Talk to the Dead With "The Crossing Over Express"

NFS Interview with Luke Barnett and Tanner Thomason 

No Film School: "The Crossing Over Express" was shot in only one day on a skeleton crew. Very cool and impressive! Could you tell me a little bit more about the production process and how it came together?

Luke Barnett: We're incredibly lucky to have a lot of talented friends. I think if your key cast and crew are amazing, you'll be surprised how fast things can go without sacrificing quality.

We planned the shoot so that we'd have production designers outfit the truck the day before. On the shoot day, we spent 90 percent of the day in the back of the truck, parked at our friend Danny Herb's studio, then drove the truck to an abandoned dirt lot with a skeleton crew and shot the exterior scenes in less than two hours. It was a wild day.

Tanner Thomason: We knew we would only have one day of production, due to not only our budget, but also the impending strike, so we had to be as efficient as possible.

Three key things helped us: our script was limited in terms of locations and character movement, our production design team was able to dress the set the night before [as Luke mentioned], and we got the shot list to the DP about a week before production. There was little to no improvisation in dialogue or camera angles and shots.

We came in with a specific plan and stuck to it.

NFS: How did you go about finding an engaging location for such a shoestring budget?

Barnett: The truck aspect was a perfect example of budget restraints forcing creativity.

It was originally written to take place in a janky 1970's office. We honestly couldn't find a lot of locations that had the character we were looking for while also being within our budget. That's when we turned out thinking to "where haven't we seen something take place?" I've always loved the idea of a traveling revival and this felt like it could be our version of that.

I like to imagine these people going from town to town, giving locals this experience.

Thomason: That said, we still took advantage of the friends’ rate and parked the truck inside a soundstage so that we had a predictable environment, conducive to moving quickly—this is also how production design was able to dress ahead of schedule.

NFS: I love the simplicity of the Mom Sheet Ghost. What was the process like bringing that to life?

Barnett: The ghost was actually three setups. The ghost rising is a costumer's bust on a tripod. When the ghost rises, our production designer, Andy Kim, is literally laying on the ground behind me pushing it up by hand.

When the ghost drops, the bust is hung by fishing wire from the roof. Andy rigged a contraption that allowed him to release the line from the other side of the truck on cue.

Lastly, the majority of the ghost is my friend Anna Baragiola. While there aren't lines, I really wanted to have a good actress there as it helped my performance greatly to have a real human to interact with. I'm lucky she came out. We also had her in green screen leggings for the wide floating shots.

Thomason: As usual, it’s best to work with people smarter than you. We knew we wanted the effect to be as practical as possible, so we had our production design team working on bringing "mom" to life for a week or two before production. They worked different techniques and ultimately fabricated a small custom rig.

In most of the scene, [Anna is] under the sheet, so for the wides we had their legs masked out and a slight wave added to the bottom of the sheet. The right blend of physical and visual effects is magic. It’s also important not to overlook the importance of wardrobe and pattern, as we did specifically choose the sheet with a pattern and hue so that it would stand out in the frame.

NFS: This is an extremely successful short film. Can you tell me about how you successfully got so much visibility?

Barnett: I knew the origin story resonated with people. Whenever I'd tell it, people would automatically be engaged.

I think for all its flaws, Twitter has done a good job at redesigning their video feature. I noticed that and decided after a week on YouTube to just put it on Twitter. The next day it had really started to get legs. I've been blown away by the comments and stories people have sent me. The sheer amount of deeply personal stories and messages I've received, it's truly been overwhelming in the best way.

NFS: I"The Crossing Over Express" has a great blend of raw, personal emotion and underlying humor. What was it like balancing this both on the page and into the final cut?

Barnett: This was probably the most important thing to us, honestly.

We tried to write and film it in a way that had each feeling broken up by the next. As soon as the emotional aspect starts to boil over, it's broken up with humor. As soon as you're comfortable because of the humor, it's broken up with a scare. That sort of rhythm was the goal.

Casting also went a long way here. Dot and Ron have such great timing. They were perfect.

Thomason: Luke came across an article that explained how you think you know what you’re going to say when someone you love is about to pass away in front of you, but the truth is that almost all of us just start apologizing. Apologies are so great in dialogue because they lend themselves to both humor and sadness equally.

After that, it becomes an exercise in how embarrassingly honest you can be; people don’t connect with the generic, they connect with the specific. The generic is trite and feels fake, while the specific is honest and can keep a person on the edge of their seat.

The intention was always to push the audience back and forth from the brink of crying to laughing out loud, and the dialogue on the page represented that. Neither of us are precious, so in the edit we did find lines we could trim and did so, just so we could boil the monologue down to its most potent form.

NFS: Any particular challenges that arose you weren't expecting?

Barnett: Directing while also acting was a big challenge. That said, I expected it, which is why I asked Tanner to join me. I knew how I wanted this thing to look and feel and having him come on board to co-direct it with me really made me confident it would all be fine even though I couldn't always be at the monitor.

Thomason: Having a fully written feature or pilot episode script ready to go isn’t a challenge we were expecting.

Truthfully, after 20 years of making short and feature films, you've made all of the mistakes possible, so you begin to plan and run your productions in such a manner that very few surprises come up. We didn’t have to park the box truck on a soundstage, but it reduced variables that could have surprised us—excess sound, excess heat, too much light penetration, bathrooms for crew, nosey people, etc etc.

Do yourself a favor and fix the challenges in pre-production.

NFS: What advice would you give to filmmakers adapting such personal stories?

Barnett: I think what's key for me is trying to find the moments or feelings that make you, personally, feel. What conversation or scenario can you imagine that just thinking about them makes you laugh or cry? Hone in on that.

There is a specificity that I think as writers we often shy away from because it feels like it couldn't possibly resonate with a big audience. Those are almost always the stories or moments that connect the most.

Thomason: [Like Luke said], I would say you can’t be afraid of writing something both very personal and very specific to you. Oddly enough, the more unique a story is, the more people will be able to empathize with it, especially if you can be honest enough to write the words you wish you could say.

Barnett: Lastly, here's a fun fact that might inspire any filmmakers out there bummed your film isn't getting into the festivals you had hoped for.

In the last two weeks I've gotten multiple messages from programmers or directors of festivals I love either offering a way for us to showcase outside the fest or asking if we'd want to submit for free this year even though the short is already online. I told them we actually got rejected last year.

They had no idea we even submitted.

I say this to remind you that thousands of films are submitted for a few slots and there is a solid chance your film never even made it to the main programmers. And even if it did, there are so many factors you can't control. It's not usually that your film wasn't good enough. It has to fit SO many things to make sense for that year's program, on top of the sheer amount of incredible films there literally aren't enough slots for.

"The Crossing Over Express" was rejected by Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Cannes, Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest, and more. It's since gotten almost 2 million views and resulted in a profile on Variety and reach outs from some of my all time favorite filmmakers.

Don't get me wrong, I hope our next one plays those fests as it's the dream, but don't let festival rejection effect your self worth as an artist. Ninety-nine percent of it is out of your control.

Now, go make your thing.

Watch "The Crossing Over Express"