IN-D

Adaptation of James Obarr's: The Crow

The Production: Part 3

                JAMES O'BARR'S THE CROW shot for five months in 1994, before closing down due to lack of participation. “There's a great big massacre at the end of the book,” Jackson notes “where all the remaining bad guys come to confront Eric, and he kills all of them except for T-Bird. We were going to film as much of this as we could.” Ullman handed out thirty-five fliers inviting people to come be part of the scene, which was to take place behind their high school on a Saturday night. Of the thirty-five individuals that received fliers, thirty said they'd be there. Only one showed up.

"Perhaps the most evident disadvantage of using friends in the movie was their lack of commitment to the project," Ullman said. “We had that scene all worked out, and when such a magnitude of people didn't show up for something that we'd put so much planning into, we just decided to hang it up.”

“I could understand people not wanting to do it,” said Jackson, “but the fact that they told us they would. They said ‘Ok, I'll be there at this time,' and they just wouldn't, for no good reason. It happened every other night throughout the making of the movie, but when it came down to that big night it was so bad that it was almost worth quitting for.”

Production closed down for two months to give the filmmakers a much-needed break from the stress of such a demanding project. When principal photography resumed in January of 1995 it was with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication to completing the movie. “We shot for six more months and wrapped on the one-year anniversary of our first day of shooting,” Ullman said. “I then spent the remainder of summer editing between two VCRs, and that fall we held a cast-screening and made the movie available to our high school, which consisted of about 300 people.”

In the months that followed Ullman became increasingly dissatisfied with their finished product. “I started to dislike a lot of things here and there, and I watched it a bunch of times, making extensive notes on what I wanted cut out, re-shot, or added. And, at my behest, in January or February of 1996 we again resumed production.”

This decision, largely Ullman's, was met with disinterest on Jackson's part. “I was satisfied with the first version. I thought we did an excellent job. It was better than most could do, and it was better than I thought it would be. We had music, it was shot well, in black and white, which was kind of different. I was impressed with it and surprised that Dave wanted to actually go back and fix it. I remained involved, but not nearly as much as before. I just gradually did less and less. I no longer had the time or interest. I was done with it, ready for something else, a change.”

Ullman, however, was determined to re-shape their movie into something bigger, better, and more in-step with O'Barr's original vision. Though it would ultimately take him two more years of shooting, researching, and editing to complete JAMES O'BARR'S THE CROW, he remained focussed and inspired. “It became my baby. I saw something in it, or felt there were enough good things about it to warrant its completion. I had higher and higher aspirations for how good I wanted it to be. I approached it one scene at a time, one shot at a time, and one element at a time to ensure that the finished piece was the best work that my limited capabilities and resources could yield. “I had never before considered myself a patient person, but I think I learned a measure a patience doing this. I gained the ability to look beyond just the here-and-now and to say ‘Well maybe I can't film this tomorrow or the next week, but sometime, somehow, I can get this and get it good or I can do it again and get it better and ultimately get what I want'.”