With ‘Survivor Girls,’ Alabama’s film industry looks to get rolling post-COVID - AL.com

The film’s title turned out to have a little bit of prophecy.

Principal photography wrapped earlier this month in Alabama on “Survivor Girls,” an independent film described by its team as a “horror-comedy” that began filming in 2019, several months before something called a coronavirus became a worldwide concern.

Then, over the next year, its makers tried to keep the production alive in hopes of finishing the second half of the movie.

How they got there is a tale that perhaps is a sign that Alabama’s film industry, on the upswing just before the coming of COVID, will have staying power to survive after the virus.

“Every film is a different experience,” said the movie’s writer/director Daniel Bamberg.

“Every film is a life lesson. One thing about this team is that we’ve been through a lot of nightmare scenarios. We’ve all survived a lot of things. The past has prepared us for this film.”

When COVID-19 hit, Alabama was enjoying, to borrow an old Hollywood term, “boffo” success, courtesy of its ability to attract film productions.

In 2019, the Alabama Film Office reported 20 film and TV productions qualifying for states incentives that spent almost $72 million, which was an improvement of nearly $10 million over the previous year.

Some of those productions included high-profile projects such as the biopic “Just Mercy” with Michael B. Jordan, “Son of the South,” executive produced by Spike Lee, ““Our Friend,” with Dakota Johnson, Jason Segel and Casey Affleck, and “The Devil All the Time,” a Netflix Southern Gothic story with an all-star cast including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska and Eliza Scanlon.

Then the coronavirus, as it did virtually every other sphere of activity, clamped down on Alabama’s film industry.

Among the casualties was “Castle Falls,” an action film shooting in Birmingham directed by Dolph Lundgren, which was only able to restart later in the year with COVID restrictions.

Another was “Survivor Girls.”

The film tells the story of six female mental health patients, one of which survived a mass murder, who join their doctor on an overnight stay at a remote cabin to undergo a controversial form of therapy.

Over the course of the film, the characters are faced with their pasts -- and their own fears.

“They have to face all their fears and come to terms with who they are, and with the idea of not living like a victim,” Bamberg said, describing the overall tone of the film as “absurdist comedy.”

The movie began shooting in October 2019 in Bibb County, then stopped weeks later for a break in continuity. As Bamberg and executive producer Tabitha Boyd explained, the film calls for sequences about the main characters backgrounds.

The plan, when they shutdown, was for the crew to reassemble in the spring.

Then, as production was set to resume, film productions all over the world were stopping. There were various plans to resume around Easter. Then in the summer. Then in the fall. A plan to resume in December stalled when cases spiked nationwide.

“It was heartbreaking,” Boyd said.

Add to that, one investor dropped out of the production.

This gave an opportunity to co-executive producer Andy Harp, a Gadsden businessman who owns two restaurants and founded Frios Frozen Pops.

Harp had known Boyd for 20 years and originally supplied food for the production.

“The further along we got into the production, the more Andy wanted to take a role,” Boyd said.

For Harp, it was the chance to fulfill a lifelong ambition to be involved in a film.

According to family lore, his grandfather worked in set design and construction for Warner Brothers years ago. Harp has backgrounds in photography and wanted to get involved. But he succeeded in getting photography moved to Gadsden.

And so, filming resumed in the last week of April and wrapped about a week ago. Boyd said for many of those working on set, it was their first post-COVID experience.

“Everyone was so enthusiastic to get to work again,” she said. “Everybody was excited. It was as though we’d never left the set.”

And it was an education for Harp, who said he has other projects brewing that he plans to bring to Gadsden.

“Where it differed from other experiences I’ve been involved in is that it was more like a sports team,” Harp said.

“Everybody had a job, and everybody’s job was just as important. It was very impressive to see. They’re all working, coming in from different places. They know what to do and they get it done. The absolute level of precision to remain profitable and successful is really cool.”

Bamberg said “Survivor Girls” may bow on the festival circuit early next year and go wider in summer.

Adblock test (Why?)

Article From & Read More ( With ‘Survivor Girls,’ Alabama’s film industry looks to get rolling post-COVID - AL.com )
https://ift.tt/3fI2tMl
Film

Bagikan Berita Ini