The Story Behind the Story
Faced with an idle 16mm camera package and a long weekend in April, Josh Apter and Peter Olsen decided to try to shoot a feature in three days, and scrounged up 8 rolls of film from various friends. There was no script, but an idea for a betrayal story set in the mountains had been the subject of many
conversations between the two. They called some actors who they knew from
previous film projects and cast the first three who answered "yes" to the
following question, "Are you crazy enough to try to shoot a feature on
Easter weekend?" Hilary Howard, Anthony Leslie, and Mitchell Riggs were
crazy enough.
"Kaaterskill Falls" was off and running. Set in the Catskills, the location
was to be a rustic cabin that Josh and Peter have been using as a retreat
for years. As Peter and Josh set lights and wired up microphones, the actors holed up in the cabin bedroom and emerged an hour later with a rough step-outline based on Josh and Peter's idea. This piece of paper would become the films shooting script, with a twelve-page fire sequence penned by Peter between the first and second trip to the cabin. All told, it took four trips to the cabins and four to exterior locations in Catskill Park and Harriman State Park to complete principal photography.
Photography wrapped in the Catskills at Kaaterskill Falls, when moments
after the final shot, a thunderstorm hit the remote location and
night descended, forcing the cast and crew, trapped between Kaaterskill's
twin sets of falls, to hide under rock and tarp. The hope that the weather
would clear long enough to scramble across the mud-soaked cliff and up to
the top of the falls was short-lived as the rain only fell harder. Finally,
heroically, Mitchell appeared, having climbed down in the rain, and helped
to hoist enough equipment that the cast and crew were able to
scramble back without leaving the camera temporarily behind under a rock - a
scenario which had been seriously, and perhaps foolishly, considered. Toting
the camera, Peter slipped into the swollen river at the top of the falls but
somehow managed to keep the $100,000 rig from submerging. Anthony, trapped at the base of the falls, was forced to hike out by himself, down river in the opposite direction, and has never quite since forgiven Josh and Peter.
Principal photography wrapped on Labor Day 2001, in Harriman State Park,
when, after shooting the film's final shot and while enjoying some cheap
champagne on the tailgate of Peter's pick-up, the cast and crew were cited
by angry Harriman State Park Troopers for filming without a
permit. As luck would have it, they were let off with a warning.
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