Death Valley is a hell of a place to shoot a movie. Literally. It’s one of the hottest places on earth, frying up the second-highest temperature ever recorded, 134 blistering degrees Fahrenheit! But it’s also got endless miles of restless sand dunes. And vast panoramic landscapes with shimmering ponds that reflect towering mountains.
The sunsets paint the desert in a warm glow that could deceive you into thinking humans could even survive there. In all, there’s more than 3.3 million acres of spectacular desert scenery. So if you’re mad enough to gamble doing your first feature length action movie on a shoestring budget, Death Valley just might be the place. If you’re mad enough.The team of director/writer Lance Mungia and actor/writer Jeffrey Falcon were mad enough, and they proved it by scraping together $25,000 for the production of their independent film called “”Six String Samurai””. Did it pay off? If winning film festival awards, having the William Morris agency broker your deal to fund production for a nation-wide theatrical release, plus spin offs like a TV series and comic book means success – then it certainly paid off for Mungia and Falcon. Does that mean your “”average action packed, rock and roll fairy tale”” movie can be done for what amounts to pocket change in Hollywood? Not exactly. “”We figured we could shoot weekends in Death Valley and pull off this spectacular martial arts epic for twenty five grand or so in loans and credit card bills,”” said Mungia. “”We picked Death Valley because I could get in with a student permit, and its locations look like they’re from another world, yet, they’re all accessible and within an hour of each other. That decision was great for the film’s look, but horrible for Jeff’s and my pocketbooks.”” So Mungia and Falcon began their three-month shoot in November ’96, and watched as their production costs began to rise – faster than a thermometer on one of Death Valley’s hottest days. It wasn’t as if this inspired team had been splurging on an extravagant production. Their one camera was a rickety 35mm non-sync antique borrowed from Panavision. Additionally, they were shooting on expired 100′ rolls of end stock donated by Fuji Film, forcing them to constantly change mags due to the one minute loads. As for the production team? “”During those months no one was ever paid a dime,”” said Mungia. “”We could barely afford to feed anyone. We’d sleep in tents or cars, eating nothing but hot dogs and drink no-name sodas every weekend.”” How about the costumes and sets? “”Six String’s”” are much more creative than some big budget releases (“”Star Trek – Insurrection”” and “”Soldier”” are two that pale next to “”Six String””). Was that where they overspent? “”We’d written the script around locations that existed, and around costumes we could cheaply make,”” said Mungia. “”Since the film was a post-apocalyptic fantasy, we could make a costume out of anything. Jeff got kicked out of a swap meet once for rummaging through their trashcans. Yet it wasn’t that we weren’t getting anything done, because we were always flying, getting sometimes fifty setups in a day. But we’d totally underestimated the enormity of the film. The details were killing us. We were doing massive location and costume changes daily, plus action, all from the back of a rented U Haul truck.”” At that rate, the shoestrings finally unraveled, and by January, after just three months, Mungia and Falcon found themselves completely tapped out, along with all the relatives and friends who had been willing to gamble on the project. “”We’d amassed well over 3 hours of dailies and overshot our budget by an additional $25,000,”” said Mungia. “”But we’d still only shot 25 percent of the film. I could have sworn it was more.”” Yet the team went back to Death Valley for one last weekend. That weekend the weather and the desert’s bureaucracy went against them. Heavy winds kicked up a storm that blew away their tents and blasted them with sand. While shooting a scene of a motorcycle off-road, Park Rangers hauled them out, fined them, and refused to allow any more shooting without permits. Rather than waste the rest of the weekend, they stopped in Palm Springs to shoot scenes using a junkyard and field of windmills for backgrounds. “”When we came back to shoot again a month later, the junkyard was gone,”” said Mungia. “”If we hadn’t been kicked out of Death Valley, we’d never have been able to get the scene, which is one of my favorites.”” Favorite scene or not, “”Six String Samurai”” and its producers needed money. And lots of it if the previous three months experience was any indication. Hollywood has a reputation for being a place with lots of money. But the first place Mungia and Falcon went was Park City, Utah. The Sundance Film Festival had accepted Mungia’s short film “”A Garden For Rio””. So Mungia, Falcon, Kristian Bernier (director of photography) and some of the crew, descended on the festival for a “”shameless crusade to save our unfinished film””. They showed a trailer for the film to practically anybody that would watch, and got some interest, but no money. So it was back to Hollywood where their four minute trailer got them some new meetings, but still no deals. Next stop? The American Film Market came to Santa Monica, so Mungia and Falcon went back on their shameless crusade. They got enough interest to start serious negotiations, but it was Mungia’s calls to the William Morris agency that finally generated some cash. Super agent Cassian Elwes liked what he saw so Mungia and Falcon had a deal for money and distribution in the unbelievable short time of two weeks. Armed with their experience and a new budget, Mungia and crew headed back to the desert, where they managed to suffer more as the trials of location shooting threw them additional hardships and mishaps. “”In the past 15 years I’ve been in 17 action pictures in Asia where the schedules and conditions have been brutal,”” said Falcon, “”but this was by far the hardest film I’ve ever done.”” But was it worth the struggle?Falcon doesn’t hesitate, “”After you create your own ‘stamp’, people come to you,”” he said. “”They know you can create something from nothing, or on an ultra low budget. During the shooting in the desert we were suffering. But we knew if we could make the film the way we wanted, we could succeed. You have to have the thought in your head that you can succeed.”” So what does having a success like “”Six String Samurai”” as a calling card mean? “”Now I can call people and actually get them on the phone,”” said Mungia. “”And we’ve been having meetings on other people’s projects,”” added Falcon. “”But I think going out with your own material is ultimately much better. Doing other people’s projects means having producers, writers, and others attached. So you end up making a film by committee.”” Mungia and Falcon would prefer not to go that route, but can they get their next project done?””It’s a total question mark,”” Mungia said. “”We know what we would like to do, and the way to succeed,”” he continued. “”You’ve got to plan ahead. If it takes six months or a year just to write a script, take the time. It’s going to take a lot of time, energy and attention to detail. So surround yourself with good people you can trust and just go out and do it.”” That philosophy proved to be successful for Mungia and Falcon. However, other independent filmmakers might want to write their story in a location other than Death Valley.