Cottonwood Update #14: Filming in the Hospital

I am on vacation this week and so I don't have all of the behind the scenes pictures that are on my computer at home. So I found some pictures my dad, Rick Clerc, took at the hospital when we were filming a couple of weeks back and I thought I'd talk about the whole experience of filming at an actual hospital.

Over the course of the past 5 years we have filmed at some pretty cool locations from courtrooms to restaurants to huge abandoned buildings. Filming at the hospital was a whole new experience though. I always try to get real locations first before I build sets and so getting the hospital was perfect because building a hospital set would be costly and very difficult. We were able to film on a Sunday in an unused wing of the hospital and so the whole place was ours.

As a bonus we got to use real equipment and actually hook Greg up to the machines to get real readings. The more realistic the better and this scene is extremely realistic. We had Dr. Dynes there who is very familiar with the Windom Hospital as he comes over quite often from his clinic. He was able to be a technical advisor for all of the medical equipment and he also got a little cameo in the film.

My friend and make-up pro, Hailey Cory, came to do make-up on Greg. It looked great and I can't thank her enough for her help.

Making Greg look beat up.

We were able to pull off some great looking shots and I was extremely happy with everyone's performances. Greg, Tera, and Adrian all had tough dialogue and they all handled it like champs.

I want to thank the Windom Hospital Board, Dr. Dynes, Adrian Lee, Hailey Cory, and the whole cast and crew for making this possible. It was a great experience filming at the hospital.

Next week we will be back on track with regular film updates. We are still going to be filming into August. Behind schedule, but who cares. It's summer and things are going great!

Until next time.

Ethan Clerc