Week 36: “Shooting a Music Video in a Haunted Hospital”
It’s approximately 7:00pm when the car pulls up to the main
entrance of the Old South Pittsburg Hospital in Tennessee. It’s dark outside and Karalee Renee Brannon,
the production’s editor and our driver, believes that we are in the right place
but not 100 percent sure. She tells me
the hospital looks different at night then in the day time when you can see the
neighboring houses and people milling about.
At 7:00pm at night it’s like a ghost town. There are no street lights but some of the
houses do have the occasional solar powered walk-way lights in the ground. The reason why Karalee doesn’t recognize the
building is because it is the front of the hospital whereas she has only been
to the rear, which is where everyone else (probably) is. She quickly drives to the rear of the
building hoping that that is truly the case.
I’m in the passenger side of the car with Karalee whom I
know having worked with her and the rest of the Espeute Productions team on a
previous production but this is the first production in which I was to be an
active member of the production team.
Espeute Productions is also made up of director and producer Daniel Espeut
and musician and audio engineer E.M. Watson, whose music video we are set to
film overnight at the abandoned hospital.
We are filming the music video “Go Ghost” which is the latest single
from Watson’s solo album. I’m excited
because we’re in an abandoned and allegedly haunted hospital which is one place
I’ve never filmed in before. When Watson
and Espeut asked if I would help them with their production I jumped at the
opportunity not only to finally get a chance to work with these talented film
makers but to also get a chance to be in an actual haunted hospital. It was an experience that couldn’t be passed
up.
There were several other cars already at the location. We got started a little late on the three
hour drive from Atlanta, Georgia but we wouldn’t ultimately be the last to
arrive. The exterior of the hospital was
pitch black dark and Karalee warned us that most of the power in the building
was not working. She said we were lucky
to have any of the handful of pockets of power that we did. The hospital has three levels including a
basement. The plan was to utilize as
much of the location as possible in the one twelve hour window of filming that
we had. Just a small order for an
independent production.
Karalee was our eyes as me and two actors who came up with
us made our way into the building first using the light from our cell phones
only before we entered into one of the main corridors that actually had power
(this was the second floor which would become Base of Operations for the
production). Already, Espeut and Watson
had all the equipment out and were prepping to shoot despite a huge amount of
the cast having not arrived yet. Time
was of the essence and we only had twelve hours to shoot.
I would like to stop to take notice of the actual
facility. Before prepping for the shoot
Espeut and I walked the three levels of the complex to get a good idea of how
and where we were going to film. The
third level was to be our main filming location. The red illumination from the “Exit” signs
gave the entire floor a haunting glow that we just had to replicate for the
actual music video. It also contained
the nursery (which still had tons of toys and items left behind) and a long
hallway filled with empty rooms to film in.
The second floor (Base of Operations) would be the climax of the music
video because of the reception desk and entrance hallway and for the fact that
it had the most working power. The first
floor (where the actual entrance of the hospital was) was in complete disarray
with little power. The library (as I
like to call it) still contained shelves and shelves of old books and magazines
and comics as well as audio books (on cassette) and tons of CDs; most of these
items had been thrown all over the room covering the floor. There was also a place I liked to call the
“garden” where there were bags of top soil and planters but no real plants; it
was as if someone brought the plants from outside inside and left them to rot
in this one room. The “garden” was next
to the “clothing” room which housed tons of unwanted and left behind clothes
thrown everywhere. The first floor was
not a place we were going to film not just because it would take a long time to
run power down to the floor but because this was the place that had been truly
forgotten to rot away with time. The kitchen
and entrance to the basement were also on this level and of interest to film in
but they presented their own set of problems.
Since we were still waiting on several actors to arrive
Karalee, myself and the rest of the crew started prepping for the first shot of
the evening. If you don’t already know,
the first shot of any production is always the hardest and takes the
longest. This shot and sequence would
feature Watson in the haunted hallways of the hospital and cover most of the
music video (to be spliced with all the other shots that Espeut had mapped
out). It took us a while to get the
lighting right for this. We wanted to
maintain the red halo of the whole floor but also light it so it could also be
seen and functional for a film production.
Espeut was very hands on for this (and it shows in the final
result). We muscled through that first
sequence and it was actually quite exhilarating watching both Espeut and Watson
do what they do best which is make good music and good movies. Despite our small
crew everyone was dedicated and once this first sequence was complete the rest
of the night’s filming fell in line like a tumbler.
The thing about music videos is that they need a “hook” to
sustain them. It’s not just the song and
it’s definitely not the performer (as I’ve seen many that don’t even feature
the performer) but it is the theme and style that is chosen that makes a music
video successful. For this Watson has
chosen to surround himself by the specter of a haunted hospital and the darkness
of an abandoned building filled with its own ghosts. Espeut brings something to the table I’ve
never seen. I’ve previously only seen
his work on the feature documentary GreasePaint,
the short documentary Raised in the South
of Normal, and the one-take music video “Don’t
Be Judgin’ Me” (also based on an E.M. Watson song). With this production Espeut uses canted
angles and stylized lighting choices and a lot of handheld cinematography, so,
in other words, he’s making a horror movie which is exactly what this
production needs in order to be effective.
This is a far cry from everything he’s done previously and proves he can
change styles according to each particular production.
I discovered something about myself on this production as
well. As I was acting as Gaffer/Best Boy
(and generally anything else needed just like Karalee) I also took it upon
myself to also contribute in the art direction of the production and I found it
quite fun. Setting the scene and the atmosphere
of each sequence with what I called “found items” was exhilarating and thought
provoking. Each sequence from the
abandoned hallways to the nursery to the operating room had to have their own
look and feel and that wasn’t necessarily easy considering the state each of
the locations (it is an abandoned hospital after all) had been left in. The great thing about the hospital is that
there is not only hundreds of items that had been left behind to rot but newer
items left behind from previous productions.
I had the perfect choice of items to add and augment to the set giving
it that haunted look and feel. I had
never really done this on any other film but my own and that was out of
necessity; I really enjoyed this aspect of the production – creating the
physical world of the characters down to the smallest details was fun. It’s something I hope to get the chance to do
again on someone else’s production (and not my own).
The rest of the night was long but was worth it. The rest of the cast arrived and were made up
of different ghosts and ghouls for the production. The nursery is a standout for many of the
ghosts but Espeut also wanted to make sure that each ghost had their own
special moments in the production. A lot
of care was taken to inhabit the world of “Go Ghost” with as much terror and
haunting imagery.
This production had a great group of individuals that came
together to produce a wonderful project that everyone can be proud of. At the end of the night, as I watched people
slowly drift away and the crew strike equipment to be packed back up into the
van it dawned on me that I never experienced a single paranormal event. I take that as a sign of comfort that the
ghosts of Old South Pittsburg Hospital didn’t mind that we borrowed their home
for an evening. I did try to return everything I borrowed back
it its rightful place.
Maybe, since I enjoyed my experience there so much they’ll
let me visit again one day.
To watch the E.M. Watson music video “Go Ghost” go here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZoLpgdgHs
You can learn more about Espeute Productions at http://www.espeute.com/
and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EspeuteProductions/?fref=ts To view
photos from the shoot you can visit Instagram at #espeuteproductions or
Pinterest at https://www.pinterest.com/kevinlpowers/espeute-productions-go-ghost-music-video/
To learn more about Daniel Espeut you can visit his website
at www.DanielEspeut.com and E.M.
Watson at http://emwatsonmusic.com/ or
on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheRealEmWatson/?fref=ts
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