HOW WE MADE THE MOVIE

Timeline

2002 – Script Complete
2003 – Preproduction
2004 – Production
2005 – Postproduction begins
2008 – Rough cut excerpt screened @ Ruff Cutz 2008
2009 – The Dropout listed on IMDB

GREEN LIT

Preproduction began in 2003, when JM put out feelers for locations and gauged interest in potential crew and cast members. As Newton Studios acquired the actors, crew and other essential production assets, the company decided to go for it, and held a full on, comedic casting session, with production scheduled for Summer '04.

The cast hired, Al Beuscher, Sam, and John spent a series of days in May to work on the production schedule. Time was limited, as Dominic Sahagun (Zero), was leaving August 8th for a national tour of Fiddler on the Roof.

With a script over 100 pages long, nearly 60 separate locations, and Sahagun appearing in over 85% of the scenes, the challenge at hand became to shoot all of Zero's scenes before Dominic turned into a pumpkin.

GUERILLA WARFARE

The grueling 30-day shoot from July 5th-August 6th, 2004 was helped by good weather. “By the time we got to the shoot, Sam was going completely nuts. We were all going crazy. Anyhow, it rained only 1 day during the month of July,” JM notes, "and [the schedule] went off without a hitch."

Contrary to the perceived slapdash nature of the shoot that Newton Studios ragtag crew had put together, the combination of sunny days and The Red Sox on their way to their first World Series Championship in 86 years buoyed the spirits of The Dropout's cast and crew, who worked merrily towards the goal of finishing Zero's photography.

With hours to spare, the production finished the Zero footage in a flurry, and on schedule. The production took a hiatus until September when the remaining 15% of the movie was shot.

Newton Studios amassed a staggering 45+ hours of footage shooting The Dropout. The first cut edit commenced in February 2005. Sahagun was brought in for ADR in the fall of 2005 and again visited Boston in January 2006 for a reshoot at the Newton Police Department.

Robert Hines (Casper Newton) said it best: "(Newton Studios) needs to take heart. There is a funny, wonderfully quirky, festival caliber movie trapped inside the cut you sent me. Right now it, is a wrestler who should be competing in the 170 pound weight class who is up at 188. Nothing that can't be fixed."

Article Written: Dec 8, 2008 Author: Bantam Draper, Port Chester, NY