Yoder airport is taking flight
Well, it was a very productive weekend. I did a lot of driving around the area to scout various locations.
Most importantly, though, I drove to Yoder, KS, to try to get permission to shoot at the old airport there. I had found the airport location many months ago, and loved its expansiveness, its isolation. This would be the location for the rendezvous scene near the end of “The Dead Can’t Dance,” where our heroes try to get to for safety and medical attention.
Originally, I had the scene set in Wichita (somewhere). But when I saw the airport I started thinking about it. “Officials” would really want to set up such a haven in the middle of nowhere, away from infested populous cities, in spaces where they could see things coming for miles. So the old airport seemed ideal. And the place had a certain spooky, doomsday-like charm to it.
But the problem was how to get permission to use it. As our shoot date neared, I turned my 2nd A.D. Craig onto it and let him loose. Now Craig is great, he’s a natural talker and is good at networking. But even this was proving difficult for him. I also reached out to the very cool Peter Jasso at the Kansas Film Commission, and he did some calling, as well. Eventually, I gave Craig the info that Peter found through the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce. Whew.
Craig then spent hours and hours on the phone trying to get ahold of the actual owner of the airport, but kept hitting walls. Eventually, he got ahold of someone from a gliders association that meets at the airport every weekend, and I called him (a very nice man named Bob), and he agreed to meet me at the airport on Saturday and take me to the owner’s house.
I timed it on Saturday, and the airport is exactly 45 minutes from my apartment. I met Bob and we chatted as he drove me around the airport premises and to the owner’s house. But he wasn’t home, and Bob suspected he may be out of town for the summer. He suggested I go back to the airport and talk to the rest of their gliders group, some of whom knew the owner better than he did.
To make a long story short (too late, I know), I talked with the group and they were great, very game and very interested in what we were doing. One of them, Ray, said he’d check with the rest of their board, but that it should be OK if we shot our scene there. Hallelujah!!! An approval, at last.
And while it was a preliminary OK, it was still monumental, especially after all the work Craig and Peter and others had put into trying to get us there. So it was a huge victory, indeed!
Several days later, we now have the official OK for shooting on the premises. We’ll head out there this Sunday, which kicks off the next phase of our shoot (which will conclude August 10 — after this phase, we’ll be about 3/4 of the way done). We may have to work around the gliders on Sunday, but that also might be cool to have them flying in the background. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We’ve also got about 4 people lined up to be military extras (they’re actual military guys who are on a paintball team, so they have the fatigues and very real-looking weapons), and we’ll have a few Native extras, as well. And Loni is looking into getting us gas masks. It’s amazingly just all falling into place!!!!
Well, that’s not true at all, but you know what I mean. But it does feel really, really positive. I can’t wait to get this next phase under way, and the airport shoot will be a great, exciting way to get the shoot kick-started again (especially since I was stressing about how to keep the overall momentum going and keep everyone pumped about the project).
Last night, I stayed up until almost dawn tweaking some scenes in the script to now match our actual locations (the rendezvous scene included). I rethought what will happen with the zombie attack still to be shot at Oaklawn elementary, and I’ve completely rewritten our bar scene, where Guy and Randall discover zombie exotic dancers. It’s gonna be a blast!
I also have a tweaked ending, which I like a lot better and is centralized in one interior location now instead of a road and hospital exterior. Just trying to make it simpler but effective.
Because, WOW, this is a lot of work, and it’s very, very hard. I love it all, but WOW. I gotta keep focused and keep myself pumped, too, and remember to breathe. Sometimes it’s all so very overwhelming. But it’s great.
Taking flight,
-r.
