Snake Hotel

Yep, I’m back again with the low-rated horror films. At this point I have had a bit of work experience on the side with Big Leap Productions, doing some DIT and camera operating, but horror was becoming my main gig.

And Snake Hotel, ssssliipeerryyyy snakkeessss, was another tick in that box. It was also terrible!

Once again, I was 2nd AC. That’s not the bad part. The bad part was that the Producers, to hire out such a beautiful location, had used the budget of two films. So, we were filming, during the same hours, as another crew that was filming Dino Hotel. As you can imagine, the ADs yelling at each other to shut up was not the best deck of cards to have. However, it worked. The DoP was sound and I was vaguely impressed with how he held it together when, instead of having a discussion, the Director took our 1st AC off and filmed without him.

The lighting set-ups that we put together in this old, dilapidated mansion were absolutely stunning. Our DoP would come up with creative ways to use our minimal equipment and push it, getting me and the 1st AC to create insane set-ups that made the film look incredible. Each moment on this set helped increase my awareness of camera, and raised my expectations and regard for DoPs.