Hope Madden Runs an Obstacle Corpse – Women in Horror Month
I had made a couple of short films, including the proof of concept for the feature Obstacle Corpse. All this (as well as several years’ worth of work shooting classroom footage for a college textbook publisher) I’d done with the same DP—a lovely man, enormously talented and entirely unflappable. But he would not be available for my first feature.
And I was freaked. I needed someone who knew what they were doing because I was so green. But I needed someone who would not overtake my authority. I knew what I wanted and, let’s be honest, as writer/director/producer, every final decision was mine to make.
A lot of names came up, but my producer asked me, “Have you asked Brooklyn Ewing?”
I had not, but immediately the search came to a halt. I had not thought about asking Brooklyn Ewing to DP my movie because, in my head, she was a director. She’d made two features—She Was So Pretty and its sequel, She Was So Pretty: Be Good for Goodness Sake. But the minute her name came up, I couldn’t bear to work with anyone else. She could do anything because she already had done all of it: write, direct, shoot, produce, assistant direct, set design, costume, photograph. And she did all of that—all of it!—on her two features.
Thank God she said yes, and the collaboration was dreamy. She understood what I wanted the movie to look like, she pointed out ways to create movement, tension, comedy, and just to make it gorgeous. And she made me feel confident and safe.
And then, once she came on board, loads of other women suddenly wanted to join the team. It’s uncommon to get to work with a woman director, but when both the director and DP are women, this is apparently very appealing. It suggests a kind of environment on set that is perhaps uncommon.
Sydney Lawson was the next to join us as Camera Operator and part of a badass trio with Gracie Becker (First Assistant Camera) and Desirée Levingston (DIT). Molly Haines came on to handle production design and to assist David Greathouse with practical FX. Lindy Tran and Prisella Valdez joined Molly’s art department (and stayed in our guest room for the entire shoot).
Brooklyn convinced Danielle Morrison and husband Michael Cichowicz (pro wrestlers Dani Mo and Façade) to come on board as our stunt coordinators (they also have a small role in the film). There’s a lot of action in Obstacle Corpse and having a woman not only choreographing that action but teaching the moves to the cast (half of which were women) was enormously comforting. Both Dani and Mikey were so careful and encouraging—they’d hide just outside of camera range to give thumbs up as actors achieved those tough moves. Everyone felt safe and supported, and everyone succeeded.
Krista Stauffer also pitched in with casting and Sherri Greene, God love her, jumped in at the last minute to assist with make up because our original crew member bailed.
More than one person cautioned me as we got closer to filming, saying that “women are hard to work with.” This struck me as utter stupidity, partly because I’m a grown up, had worked my whole life, and knew for certain that women are not hard to work with. Individuals can be, but women as a whole? How could anybody believe that?
And, of course, they were wrong. There were, naturally, a handful of issues on set. Anyone who’s tried to shoot a feature length film in 12 days, out of doors, in Ohio can predict some tensions. But never once did these tensions stem from one of the women in our crew. Not one time. Indeed, during a torrential downpour (that we had no choice but to shoot through), my whole camera crew and art department stopped what they were doing to build a tunnel with tarps, tree branches and gaff tape so we could keep filming.
Everyone offered suggestions. No one told me what to do. Everyone respected everyone. But this was my first feature, so as far as I knew, this was what it was always like on set. Then we had two days where the ratio changed. A COVID scare had a couple crew members staying home until they could be tested, both replaced temporarily by men. These men stepped in at the last minute and I appreciate that. But the vibe on set was off. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of questioning my choices, a lot of talking over me, and a far less efficient workday. These were the only two days that we fell behind schedule, actually.
This is not a complaint, exactly. The Obstacle Corpse crew was asked to do a lot and they did it beautifully. I am so proud of them and proud to have worked with them. And they all enjoyed working together and have gone on to collaborate on other projects, even those who met for the first time on our set.
It was a great experience, women led and women built. It was awesome. Of course.
Photos courtesy Eric Boso.
Follow Eric on Instagram @eric_boso_
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