Our Robert Rodriguez Approach on Scream Queens

8 hours. 43 Setups. 1 Mock Movie Trailer.

Sound impossible?

Here’s the true story of how we did it, and how Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez inspired us to get it done.

A Horrifying Challenge

Episode 4, Season 1 of VH1′s Scream Queens may have included the most ambitious shoot day of our entire career.

Simple premise: in an homage to classic B-horror films, our actresses would audition for and film a mock movie trailer.

A Frightening Schedule

On Scream Queens, a typical shoot day was 12 hours. To pull off the day, we’d have to shoot house reality scenes and the actresses’ auditions in the first four hours. That left only 8 hours to shoot the entire trailer.

A Terrifying Script

Not terrifying to read, terrifying to shoot! The script was co-authored by Caleb Emerson, writer/directof of cult horror hit “Die You Zombie Bastards” and Mr. James Gunn. To pull it off as-scripted, we’d need 43 setups.

43. You read that right. 43.

Yeah, but Scream Queens is a Big Reality Show

Yes, unlike Robert when he wrote his book, we had a crew.

But reality budgets are set up to do certain things. Shooting an entire mock-movie trailer with 43 setups in 8 hours is not one of them. To be honest, when you need to move that fast, a big crew just gets in the way.

This was truly daunting.

Let’s Be Rebels

Robert’s book details how he made El Mariachi for the seemingly impossible budget of $7000. How? He did everything himself. In fact, this book inspired our philosophy of Hands-On Producing, and I believe reading it early on in our career helped us become successful, quicker.

The tale of how he shot it is fascinating, but a lot of it comes down to this: he moved real fast! Just about everything was shot in one take. He slowed down for no one.

People told him his idea was impossible to pull off. He made his movie anyway. He was a Rebel.

“Let’s be Rebels.”

It became our behind-the-scenes battle cry that day.

Channeling the message of Robert’s book, we broke all the rules of any “normal” shoot day on Scream Queens.

• We ran (literally) from setup to setup as fast as the crew could move.
• Everything was shot in just a couple of takes.
• Someone screwed up? Too bad. We kept moving.
• Our DP, Adam Sampson, made use of available light, and added a light or two when we would let him.
• We made Adam trade in his PS-Technic adapter and good lenses for the SDX-900 and its standard lens.
• Because this was an homage to B-horror movies, we decided perfection lied in imperfection (that was our excuse to keep moving, anyway!)

The break-neck pace brought an energy to the set, and those who thought the shoot a fool’s errand quickly adopted the Rebel spirit.

I don’t think James Gunn had any idea what he was walking into that day. But, as I’ve mentioned before, James is a team player. He took on the trailer like a champ, and directed the actresses in a jump-to-light-speed fashion to help us make our day.

Co-Writer Caleb Emerson recorded the trailer voice-over in a not-so-quiet room on set.

I stayed up all night, and personally edited the first cut, which we showed to the actresses the next day.

Robert Rodriguez’s Book Inspires Action

There was no way for us to realistically pull off this shoot. We did it anyway by throwing caution to the wind, and treating a professional set with the same sense of adventure found on small, indie productions–the kind written about in Rebel Without a Crew.

Here is the result of adopting Rober Rodriguez’s run-and-gun style approach to our shoot, a Grindhouse-inspired homage to B horror films, a mock movie trailer called Reform School Zombie Squad. Made to be really bad in the most fun kind of way: (E!’s The Soup was even kind enough to award us Clip of the Year!)