Mike Vanderwyst and Jeffrey Frye’s foray into filmmaking began with $25,000. Toss in a rented camera, an unpaid crew, 50 volunteer actors, rolls of plastic, chocolate syrup, red food coloring–the list goes on.
When you’re young, ambitious and short on cash, there’s something else you’ll need in abundance to crack into the movie biz: resourcefulness.
“Right now I’m making IV bags out of Ziploc bags, and it’s looking real nice,” Vanderwyst said during a recent break from filming a 15-minute sci-fi film in McHenry County.
Vanderwyst and Frye started Unveiled Pictures LLC in March and are wrapping up their first production. They were filming inside a McHenry warehouse that serves as a sanctuary for a Baptist church on Sundays.
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In keeping with their story line about a lethal airborne virus, they transformed the warehouse into an emergency medical triage center.
They bought 8,000 square feet of plastic and hung it up in sheets with curtain rings to make examination rooms. Blood was a mixture of detergent, red food coloring and chocolate syrup.
When the director yelled, “Action!” actors on cots began screaming in pain.
Vanderwyst, 22, a recent graduate of Columbia College in film, and Frye, 28, a former bank teller who wants to write screenplays, jumped into their dream headfirst.
“It was basically a calling,” said Frye, of Crystal Lake.
With money borrowed from relatives and others, they put out a casting call. About 50 people responded, and all of them were hired, including William Townsend, 42, of Chicago, who landed a lead role. He portrays a doctor.
“It’s the first real character role that I’ve played,” Townsend said, cradling a cigarette in a hand garish with fake bloodstains. “Everything up to this point has been guy at bar, guy at bus station, happy drunk in crowd.”
After several days of shooting, they wrapped up filming last week. The title, “3:16,” is the time of a pivotal moment in the story.
Vanderwyst said he hopes eventually to distribute the movie to film festivals.
And, suitably bitten, he and Frye plan to try a feature-length film next year.
As Vanderwyst put it: “The only way to become a producer is to produce.”