to Matt for getting out into the wind, swell, and cold water and rowing. He looked none too happy about it, but gave us plenty of thumbs up when asked how he was doing. Matt is my hero of the day!
After sundown-for sunrise, we returned to the dock, and the film crew enjoyed "lunch" at Maggie's Bluff before venturing back out to the dock for the night-for-night filming.
Yes, all of these folks were down at the dock or aboard Afterglow at one point or another. It was a really good time filming on and around Afterglow. The captain and crew were very happy with the results on their last day of shooting. Once the film is released, we will announce where it can be seen. With so much planning and preparation it wound up to be an interesting experience for Afterglow in Puget Sound, a great place for making a movie on a sailboat!
Comments