Director's Commentary

By Kim Turner

I thought the story of "A Dark and Lonely Road" was intriguing. Even though it was only a short, I felt the central character of the unstable driver was clearly defined and well written. Overall, I wanted the audience to be in the Driver's world, be in the car with him. I wanted them to feel trapped, almost like the Driver feels.

The script is very dialogue driven. Because of this, the success of the short would depend greatly on the work of the actors (especially the Driver). Rex Manaster, who played the Driver, brought do much depth to the role. His performance went far beyond my expectations. As far as the shoot went, I think that lighting was our biggest issue. I wanted to shoot the outside hitchhiker sequence at dusk. However, we quickly lost all lighting. What we eventually did to light Bree (Barton) was to pull another car behind the first car. We lit Bree using headlights. And, actually, I think it looked pretty good considering.

The editing went quickly because we had such great performances from all the actors. The only scene that wasn't working for me was the hitchhiker sequence. Once I changed that scene to black and white, it seemed to flow much better. I think that we had a great shoot with the normal minor obstacles to overcome. The actors were prepared, enthusiastic and easy to work with. I think the finished film is something that everyone involved should be proud of.

Waiting For Dark: Rex and Bree relax and wait until dusk.

Directing Traffic: Director Kim Turner instructs Bree where to stand.

Where Are We Again? Joe, Rex and Bree argue over the location.

By Writer Aaron Settle

Dark and Lonely Road sprung out of my fascination with Urban Myths and one in particular, the vanishing hitchhiker. Almost every region of the country has a variation of the myth, including one set at White Rock Lake in Dallas, not far from where I used to work. As I'd drive around the lake, I'd wonder if people would actually go looking for the Lady of the Lake, and if they did, what kind of person would they be?

These thoughts led to a couple of attempts at a short story, but it never clicked. So I buried it in the back of my mind, and there it lived for the next several years until I was driving home along a dark road near my house in Garland. As I drove around the sharp curves, my mind returned to the vanishing hitchhiker, and suddenly it all clicked. When I got home, I wrote the screenplay in an hour and sent it to Kim, not sure what she would think of the dark subject matter. Luckily she dug it. We found a couple of actors who dug it as well, and it came together quicker that any project we'd ever worked on before.