“Never Work with Children or Animals?” — How Our Youngest Actors Helped Vengeance Turns Shine

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There’s kind of a general feeling on Hollywood sets that you “never work with children or animals”. The quote is attributed to W.C. Fields and regardless of how he meant it, many in and around the film & entertainment business since have thought of it in terms of not wanting to be upstaged or have the spotlight stolen from them in a scene by a younger actor or one that is not even human. I was nervous about it for my very own reasons when we finally got to film Vengeance Turns in October of 2020.

Kids and the Horses: What Could Go Wrong?

For me, like practically every other independent filmmaker, every second during the shoot is precious, and absolutely anything that causes a delay could crash a production like ours. And yet here we were working with 6 child actors at various points in the film and with horses in a few as well.

You have to understand that by the time we finally shot “Vengeance Turns” during the height of the pandemic in 2020, we had already faced two false starts. When we very first began the process almost 3 years earlier, we had producers tossing around numbers like $1,000,000 so we never really flinched at the idea of child actors or animals. The problem for us was that when we actually shot the film, it was on something less than a shoestring budget, with members of the cast and crew along with myself pitching in just to get it done. 

That really meant every second was more valuable than gold to me. More than once during the production, I said that my only enemy at that time was anything that would present an obstacle to our finishing the shoot. 

As it turns out, neither the children nor the animals would ever slow us down or cause us any problems at any time. In fact, their presence only elevated the production on the screen and our spirits on the sets and locations.

Introducing Sofia and Aether: Our Falcone Kids

In a future post, I’ll introduce the animals and show you around the horse ranch where we shot a lot of the exterior “Lost People” scenes. But in this post, I just wanted to introduce the actors we chose to portray Emma and Edward Falcone: Sofia Chicorelli-Serna and Aether J Velarde.

Jess Be, who plays Mrs. Cartwright, the Sheriff’s wife, and since she was pregnant in real life also played a pregnant prostitute, acted as a producer on the film and was in charge of a lot of casting details, and specifically in this case, hiring our actors to play the children of Michael and Rebecca Falcone, played by Adam Fried and star Paola Luelmo. All we asked was for her to find a few younger actors who might look like they could be the offspring of these other two actors, and she had to make sure that whoever we brought in would not be squeamish about the scenes, the prop weapons, or blood. 

Blood First, Dinner Later: How We Scheduled the Day

Because make-up is time intensive and the nightmare/hallucination scenes where it was needed were more complex to shoot overall, we got them out of the way first that morning. But first we would start with the shots we needed for the sequence where they are killed during the attack on Rebecca’s family. That got anything that required FX whether simply blood or the more detailed zombie makeup all out of the way at the beginning of the day.

We felt confident that if any schedule slip was going to happen, it would be during these shots while everyone including the actors agreed that the dinner scenes would be much easier and faster to shoot. 

Shooting the violence and mayhem first thing, and pretty early in the morning was an intense but fun way for us all to get to know each other as it turned out. While we were setting up for their parts in the attack scene that leaves them dead, I along with David Ruano who was actually holding the camera, approached the kids and their parents to carefully explain exactly how we would shoot the scene and beat by beat what would happen after I called “Action”, especially since I am one of the attackers in the scene, Frank Ford, who delivers the killing blow to Edward Falcone.

To our shock and surprise, Sofia’s mother interrupted us to say she appreciated what we were doing, but that she was certain they were 100% OK and ready to rehearse, letting us know that all Sofia had talked about for the days leading up to the shoot was that she was excited about being killed on screen in a movie. She also tried to put our minds at ease by saying that Sofia watched horror movies that would probably be more than most adults could handle. 

The Death Scenes: Acting That Raised the Bar

At that point, we went ahead and moved into a slow, like half-speed rehearsal, with them after letting them hold and inspect our prop weapons. The level of preparedness and commitment to their acting in the scenes blew my mind – it was far beyond some of the adults who were on the production. Not only were they like sponges in listening and learning about what I needed and more importantly what the camera needed to see, they were giggling and laughing all the way through the rehearsals and the the actual takes. 

Aether and I worked out exactly how David would shoot the scene where I kill Edward and that young actor actually seemed let down that I would never even get close to him with this prop weapon, and instead really relied on the edit itself to deliver the shocking violence. But every adjustment I asked him to make from his timing to the angle to which he fell, based on where David was stationed with the camera, was locked in and I never had to tell him twice. 

And the same thing with Sofia. Now that the films have been out for a few years, I would say the most consistent comment I get is about the whole attack scene, but particularly the emotional performance of Sofia Chicorelli-Serna as the life drains from her character, Emma Falcone.

For me, while the zombie nightmare is more visceral and scary imagery, the lines that Sofia delivers during and after her prayer at dinner land in an even more chilling manner for me, particularly with the carnage that follows. But those zombie-kid scenes were among the absolute most fun to shoot during the entire production. Again, not just because of how great I thought it looked or how I thought it would support the story, but also because of the commitment and joy both of the young actors brought to their preparation and performance. 

Every worry I had about working with younger actors was shattered by the work and creativity all our young actors, but particularly these two who had to carry quite a bit more than any other, was forever shattered. While I still understand and feel strongly that their presence absolutely necessitates a number of changes to the shooting day when they are on the set or location, that turns out to be true about any number of elements introduced into a production. With children, the schedule will definitely change and become more rigid, there will be more people on the set or location as comfortable accommodations should be made for their parents or guardians at all time as well, and the menu for meals and snacks will almost certainly be specialized too.

But it’s all worth it. Everything that elevates a production requires some focus and consideration on behalf of those running it. There is no such thing as a normal day on set. Every day, we have to be thinking of things like continuity in sets, wardrobe, dialog, etc. In addition to that, if there are children, animals, weapons, vehicles, or many other elements, we must be able to simply layer that in and proceed by adapting whatever needs adapting and then communicating that up and down the line through emails etc and finally on the call sheet.

“Vengeance Turns: Volume One” and “Vengeance Turns: Volume Two” are the movies they are today in great part due to the inclusion of all these talented young actors, and we are all very grateful that they – and their parents – would venture out during the height of the COVID pandemic in October of 2020 to elevate our production by taking part in it. It will be exciting to watch all of their careers continue to grow.

Leo and the Dubois Family

Before we go, I wanted to also introduce Leo Comstock who is the son of Kate Comstock, the actor playing Mrs. Coppersmith (one of the biddies outside Paine’s General Store at the beginning of Vengeance Turns: Volume One). Kate and I met while we worked as featured background – the jury – on the first season of HBO’s Perry Mason. She and I, along with a few others really got to know each other over the weeks we shot that show. We still work with Kate on a variety of projects – hers and ours – to his day, and she is constantly one of the first calls I make when working on a new project. 

For me, this is an example of the ideal situation for working with an extremely young actor as we needed for the character of Henry Dubois for the Prologue (Horror Visits the Dubois Family) for Vengeance Turns: Volume One. He came to us by referral since we were already friends with his mom who was also already part of the production. This helps with keeping anxiety low for the young actor, whose mom is always just feet away if they are needed. But as you see in the videos here, other actors – even other young actors like Dior Harvey here, are quick to jump in and help.

Kate, Leo, and their whole family will always have a special place in my heart for helping me begin this story with such special characters and atmosphere that would have been impossible without Leo as Henry.

From haunting prayers to the blood-streaked hallucinations of Mia Falcone, these young actors helped give Vengeance Turns its soul. What began as a worry became one of our greatest gifts.

Watch Vengeance Turns: Volume One and Vengeance Turns: Volume Two  FREE on Tubi—and if you want more – and even DEEPER – behind-the-scenes like this, check out the Lethal Voice Podcast.

More to come soon, including a look at our four-legged costars...

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