We shot this on one night. It took about three hours to complete. I cast Jill after my original actress bailed on me due to her time constraints. It was either that or she didn't want to be the "big breasted bimbo" that buys it in the beginning of the flick. Anyway, I sent an e-mail to some newgroups, and she as well as a few others responded. I cast her because I wanted the audience to have sympathy for her without getting to know her at all. I loved her performance in this. She was wonderful to work with, especially considering that that stairwell was really nasty and I wasn't paying her. I think she's a wonderful actress and a wonderful person, and I'd work with her again in a heartbeat.

As it turns out, Matt is quite an accomplished piano player, so he came up with this on the spot and it wasn't in the script. I love it. I found out the hard way during this scene that if you are going to shoot in the city, you better have a sound guy. I did everything myself, so the sound changed from shot to shot. Oops. My bad.

This was a fun scene for outtakes. I would go back in time and rewrite the dialogue if I could. Scott came to me when my original choice for the role bailed. As it happens, the guy was actually dating the girl who bailed on me before for the other role, so I think it was a group decision. Oh well. Anyway, Scott and I had a class together last year (coincidentally, it was Conventions of Horror), and he told me he was interested in the role when I told him about it. I asked him if he had ever acted before, then immediately proceeded to take my foot out of my mouth when I realized that he was the guy who blew me away with his lead performance in Brighton Beach Memoirs in 1997. I cast him on the spot. Again, not my first choice then, but he is now. I say that for all my actors here. I love their performances.

If I could do this over I'd get more light, and a steadicam. We did about 10 takes of this scene.

This newscaster bit was put in because, due to my no budget, I couldn't afford or organize police officers or big spectacles, so with a little bit of creativity, I came up with this. Rebecca Scott actually auditioned for Jill's role, but didn't get it. By the way, if you are taking this movie seriously by now, you shouldn't be. Hence the Orioles beating the Yankees.

This was shot outside Logan Hall, I think. I wanted to show that Ridley wasn't buying the police's explanation for the murders.

This scene is my favorite. I had him running around the halls for about 20 minutes straight, and we were both exhausted. Originally the script had Ridley taking Jessica back to the room to find her gone, and she just walks off. The actors brilliantly came up with this improv, and I love it. I decided to make it one unbroken shot and follow them around to make it more frenetic and immediate.

This room actually belonged to the actress who played Catherine, and Catherine's room was mine from last year. I put the spotlight right on the camera because I like that kind of look it gave to put Ridley in soluette for a bit. I know I spelled that wrong. Oh well.

Once again, I used the Yankee-Orioles thing. Sweet revenge, sort of. Ridley's going to get holy water from the church. That church is actually a Protestant church, Episcopalian I believe.

Matt and I shot this half way through the schedule. I had originally shot some footage in the library on the first day, but cut it all as we hadn't quite figured out Ridley's character yet and it didn't work. I was heavily influenced by German expressionism, and I wanted to elongate the contortions of the library and make the generically boring interiors of Van Pelt look a little foreboding.

This was another bad night of shooting. We shot this and the scene of David and Ridley walking in the quad all on the same night. We shot this scene in Sigma Chi, of whom I have nothing but the deepest respect and gratitude for letting me impose on them. It happens that Scott is the president of the house, so that helped. It was a tough night anyway to shoot, because time was running out, and the house was having a party downstairs, as you can tell. You can probably tell when I threw out my storyboards, as I didn't have time to shoot them. Originally this scene was going to have 60 or 70 cuts in it, and I didn't have time to do it all.

I added this scene late in the screenwriting process because I wanted to strengthen Ridley and Jessica's relationship. I wanted to show that despite being completely paranoid about vampires coming after him, there isn't any way that he would accuse her. His first instinct from before is to test his best friend, but here, his instinct is to protect her.

The Scenes in the lounge were shot over two nights separated by a month or so, and the majority of the second scene here was the worst night of shooting in my entire life. We were up there until about 5:30 in the morning, and I walked home and crawled into bed just as the sun was coming up. I got sick after this night, in fact I think I caught strep throat. We were there doing so many takes of so many different angles, going on and off the storyboards that I had so meticulously planned before. It's the kind of situation that's tough on a director because for me, this is the one thing that I love more than anything, but I was hating it at the moment.

Now, I think I better take this scene apart a bit. First of all, you invite a vampire in to your home, you're asking for trouble. Mistake number one. He realizes his mistake too late, and pulls the gun on her. Now, she kisses him. I knew I wanted her to be a villain, sympathetic, but nevertheless a villain. She hypnotizes Ridley. I hope you got that, that's why she kisses him. Rachel always complained about a few things with this scene, and they are obvious. In the end I decided to keep the scene intact, although I'm still contemplating making a special cut for her parents--

I knew I wanted a burst of evil sexuality from Jessica in this scene that the audience would take by complete surprise. I wanted it to be unexpected. Because the "evil" isn't real. David comes in and points that out. I knew that with the next scene, the audience would be confused--just like Ridley. You're not sure whether or not to trust her.

NO THEY ARE NOT HAVING SEX ON THE POOL TABLE, but she is messing with his head like nobody's business. She has dominated him, and she is in the position of female dominance up there. It's up to you as the viewer to figure out what she does exactly to cause him physical pain.

This scene was the first scene we shot with Scott. He learned his lines one by one. This was a fun scene to shoot, and the make up job worked better than anything I could imagine. I didn't think the spitting up blood thing would work, and told him not to try it, but he insisted, and I'm eating crow now because he was right. It looks wonderful. I didn't have to give him any direction. I always wanted to have a Mexican standoff with holy water guns. By now it's proven that they're vampires, why else would they be scared of water unless it's holy water and they're the undead? This thing with the cigarette, and I must give credit where credit is due, is a homage to El Mariachi. You see an action twice, in this case, the lighting of the cigarette, which David can't do successfully, and the third time, it's done with a twist, Ridley does it successfully after killing him.

If anyone hasn't figured this out already, Ridley doesn't kill her because he loves her.

This was the first scene shot in the film. Matt and I are best friends now, but were still getting to know each other. I knew from the first take that he was a serious actor and a great one, and I instantly knew that he was the right choice. I flirted with playing Ridley myself, and had asked two other actors to play him, who turned it down. He wasn't my first choice then, but he is now. I got lucky with the weather here. I love the shot of him getting up and walking away; the lighting in the sky. I get lucky sometimes.

Penn, in some ways, is this wall for me. It has no film department to speak of, and I considered transferring because of it. But I stayed here. The Kelly Writer's House has been a godsend for me. Every movie I make, from now on, gets it's first showing there.

That kid would probably give me a smart remark or something if I told him what I thought. I've had a lot of people tell me this would never happen. Well, here I am, talking about the flick I made to you guys. Don't let idiots with no passion get in the way of your dreams. Prove them wrong. I did.