Filmmaking | Interviews

Small Town Writ Large

1 Jan , 2004  

Written by Hilary Barraford | Posted by:

Up-and-coming director Sean Bradley talks about the shoot for his first feature film, 'Right of the Meridian,' premiering January 19th at Loews Boston Common.

In the dead of the night in rural Vermont, a young girl’s corpse drifts down a misty, snaking river. Shattering the eerie silence, her father, enraged and in shock, shouts, "Sophia, you must be cold! You need to get out of the water!" The dead girl, submerged for over an hour, lifts her head from the icy water and groans: "Dad, I’m fine. I’m not even cold anymore." By the time the cast and crew of "Right of the Meridian" were ready to roll on the opening scene of the film, it was 3 a.m. and they’d been lighting the scene for hours. The crew rigged a complex system to illuminate 200 yards of a 25-foot wide river — just long enough to follow the corpse as it meandered around the river bend.

The actress playing dead had grown numb, but Emerson student Sean Bradley, directing his first feature film, couldn’t have felt more alive. By the time he turns 23 this April, Bradley will have a doozy of a resume. He started out producing the pre-show for the Emerson EVVY awards, the largest student-run production in the country, and as a result was invited to produce independent Brazilian feature film "A Fronteira" (at 20, he had only been gunning for a production assistant post) and Flipside Features’ "Hence the Stars." In 2002, he founded Coppermine Films (named for the street on which he grew up), which has released two short films. In the midst of pre-production for "Right of the Meridian" last spring, Bradley was one of the producers for the EVVY awards. And he doesn’t officially graduate until May (he has one internship requirement left, which he’ll fill in Tinseltown starting in January).

As he scurries to finish post-production for the film’s January 19th premiere at Loews Boston Common, Bradley reflects on the process of writing, directing, and producing his first feature.

HB: So who’s the dead girl?

Bradley: Our introduction to the film. "Right of the Meridian" is a dark comedy about an accidental murder in fictional Meridian, Vermont. The film centers on a police officer (played by Paul Sarkis) investigating seven people, including himself.

HB: Isn’t that a conflict of interest? How corrupt, even for a cop.

Bradley: We’re marketing the film as a dark comedy because it’s not supposed to be taken that seriously. The moronic characters tangled in the murder investigation all interfere with each other — they’re intentionally humorous and even a bit bizarre. It’s a microcosm of small town New England.

HB: Right. Small town New England, where moronic characters abound.

Bradley: Well, we’re exaggerating of course. But I loved shooting in Vermont. I’ve always dreamed of working in a small town, inspired by films like "State and Main," "Nobody’s Fool," and "Doc Hollywood." I think people are more welcoming because you’re always around them. You, your crew and your cast in a sense become one of them. We didn’t know anyone in town, but by the end of that first weekend of location scouting, we started to see the same 20-30 people, which is funny because Montpelier’s the state capital and only has 8,000 people… Getting to know people is very helpful because you start to know what your resources are.

HB: Your production must have been like the traveling circus this summer — everyone knew you were in town.

Bradley: Ninety-nine percent knew. I don’t know how you couldn’t. We shot in the center of town from midnight until 5 a.m., running an ambulance with the sirens going… and one of our actresses had to scream at 3 a.m. Also, we filmed on location in Vermont for five weeks. So people knew. But they were more than kind, and I’d like to do it again. I think the bigger the production, the better it would be to shoot in a small town.

HB: But this was a pretty big production, right?

Bradley: This is the biggest project I’ve worked on, with a budget far exceeding the others. We had support from a lot of past investors and people who believe in us and we love them for that. We did question such a big lighting and grip package in part because of Ed Burns’ "The Brothers McMullen." They had a small budget, a crew of 5-6, no lights really, and they won Sundance. But you also have to have that film style — you need a story like that, and their story is more basic than ours.

HB: What was the inspiration for your story?

Bradley: Originally I wrote a different story set in Ireland — which hopefully I’ll make someday — but we decided it was better for our budget to shoot locally. "Meridian" derives from my original script about a man under investigation. We realized we couldn’t adapt the Ireland story here, so I asked one of my producers, Emily Holleran, to co-write a new one. We went on a New England road trip with my assistant, Julia Foresman, driving 1,500 miles in three days. I told them that the purpose of the trip was not to location scout, but to free our minds to come up with concepts, ideas, and characters.

HB: Even your characters were born from this trip?

Bradley: We wrote down descriptions of every single person we met. The guy at a gas station, for example, became the character of Buck Timpson, the beat poet. Then we brainstormed about what this could be and tried to give each character an angle. Julia suggested the seven deadly sins, so we created seven main characters, each with a sinful trait. That allowed the characters to really play off of each other. By the end of the trip we had a good idea of where we were going, and Emily and I wrote for three months. It’s a backwards process, but I think it was the best way to approach "Meridian."

HB: Any tales from the trenches of last summer’s shoot?

Bradley: It wouldn’t be a film without setbacks. We had two major ones, and recovered from both. The biggest was losing our lead actress in mid-July. We’d shot 28 of her character’s scenes, roughly halfway through her shooting and a month into production, when we had to let her go.

I knew that Emily Holleran was a good actor, and didn’t initially cast her because of her producing responsibilities. But she was the best option. We considered turning her character into a minor character but decided that Layla Garrity was an important character and that we wouldn’t let one actress ruin our story. Assistant Director Amanda Harrington reworked the shoot schedule to stay on track for August 7. We had to cut a few scenes, and give up the rest of our days off, which meant a solid month of 16-20 hour days every single day. The most sleep someone would really get is 5 hours. We explained the situation to the crew and they were so enthusiastic. Co-producer Stephanie DeCourcey took on many more responsibilities once Emily filled the shoes of the lead. That night, we had to shoot some of Layla’s scenes, and Emily came in unrehearsed (but knowing the script), and blew everyone away. It ended up being a blessing in disguise. And we still finished on time.

HB: And the second wrinkle?

Bradley: On June 20, day one, we planned to drive to Vermont at 9 a.m. When the two trucks went for gas, they couldn’t even get out of my neighborhood. Apparently, our 24-foot truck was overweight, and started to roll backward on a nearby hill. The truck behind threw it in reverse as the other driver cut the wheel, stopping inches from an electrical box. I go up there, freaking out that we’d been working on this film for 8 months and thinking, ‘This whole film’s crashing in on us and it hasn’t even begun.’

Alex Markle, our gaffer who’s experienced driving these trucks, offered to drive. Five feet from the top, in slow motion, the truck rolls backward. He cuts the wheel, across an island into the opposite lane of traffic with 26,000 pounds of equipment and countless dollars inside. Scott Nelson, the first driver, runs alongside yelling, "Jump out!" So Markle jumps. Now the truck’s driving itself, rolls back over the island, and stops two feet from a telephone pole. At that point, no one was going to drive it. We towed it, rented a third truck, but still shot on schedule at 7:00 a.m the next day. We really thought that when the vehicle was crashing, the whole production was crashing… and that God doesn’t like filmmaking.

HB: But you ended up making a wonderful film. When did you know you were onto something?

Bradley: It’s an initial feeling that you have. You know you’re taking on this feature and it’s going to be the next year and a half of your life. Your heart and mind go into this film that you’re making… and you start to fall in love with it before you’ve even begun.

Sean Bradley’s ‘Right of the Meridian’ premieres January 19th at Loews Boston Common. There are a limited number of tickets available. If you’d like to attend, please send an email to tickets@copperminefilms.com.
For more information about the film, which will be shopped to major studios’ independent film divisions and, next fall, film festivals, visit www.meridianmovie.com.


Sean Bradley’s 'Right of the Meridian' premieres January 19th at Loews Boston Common. There are a limited number of tickets available. If you’d like to attend, please send an email to tickets@copperminefilms.com. For more information about the film, which will be shopped to major studios’ independent film divisions and, next fall, film festivals, visit www.meridianmovie.com.

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