The shoot days on "The Van" were very short ones. We never went over 4 hours anytime we shot. Nick would lose his energy toward the end if we went any farther than that. After hour three he'd start hitting the Coke to make it through...Coca-Cola that is. But the scenes were written on the short side so it worked out great. In the past I'd shot up to 12 hours a day and after a few days in a row you get real sick of that shit. I have to say the entire production stage of the film was quite laid back. We never shot more than twice in one week as to accommodate everybody's day job. Also every location was no more than a couple of miles from my home. Several scenes we just parked the van out front of the apartment and ran extension cords out for the low budget lights. It worked out great that we shot so close. It was very convenient and reduced the stress on everybody but the real reason I did it was that I didn't trust the van not to break down. So we kept the van parked around the corner on the neighboring residential street, for about 4 1/2 months. I still get dirty looks from the neighbors on that street. You'd be pissed too if you had to look at that giant robin's egg blue piece of shit parked in front of your house. It wasn't my fault though, we tried to park it in the car port of my apartment complex but it didn't have enough clearance. We tried to park it on the street but it was a two hour parking area. We had no choice. It serves those stuck up house dwellers right anyway. There always looking down on them that lives in apartments.

People that watch "The Van" always seem to ask me if I still have it. Like it should be in a straight to video Smithsonian or something. I can thankfully say "hell no". One of the happiest days of my life was when I called the salvage yard to cart it away. We had a nickname for the van. We called it Bruce after the shark in "Jaws" because it caused us so many problems. We spent more time, energy and money at the DMV, the mechanics', and impound lots than we did on the movie. This is to say nothing of driving it. If you ever get a chance to watch "The Van" you'll notice that it has no rear view or side view mirrors. I dreaded driving it. Going forward was fine but eventually you have to turn. That was the real scare because you can't see left or right. It's like driving a submarine. You had to sense when to turn, leave your blinker on and pray you didn't hit anything. Just to keep the van parked on the streets was a miracle.

When you buy a vehicle you get a temp registration that lasts about a month. When that ran out we had to back to the DMV. We had to keep going back to the DMV because a permanent registration required a vehicle inspection. And believe me there's no way Bruce was going to pass that. So we kept cooking up these ideas at the DMV to keep the registration current. We even sold it back and forth to each other until they got wise. Every time we got new registration it would have less time on it than the last time. We were literally running out of time to finish the movie. We had so many parking violations from Bruce they knew right where to find him and when the reg would run out. When we finally finished the third portion we couldn't bullshit the DMV for another day. They were coming for the van. Thankfully we did get everything shot and were able to call the salvage yard just ahead of the parking Nazis. Although I wonder what those guys at the salvage yard thought about all the fake bloodsplattered inside.

Behind the Scenes - The Van Part 3 - by Brad Paulson

Casting for Part 3 took place at the local Starbucks, where I tried to talk Ria into nudity, telling her it was an essential part of her character's psychology to have rough sex with her boyfriend. We negotiated for a nightgown with the strap down. I should have learned from Lloyd Kaufman. He asks for nudity up front instead of giving some low explanation about how it's justified for the sake of art.

The first scene of, "The Van Part 3" presented a very difficult challenge. I had to get Ani to believe that sticking the camera in her garbonzas wasn't exploitation. Either I convinced her the shot was a daring psychological probe into the mind of a killer and how he would envision her as his overly sexual prey before the hunt would begin, or she knew I was full of shit and decided to humor me anyway.

Moving on, everyone slipped from the high sprit level to the starving and complaining level. You know, the usual. Ty did a cameo where he got his throat slit . As soon as we finished the scene, he jumped out of the van and washed himself off with a gallon jug of water and a greasy towel. I was wondering if the highway patrol was gonna drive by and bust our asses for any number of violations we most likely racked up while shooting on that stretch of the road. Fortunately, they just kept driving by. Sometimes, it's good to not have the police get involved in L.A. We finished the day off with margaritas and Mexican food. Next shoot we'll try starting the day that way.

Day two involved a weekend trip to San Diego to film the rest of Part 3. I picked Colin up and, from the looks in his eyes, something told me he wasn't ready to commit. That's why we prepared ahead and made sure he didn't have access to a car. I kidnapped his ass and threw him in my hail-damaged Ford Escort before he had any more time to think about what he was getting himself into.

We had a scene in L.A. to film before going to San Diego. It required Colin acting all evil and scary like by doing things such as licking the faces and drinking the blood of some corpses. To get into character he needed to pick up some painkillers. I suggested a bottle of Advil, but I guess that particular product didn't have enough pep. So we drove around for awhile, acquired the proper medication, shot the scene (which he was remarkably convincing, by the way) and headed off to San Diego.

We arrived to our destination late, of course. Plus, we got lost finding it. All the elements of a true indy movie were coming together. Good news is, the location kicked ass! It was Aaron's uncle's place about forty miles out of the city limits and had all the gothic qualities of a great horror movie house. It was perched on a cliff, had about a hundred steps winding up to the door, a rusty railing that wrapped around the length of the house, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" style bones on the wall and eerie chimes hanging from the roof.

As soon as we settled in, Colin protested the cold weather. We shoved a bottle of Jack down his throat and he was sleeping like a baby in less than an hour.

We woke up late, drank too much and stretched our schedule out to the thinnest possible thread. This cycle repeated itself for the duration of the weekend.

The last day was the most difficult. Colin came down with a deadly flu that rendered him with one foot in the grave and the rest of his body following suit with each hour that passed. As a result of this, the scene that was planned as a knockdown drag out fight between himself and Ria had to be condensed to a much shorter and far less exciting fray. In order to even get that much took hours of Aaron's playing Ed Wood to Colin's Bela Lugosi by nursing him back to health with tea and saying words of encouragement like, "Look, man I know Brad's an asshole, but let's just get this shit over with so we can all go home."

We wrapped Colin's death scene and decided to scratch the part where he hobbled down the stairs shoving his entrails back inside his body.

Now all that was left were two scenes. It would have been a cakewalk, but it was nearing three in the morning and people had to be at work in the morning. This is when you know you're with a great group of people. Everyone stayed 'till five thirty to make sure everything was finished. Even at that late hour, they wanted to give everything, not just simply go through the motions. Josh even went to the trouble of scoping out a room with a more suitable background to the scene so we could get the maximum benefit out of our location.

Irish and Carol (Aaron's Aunt & Uncle) really saved our asses. They provided us with lodging, hospitality and cooked for us. We ate like royalty while we were there and had access to shoot anywhere in and around their property.

We each grabbed about three hours of sleep and drove back to L.A. with a movie in the can. Then we gave that ugly motherfucking beast of a van the proper burial, Christine style. Several months later, we finished post-production using Adobe Premier 6.5 and signed with Kevin Lindenmuth from Brimstone Media Productions, L.L.C. He's been a great friend to the Tri-Toads and went out of his way to hook us up with bands and interviews before we even had a contract signed. Make sure to check out his site at www.lindenmuth.com

Thanks for reading about, "The Van." For more information, visit Kevin's website or ours at www.tritoadfilms.com

God bless the world of low-budget horror! May there always be an alternative to chick flicks and plot full indie movies without carnage.

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