DEUCE OF SPADES - THE FULL FEATURE HOTROD FILM EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT

A Hotrod Full Feature Film By Faith Granger

As soon as Johnny is old enough, he will quit school and run his father's shop. Which means that I needed a period correct shop I could use for many shoots, as several scenes take place in the CALLAWAY SPEEDSHOP. As always securing locations when you have zero budget was a very very challenging task. It will take no less than four shops to create the illusion of one shop. I was able to sneak a shoot at one shop, then a shoot at another, then found two more shops who were willing to open on a Sunday twice each to allow me to film the reminder of the needed scenes. Many thanks to these four shop owners for

their kind help and support.

Filming in a shop was stressful and labor intensive because even the most "period correct" shops were still cluttered with a million modern day items that were not period correct, such as machines, tools, products, chemical bottles, modern car parts etc etc etc... Resulting in our skeleton crew of hard core volunteers to spend no less than four hours cleaning up a corner of each shop each shoot, to make our set fully period correct. It was a lot of work. It also meant I had even less time to shoot my scene, since when we wrapped it would also take us a good two hours to put everything back the way we found it.
 
Despite the many challenges, I loved filming in the old shops. The light, texture and atmosphere was simply out of this world. Today I would like to take you on a quick tour of the four locations we used for the CALLAWAY'S SHOP...

LOCATION ONE:
 
The first location was in the city of Ventura, CA. The very tiny shop was very crowded and it was hard to find any room to set up my dolly, but I executed one of the coolest shots of the film there that day. We utilized everything at hand to add to the production value, including a model A body, a flathead engine on a stand and another hotrod that was stored there.

LOCATION TWO
 
At the second location (downtown Fillmore, CA), we filmed two scenes. One behind the shop, Johnny taking a cigaret break and the other, a key scene showing an argument between the boys.

LOCATION THREE
 
The third location (North Hollywood, CA) was used for one scene only, showing Johnny working on cars, and was none other than Tom Sparks own home shop. We used his fiftie's hotrods as well as one of his collector's cars in the scene. Tom was very nice, showing our lead actor TIM MCREYNOLDS, how to use some of the old machines he still has.

LOCATION FOUR
 
The last and largest location was in Downtown L.A and was used twice. You can see it in the teaser http://www.vimeo.com/2544050 in the 1942 flashback to James Callaway's days. It was also used in the first flashback of the film. I also used it as the exterior shot showing the front of the shop. It was truly an awesome location, with lots of very old machines, all of which still operational. Filming there was very challenging because it sits a mere 20 feet from the busiest freeway in California and we could not get clean sound. All day and all night, modern cars are passing and the building has a million windows, some of which have broken glass.

Well, there you have it, four shops to make the one Callaway shop, showing once again that when there is a will, there is a way!!!

Below: Filming the Callaway's shop:

Below: the modern items and clutter have been stored on a work bench (right), outside of my frame. Inside my frame, everything is period correct.

 Visit the official film website at www.deuceofspadesmovie.com and subscribe to the
FILMMAKER’S BLOG. Want to help me in this worthy endeavor? Please tell everyone you know about this hotrod film. We are grateful for your support and help.

Check out all our Updates on the Deuce of Spades

Deuce Of Spades Feb. 13
Deuce of Spades Feb. 18, 2009
Deuce of Spades Feb. 25, 2009
Deuce of Spades March 11, 2009
Deuce of Spades March 18, 2009
Deuce of Spades April 1, 2009
Deuce of Spades April 16, 2009
Deuce of Spades April 30, 2009

[Home Page] [2009 Show Coverage] [Classifieds] [Press Releases] [Vendor Directory]
[Buyers Guide] [New Products] [Barn & Field Cars] [Blast to the Past] [Book Reviews]
[Build Articles] [Club Directory] [Event Listings] [From our Friends] [Garage Shots]
[Guest Columnists] [www.hotrodhotline.com/md] [Newsletter Archive] [Our Heroes]
[Order a Catalog] [Rodders Forum] [Rodders Row] [Shop Tours]
[Young Rodders] [Advertising Information] [Modern Rods]

Copyright 1999 - 2009 Hot Rod Hot Line All Rights Reserved
No Portion May Be Used Without Our Written Permission
Contact Us Toll Free (877) 700-2468 (US) or (208) 562-0470 (Outside US)
230 S. Cole Rd, Boise, ID 83709