"I think I wanna shoot this one on film."So began the road to Reciprocity, the second short film from Crewless Productions.
Actually, Chuck Hartsell came up with the idea for Reciprocity at a family gathering. When he and brother-in-law/Sally Forth writer Francesco Marciuliano got into a little trash-talking with Hartsell's 11-year-old cousin, the two thought an escalating conflict between a grown man and a young girl might make an amusing short. Hartsell spent some time fine-tuning the concept and wrote the Reciprocity script a few months later.
By the spring of 2002, Crewless Productions co-founders Hartsell and Chance Shirley were discussing how to best bring Reciprocity to the screen. The two had shot the first Crewless short, The Seven Year Switch, on digital video a year or so earlier. Though Switch had been well received, Hartsell wanted a warmer, more colorful look for Reciprocity, and he thought shooting film might be the way to get it.
Unfortunately for Hartsell, there aren't a lot of motion picture cameras lying around in Birmingham, Alabama, where he and Shirley live. On top of that, Hartsell and Shirley, though pretty handy with a video camera, were clueless about film cameras.
As fate would have it, Shirley met Rick Snyder on the set of another local movie production, where both were volunteering as extras. The two started talking movies during a break, and Snyder mentioned he had shot a good bit of film at his last job. He also mentioned he worked an internship for b-movie king Roger Corman when he was in college. These were all the credentials Shirley needed to hear.
With Snyder's help, Hartsell and Shirley scoured the Internet and purchased the best 16mm film camera they could afford -- an old Arriflex 16BL. They shot a 3-minute film test and crossed their fingers. The footage came back, and it looked great. The Arri was apparently none the worse for wear, even after thirty plus years of service.
Having secured a camera, Hartsell and Shirley just needed some actors to shoot and somewhere to shoot them. Hartsell again turned to his family for help, and his mother Sandra volunteered her home for use as the shooting location. She also signed up Bo, the Hartsell family dog, for a small but important part in the movie. Chuck also cast young Katarina Cole after seeing her play Lady MacBeth in a middle school Shakespeare production.
Only one casting decision remained: who would play the part of Jack, 28-year-old slacker? Hartsell sent a copy of the script to Michael Shelton, who had co-starred in The Seven Year Switch. Shelton and Cole met for a script reading and quickly found a good chemistry, cementing the cast.
Pre-production continued with sock puppets. Hartsell created a fictitious children's show for Reciprocity, called Silly Sockles. He made a trip to the local art supply house and put together Poppy, Mommy, and a third, unnamed puppet. Shirley was impressed with Hartsell's craftsmanship and told Hartsell he might want to consider a puppeteering gig if this movie thing didn't work out.
Production on Reciprocity commenced on June 8, 2002, with a close-up shot of a blue bowling ball and wrapped a few weeks (five actual shooting days) later, with a close-up shot of co-star Shelton.The entire shoot went amazingly well. No one was seriously hurt, despite the many flying objects called for by the script and Shelton approaching his stunts with reckless abandon. No property was damaged, despite all the lighting rigs and dolly tracks that were dragged around the Hartsell home. And all the footage came out great. Shirley says of the Crewless Arriflex camera, "I love it more than life itself. Maybe even more than my Epiphone Casino silver-sparkle guitar."
In early July, Hartsell started editing Reciprocity. He and Shirley plan to have the movie ready for a September premiere, hopefully at the Sidewalk Motion Picture Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.
