Our biggest challenge was shooting on location at the Medieval Fortress. We had two and a half days to shoot about thirteen pages (not to mention one entire day was dedicated to multiple fight sequences in some insane heat). At the beginning of the weekend, I promised the entire crew that if we completed every scene on the shooting schedule, I would strip to my underwear and pose in some stocks that were available at the fortress. The first half-day teased rain but we shot out all of the fortress scenes in episode four. Done deal. I was feeling good. The second day we had over thirty extras and fell behind.

We didn’t shoot two scenes. I was nervous the second night but I felt confident that we would be able to make them up the next day. Well, our final day, one of our directors decided that he wanted to reshoot what we had in the can on Friday. So, we had two left over scenes, from Saturday, two reshoot scenes from Friday, and an entire day of shooting planned filled with stunts and fight sequences. We were fucked. That would have been a challenge for any professional crew, but a crew of fifty students with a huge learning curve? No way. But then the ghosts of Kubrick and Hitchcock came down from above and slapped some sense into me. They told me to get these pansies (there words not mine) into high gear and get going.

Well, as you can probably guess, we finished the day. I remember being covered in dirt and weighed down in exhaustion. I asked our assistant sound op, Jim Pruett, how many takes we did that day. He took a moment to count it up and goes, “Huh, I guess we did one hundred and seven takes. Cool.” Then he went on to continue packing up his gear like it was no big deal. I however, stood shocked. ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN TAKES?! That’s not lucky. That’s talent.

If you look hard enough on the internet, you can find a picture of me with my head in the stocks and the biggest fucking smile you’ll see on anyone else’s face. Cause by that time, I wasn’t worried if all my peers would step up to the challenge. I was proud of my newfound Epilogue family and how they were dedicated to make me strip down to my boxers. What are friends for right?