Monkeywrench

Directed by: Chris Teague
duration: 10:00

A young environmental activist finds her ideology tested in a forest on the verge of being clearcut.

contact: cjteague@gmail.com
address: USA
email: cjteague@gmail.com
links:

Warstory

I had never done a film with blood effects before, and since the goal of this film was to be as naturalistic as possible, it was essential that the blood effect in this film look completely realistic. It was also essential that it look potentially life-threatening in order to create a sense of urgency in the film. We did several tests with the prosthetic to find the right look for the injury and the proper flow of blood. The tests went so well that it was my hope to just shoot the entire scene in one shot as much as possible, letting the blood flow throughout. We shot in October in upstate New York, and the weather was just above freezing. We never anticipated that this would have a serious effect on our fake blood, which simply refused to flow through the plastic tubes leading to the prosthetic. It was an agonizing disaster. We tried rushing boiling water to our site in the woods to submerge the blood syringes, which didn't work, and we tried watering down the blood which only led to, well, watery looking blood. Finally I said F it and we dumped some carefully placed blood on the wound right before we rolled a take, shot a few inserts and moved on. After wasting a few hours we still somehow managed to make our day, and even grab a few pickups. My heart goes out to Josh Renfree and Sarah Steele, our wonderful actors, who braved the cold and uncertainty, and whose performances make the effect more real than any flowing tubes of blood ever could have done.

Bio - Chris Teague

Chris Teague is a writer, director, cinematographer, and graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program. As a cinematographer, he most recently shot the feature film CHILDREN OF INVENTION, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009. Chris has also acted as cinematographer on MAN, THE SECOND LINE, and SALT KISS, all short films that have played at the Sundance Film Festival, while individually they have played at The New York Film Festival, Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, New Directors/New Films, and the Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Chris has also traveled to Africa and South America for various narrative and documentary productions, and is currently developing his own script about radical environmental activists in the Pacific Northwest, which his most recent directing endeavor, the short film MONKEYWRENCH, is based upon.