About the Film

Biootleg Wisconsin


The Story

Bootleg Wisconsin is the story of Katherine, a Chicago public school teacher who is taking a vacation from her life and her husband at a outlet mall just over the Wisconsin border in Pleasant Prairie.  Here she meets a man who works in one of the stores which is about to close.  The film is the story of their relationship and the community of friends around Billy.

We  filmed in and around Pleasant Prairie and Kenosha Wisconsin in September of 2006. The Chicago portion of the shoot was done mid-November with some pick up scenes finished in early 2007 (for the epilogue).

Filming


    We used a Panasonic DVX-1000b Mini DV Camera which is capable of shooting in 24fps (Now is a great time to get this camera as companies upgrade to HD and Hard Drive based recording, the price has been dropping nicely).

    All of the Sound was record using direct stereo sound to tape without overdubbing.  We used a Rode Stereo Condenser Mic for all of the exteriors and a combination of this, the on board camera mic and a Sony ECM MSD 1 for the interior scenes.  Going into the film I realized sound was sometimes an even more important aspect of independent production than Image (There are a lot of ways to fix a bad image, not so much with the sound).  

    Post production was done on an Apple Power Mac G5 with Final Cut Pro and Soundsoap (trying to correct what I stated above).  For color correction and image enhancement I used Magic Bullet for Editors as well as a nice Two and Three Band Technicolor filter available here.

    I first got the idea for the film when my wife and I went to the outlet mall featured in the film to pick up some household items.  I was just starting to recover from an illness and was hanging back and more than a bit groggy. This lead me to explore the area while my wife continued to shop.  Just north of the mall is a large brand new hotel.  I was surprised that a largely rural area could support such a large hotel.  Spotting some of the hotel staff taking a smoke break outside and started to ask them about the hotel and the area.   I was surprised to find out that the hotel was supported almost entirely by mall traffic.  Tour groups would come in from Chicago or Milwaukee and visit all of the outlet malls in the area.  This seemed slightly funny, but wholly normal to them, whereas with me the reaction was entirely the reverse.  

    Why would people take vacations just to shop?  

    What would I think of these people if I was part of a community that was dependent on it?

Production Notes


Saturday call sheet
A typical call and shot sheet for the film

The film was shot guerilla style over the first few weekends in September 2006. We allowed some pick up shots for late November to film the change of seasons in the epilogue of the film. One nice thing about Chicago is not having to wait long for weather to convey the passage of time. The film was shot entirley on location in Pleasant Priairie and Kenosha, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois.
We shot the film primarily hand held using a Panasonic AG-DVX100b at 24fps and natural light. We recorded stereo sound direct to tape without overdubbing.
For better or for worse, I did not use a crew.  All technical aspects of the film were handled by myself.  This led to a much more increased sense of intimacy among the actors but certainly resulted in technical challenges for the film.
Directing a performance while monitoring sound levels and framing might not be ideal but led to a rawness and documentary sense of immediacy to the story.  It also helped foster a primacy to the actors and their performance.

typed and hand written edit notes
Some of the (many) editing notes as we whittled down the rough cut

I have collated some of the production notes and two versions of the script below as either image or pdf. files.  I would love to tell you how I include these to show off my own immodest genius or how closely I stuck to my original idea and outline.  Of course, neither of these would be true.  If you have attempted to do anything, especially with other people involved you realize very quickly the long distance haul between your conception, their ideas,  and the final product.  This does not have to be a bad thing.  The problem is it does not have to be a good thing either.



Finalized script (about 30 pages in pdf)



Original Outline



Character sketches



First project notes