The "Dirt" on Grave Mistake
Added 2020-02-24 21:38:21 +0000 UTC
Ever wonder how we pulled off “Grave Mistake”? No? Well we’re gonna tell you anyway! Going into filming we had two problems to solve: 1) we were gonna be fighting a setting sun, 80°+ heat, and a rainy forecast all in a swampy, flooded patch of forest where homeless people often come to shoot heroin, and 2) We couldn’t swing an actual shovel around each other’s soft little heads, dicks, balls, taints, etc. etc. Here’s how we combated those issues (more or less).
1) This was by far our most expensive video to date so you could imagine the pure primal fear that washed over us each time it began to rain on our props, costumes, and equipment. Luckily, we had the foresight to bring enough tarps to cover a carnival cruise ship. We did severely underestimate how truly Mordor-hot it would feel to wear ski masks and a polyester pimp suit in a wet Florida back wood, but we were able to stay hydrated by drinking the gallons of sweat we produced. Ultimately, we needed to be as quick as possible, so for literally EVERY shot of the video, we set up, numbered, and took a picture of a little diorama with board game pieces that would tell us the positioning of all the actors, the angle of the shot, and everything that would be on camera.
2) Using a few children’s beach shovel heads, some spare shovel handles, a couple chunks of foam, and (hopefully) convincing paint jobs, we made a prop shovel to flail at each other and another for our friend Sam to wear under his shirt to look like he was impaled. This of course wasn’t enough to stop Frank from swinging it wrong and drawing blood once or five times (still salty).
In the end, we were happy with what we got, learned some valuable lessons about friendship and shovels, and left a ton of fake blood splatters around an unfilled shallow grave in some woods directly next to an elementary school.
