Cottonwood Update #11: The Shootout
I am a huge action guy. I love doing films with chase scenes, gun fights, and a lot of violence. I really had to take a step back for Cottonwood as there is really only one action scene in the whole film. A shootout scene that takes place between the police and a drug cartel. We really had a lot of fun making this scene and getting really creative with some of the shots and deaths.
I like to go handheld for action scenes to give myself the freedom to move the camera where ever I want whenever I want. Some of the camera moves, I'll have in my head before, but sometimes in the spur of the moment I come up with something very cool! Tylan, also pictured above, had to keep up with me running a pistol grip style mic set-up.
One of the ridiculous ideas I had was to have one of the druggies get shot and fall off the roof. I didn't think there was any chance the property owner would let us do this. I ended up being wrong. A quick signing of a waiver and Dalton was set to fall and roll off the roof. Huge thanks to Dane, Dalton, and Jim for making this happen. I get carried away sometimes with my ideas, but in the end they somehow work out.
We moved inside the house and the scene got pretty crazy. We turned a perfectly nice house into a disaster. Cleaning this up afterwards was not fun, at all....
Shout out to Yanick for getting blasted with "cocaine". What a trooper.
Check out the new store on the site. Right now we have a couple of shirts you can by and there will be new items added weekly. All profits go to the film. We really appreciate all of the support we have gotten so far and we are excited to create some memorabilia that represents Cottonwood and the community of people behind the film.
We will continue to film into July as we have some big scenes to pull off! Stay tuned for weekly updates! Until next time.
Ethan Clerc
