Behind the Scenes - The Van Part 1 - by Tyler Burk

"The Van" started out with three friends who had grown tired of getting coffee for pre-Madonna directors and taking hell from maniacal producers. We had all come to Hollywood to make films and yes, technically we were, but there is a big difference between working on a production and being the production. So after years of trying to get projects green lighted in the Hollywood system we decided to say screw it and do it ourselves.

The problem was we were all broke as hell, didn't have a camera, a crew, or any money to pay actors. But hey, we're Tri-Toad and we wouldn't let something like that stop us.

The Van began as one story in a kind of "Tales from the Crypt" or "Twilight Zone" anthology, complete with a weed smoking alien as its host. We quickly realized that it would be a lot more powerful if all of the stories revolved around the same thing and what's more scary than a huge, rusting van with a serial killer inside? There is just something inherently creepy about vans. You never want to park next to an old, beat up van in a parking lot. You're just waiting for the door to slide open and someone to thump you over the head and drag you into his lair on wheels.

So my brother Aaron, Brad Paulson, and myself all sat down and wrote three stories about the different owners of this serial killer's van and the show was off and running.

The first mission was to find ourselves the star of the picture- a van. We scoured all over LA looking for a van ugly and scary enough for us. We went into some of the worst neighborhoods in Los Angeles looking for it. This gave us some really good material. We used a conversation with one guy almost verbatim for a scene when the main character buys the van. It's hilarious, a guy standing in front of this horrible, rusting van saying how many women he's slept with in it. Finally, after a long search, we found our van in East Hollywood and for $350 bucks we had our star!

While I was busy building lights, props, and making buckets of blood we put an ad in "Backstage West" and the soon the headshots started pouring in. We got about 500 headshots in two weeks. That's the great thing about filming in Los Angeles. The talent pool of actors is huge. We were able to get an amazing cast of really talented actors, all of whom who worked for only their name in the credits and who did an outstanding job.

Our crew came from a lot of friends who donated their time and energy to make this film a reality. Chad Griepentrog donated his camera to us and he shot most of "Part One." He had an underwater housing for his camera, so in true Tri-Toad style I changed an interior scene to a poolside scene, put a couple of girls in bikinis and had some great underwater shots. Unfortunately Chad had to leave to go to South America to run camera for "Survivor," something about them paying him and Brazilian girls, I think tipped the scales in CBS' favor. We had to scramble, and for a few scenes I was the entire crew, but we were able to find another camera and finish the shoot.

The great thing about shooting "The Van" was that we were able to use the van itself for a lot of locations. It was like a studio on wheels. We shot the first part in about 5 days spread out over two weeks. I am an Apache helicopter pilot in the Army National Guard and I knew I was about to get put on active duty so there was a big push to shoot all three parts of the film before I had to report. As it turned out the day after we wrapped "Part Three" I had to drive for 48 hours straight to report on time.

"The Van" was a blast to shoot, when you watch the behind the scenes feauturette you'll see just how much fun we had. We didn't take ourselves too seriously, had a great time shooting it, and you can see that when you watch the movie. Each one of the stories is unique, fast paced, and original. To me the most important thing is that the movie entertains, and "The Van" definitely delivers.

Behind the Scenes - The Van Part 2 by Aaaron Burk

During this time I had completed a rough draft of the script, in this version the lead character Paul finds the demonic van and slowly becomes evil. But as he becomes evil he gains intelligence as well. It was kind of like a twisted version of "Charlie." At that stage I was looking for a regular actor to play a retarded character, just like in the movies "Forrest Gump" or "Radio". But finally I decided it might be more interesting to cast a handicapped actor in the role of a handicapped character. This is one of those instances where doing a low budget movie can allow you to make a choice like that. The studio system would never allow a real disabled person to star as the lead in a big budget movie. They'd much prefer to have Sean Penn make funny faces and spill espressos. Come to think of it I don't think they would green light a movie about a $300 dollar van either.

Anyway I was excited to cast Nick because I hadn't seen it done before and I felt we were breaking new ground. I was a little apprehensive in casting Nick because of all the segments of "The Van" my portion leaned the heaviest on the lead character. "Paul" is in every scene from beginning to end and there is quite a range of emotions required. I had meet with Nick several times before the production started to get to know him and to rehearse. (I use the word "production" very loosely as the crew on this motion picture was my brother running camera and my buddy Brad setting coat hanger lights and drinking beer.) I was a bit worried during the first meeting with Nick when I gave him the 30 page script. He thumbed through it and said, "Wow look at all the lines I have to say." But to my relief and amazement he had the entire script committed to memory by our second meeting. Nobody worked harder for this movie than Nick Daley.

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