Warren Disbrow Sr as a Ghoul |
My father as one of the Ghouls. I think Warren Disbrow SR has appeared in almost all my movies. Playing Prof. Hertz has earned him fans and he is greeted warmly at sci-fi conventions and theater showings. |
Here I am as a young filmmaker. It sucks that we grow old (no shit, right?) |
How NIGHT SHIFT happened is I just happened to be in one of Mark Eisenstein's film classes at Jersey City University that day and he was splitting the students into groups to shoot short movies.Denise Kettman had this very hard to shoot script, so naturally Mark came over to me and told me about it.
"That's impossible," I said.
"Right. Want to do it?" Mark replied.
I agreed. I like a challenge. So I went over to talk to Denise.
I can't remember all the details but I remember that we shot it mostly with Bolexs. It was plus-X and Tri-X, black-and-white. (In case you didn't know plus-X is a super fine grain daylight film stock and Tri-X was a bit grainer but still an excellent high speed night stock.
The opening of NIGHT SHIFT has actor Jay Andriani (KISS OF MEDUSA, INVASION FOR FLESH AND BLOOD) reading a book in a house near a fireplace in the dead of night. He slowly grows tired and falls asleep. This scene was filmed at Denise's house.
We shot scenes in a cemetery with Denise playing the robed and hooded white faced ghoul moving amongst the headstones, then shifted to my backyard for the rest of the shooting.
The whole crew and most of the cast |
She had in the script that the ghouls were burying bodies wrapped and tied in sheets. I thought it would be cool to have a shot from in the grave looking up as they dumped the bodies at the camera. So we built, in the shape of a dug grave, this mini house of 3 walls and when a body was to be dumped into the grave I was in this fake grave shooting up and the ghoul was on a high ladder level with the top of this fake grave throwing the sheet covered body down at me.
When the "Dreamer" enters this dream and watches the ghouls from hiding, he accidentally makes a "snap" sound stepping on a twig and all the ghouls stop and look at him. He tries to run but is grabbed and drug to the grave and thrown in. I put a sheet of glass so dirt wouldn't get on the camera and had a ghoul shovel dirt down at me from his ladder post. As the dirt hit the glass, I cut to Jay bolting upright back at Denise's house and figuring out quickly it was just a bad dream. Angry, he throws the book into the fireplace fire and as it burns he gets up.
Denise Kettman adjusting the Auricon |
I suddenly zoom in on his shocked face and then cut to a ghoul stepping forward from a dark corner of the room. Another grabs him from behind. One ghoul quickly raises a big knife and stabs him. At the crunch sound of the blade entering his chest, I cut to black screen and the credits.
One funny thing I do remember was the night we shot the ghouls grabbing Jay and throwing him in the grave. In all the filming up to that point Jay had a beard, but he shaved it off before coming to the shoot that night.
"Jay, where is your beard!!??!" I said.
"Just do an effect, y'know?" he responded.
I ended up shredding a wig and using Vaseline to attach a fake beard to Jay which worked but was a rush emergency kind of thing which I would have done right if I had the time. You never know where the next problem is going to come from and a lot of making movies is coming up with fast answers to sudden problems to keep yourself shooting.
It was a weird little short that reminded me vaguely of the first Amicus movie made in 1959 called CITY OF THE DEAD (AKA HORROR HOTEL) with Christopher Lee. I always enjoyed that witchcraft movie and this had that same feeling to it. I have no idea if CITY OF THE DEAD was Denise's inspiration or not.
Night Shift
DVD Details:
DVD Details: