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The making of TRUE IDENTITY

The following are excerpts from Mark’s book TRULY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING;

The most memorable shoot for me was traveling to Junction City, Kansas to shoot on a hill over looking the Fort Riley Army Airfield. As with LINK UP, I had only one day that all three actors could travel with me to the location, and rain or shine that was the Friday before Easter again. I was quite nervous about this shoot, because unlike last year, I would have no indoor location to place the camera if it was raining. Freedom Park is on a hill across the I-70 Interstate Highway, overlooking the Military base, with a large Atomic Cannon (a large cannon on a train car used to launch an atomic bomb back in the 1950’s, back when it was thought that you could just throw in a small nuclear device to clear out the front lines before sending in the troops) at the very top but with no shelter. The day of the shoot we had the complete opposite weather from the previous year: blue skies and no wind, which is a rare and welcome surprise when trying to film out on the wind-swept prairies of Kansas. The shoot went very well, although everyone was very tired by the end, after carrying the equipment up and down that hill, as Aaron Lake recalled, “I remember the scene in Fort Riley, that was tough. It was a four-hour car ride, a hot day and an overall tough shoot. It turned out very nice, as I recall, but…Agh!” But there was something else that made me very nervous about this weekend.

After I started shooting, I ran into a major scheduling conflict. My three lead actors (Kerry Marsh, Rebecca Pfortmiller and Aaron Lake) found jobs along with their academic career, and I discovered that they didn’t have any coordinating free time. How could I shoot scenes requiring all three characters to be together, when the actors were unable to meet at the same time? I had one weekend before they began their jobs: Easter weekend. So we went to the Fort Riley location on Friday, and Monday we shot footage for about four scenes at various places on campus. I had to plan which scenes needed to be shot in their entirety with all three actors, and which scenes I could break up and only shoot key wide shots with them, then go back later to finish with other actors. After my experience of shooting WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA, I learned how to use editing to my advantage to hide the fact that I shot parts of one scene on different days. But the key to success was planning; to break down the scene and storyboard the shots in order to know what footage I needed on the different days. I had to know ahead of time which shots were needed with all three leads and how to shoot the scene to make the pieces of the puzzle fit together. But I was worried that if we couldn’t shoot this footage, I would have to cancel the production. In that one weekend we were able to shoot the necessary footage to then go back and complete the scenes later. 

Kerry Marsh remembered the disjointed approach to shooting, “That was one thing that I was always intrigued about, that one scene would consist of half of the shots from one day, and half of the shots were two months later. And it was very interesting to say a line, cut. Then say another line, and cut. And then, of course, when it was all put together it made sense. But there were three of us, and we were talking to nobody. Which all of the actors talk about, (Kerry closes his eyes, start to rub his temple as if he has a growing headache, and sounds like a classically trained Shakespearean actor) ‘Oh, it’s so difficult to act for no one.’ And I was like, ‘Whatever! Just say your lines!’ (Laughs) Maybe they have to be more ‘in-the-moment’ or something than I did.”

            Kerry Marsh once again composed and performed the music, as he remembered, “That was some of my favorite music, actually! (The music for TRUE IDENTITY.) Really, it was very simple. Because all I had to work with was a two-track (on an electric piano), The most I could do is play one (track of music), and over-dub the other (track of music, thus mixing the two into one final piece of music). I really liked a lot of that stuff. I’ve used a tune called ‘ALL THAT YOU ARE’ for one of the main themes (the final scene with Rebecca Pfortmiller’s character standing in the Art Gallery, which leads to the ending credits). I used a tune that I had already written back when I was 12 or 13. I played around with it when we did the recording. You see - I had no idea what I was doing then, but it sounded good. Now that I’ve gone to college I could reproduce that and do other stuff with it. It would be kind of fun to do some more of that knowing what I know, I guess.”

Kerry also did a fantastic job acting in the film. He had a scene near the end of the film with a particularly difficult monologue, “That speech was so fun, man! (Jason’s reasoning for returning with Newman to the spaceship) Every actor likes a big monologue. Most of the lines in the movie were really two sentences long, because it was dialogue back-and-forth. But it was nice, and I got to be all ‘emotional’. And I always almost tear up when I watch it, ‘Jason, it’s OK.’ (Laughs) But it was great. I like that scene, actually, a lot. I liked how we had to deal with the special effects, too, with me ‘zooming’ up. I would have to be there (in front of the camera) and you would say, ‘OK, ready!’ And I get out of the way, and you would make it all happen (in post-production), and I was gone. I thought that was pretty cool. I hadn’t ever thought about the fact (before shooting TRUE IDENTITY) that you always have to, logistically, shoot scenes out of order, so yeah, that was new. I thought it was harder to act for the camera, it was by far harder to act for the camera, in choppy sections like that, than it is in the theater. Dialogues are always between people. (But in a film) we sometimes are looking at empty space, having meaningful feelings and emotions. And that’s actually more difficult. If you really want to seriously approach these movies and act well, you’ve got to compensate for that and you’ve really got to figure out how to deal with the fact that you’re in-and-out of character all the time. Or you could just read your lines and go home. (Laughs) We all drove up to BCCC, or wherever it is we were filming that day, with the intention of, ‘I’m going to do some really good stuff today!’ And whether we accomplished that or not, we at least meant to. Not all of us had Stanislovsky training, (laughs again) so were not all going to approach it with the same talent base, or whatever. I think it’s a unique opportunity for anybody - I do tell people with pride that ‘yeah, I’ve done some movies!’ A lot of my friends have seen it and they just love it.”

T.J., Detective Roberts, Laura and Mr. Ryan discover the truth about Jason and Dr. Newman

A behind-the-scenes shot of the camera equipment used to film TRUE IDENTITY

Originally I had the roles reversed. Aaron was to play Jason and Kerry was to play T.J. - having father and son in real life play father and son in the movie would be an interesting approach to the film, but I realized that this wouldn’t work when looking at the characters. Aaron had an amazing sense of comic timing and could play the wisecracking student reporter with great ease, while Kerry had the more naïve demeanor needed for Jason. In the end I made the switch, even though it is a young Aaron Lake in the old photo of Mr. Ryan and his son. David Lake recalled, “The thing that comes to mind is that you used a still picture out of that of Aaron and I, when Aaron was a little boy. When he was, I think, three years old. And how you built that into the role that I played in the movie. It may be kind of hoakey to say this but you really get into the part, you really do feel the part and you try to just imagine what it would be like if it were a real situation. I think that’s probably the key, the important part – the more time you can spend on it. And you can have fun with it; that’s the purpose for me.”

                    Kerry Marsh enjoyed working with his co-stars, “I remember working with Aaron Lake , first of all, and Becky (Pfortmiller), of course, because we had been friends already, and it was nice to work with Becky. But Aaron was always a cut-up, and still is, I know! So I had a great time. He was bound for the blooper tape, not for making mistakes, but just for being naturally humorous throughout.”

“I was impressed (when I saw TRUE IDENTITY edited together). I thought Kerry and Becky were great. I was stiff, I thought, but what can you do?” – Aaron Lake

Dr. Newman finds Detective Roberts on the police pistol range

Mark Adams with the First Place Award for TRUE IDENTITY at the 1995 KAN Film Festival at Johnson County Community College

The film turned out to be a big success, winning a 1^st place award at the 1995 KAN Film Festival. The reaction of viewers was also surprising, the most positive since WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA. Everyone really responded to the humor and characters in the story.

Kerry Marsh and Bill Cordes as Jason and Dr. Newman

Dr. Newman finds Jason in  Mr. Ryan's lab at Fort Riley

“Ironically it’s (TRUE IDENTITY) the one I have the least memory of, and I don’t know if it’s just because I was really busy? And I did not have as many parts as I did the others. I remember that I enjoyed the end product, but I was sitting there watching these scenes going, “Man, I hardly even remember filming some of those scenes!” So it’s the least memorable of the ones (I acted in), but it is a great film.” – Bill Cordes  

Mark Adams: Truly Independent Filmmaking