Lou approached the story from several angles before settling on the right environment for Cassidy’s story to unfold.  “In earlier drafts Cassidy was the president of his fraternity,” he adds.  “He had a very active nemesis black mailing him at the same time he was trying to deal with his sexuality, his visions, and the threats on his sister the visions suggested.  As much as I liked these elements and the subplots surrounding them, I had to let them go.  They were proving distractions from what I thought really gave this story a chance of working with an audience – Cassidy’s sexual conflicts and the psychic visions these conflicts held back.  The script really came together when I accepted that it was enough that Cassidy was a popular jock.  He didn’t need to be a campus idol.”

The script was written to take advantage of the columned exteriors and variety of interiors available on the campus of Columbia University.  Many films have featured the dome of Low Library and the steps and walkway beneath it, but much of the campus’s other interesting features have gone underexploited.  “Columbia has so much to offer that I have never seen used in a film before.  With a small crew I knew I could get into some of these spaces and lean on them to get something cool and stylized.  The story was becoming less what you would call horror and moving more into psychological thriller territory, lending itself to this approach.”

“When Lou told me about his script, I was immediately drawn to the idea of a modern thriller drawing on fear and loneliness,” says producer Sean Cassity.  “Cassidy’s struggle spoke to me, and not just because he shares my name.  His conflict with his sexuality and unwanted psychic talent externalizes a more universal struggle with finding out who we really are and how that affects our approach to the world.  Plus I just found the whole story intelligent and cool.”

The filmmakers knew early on that the same aspects of the story that made it worth telling could also be its largest obstacles.  “I decided very specifically to tie Cassidy’s psychic talent to his sexuality,” says Lou.  “We have seen stories where emotions sparked psychic gifts before, and I wanted Cassidy’s visions to be sparked by sexual arousal.  Since Cassidy has always resisted his attraction to men, his psychic ability would be largely unexplored and underdeveloped.

“Obviously, this opens up lots of opportunity to take the film in the direction of camp and comedy,” the director acknowledges.  “That’s not how we wanted to play this.  We wanted to make a straight thriller with a gay protagonist.”

“We accepted that we would always get a few unintentional giggles,” adds Sean.  “But we knew what would spark them and put those moments where Cassidy himself is putting up resistance.”

After almost a year of development the production moved into high gear when it was discovered the Columbia University locations written into the script were only all available at the same time during the 3 weeks in August between summer school and the arrival of the new freshman.

“Sean and I both earned our masters degrees at Columbia,” says Lou.  “Living with these locations made it easy to imagine how to highlight them on film.  And at our budget level, I doubt any other university would have been as accommodating as Columbia was to 2 of its alumni.”

“We had a script we were ready to shoot and most of our production budget,” says Sean.  “We were confident we could raise the rest as we moved forward.  So we pulled the trigger.”

The philosophy of the production was to find talented people, early in their careers who would be excited about sinking their teeth into this project.  This philosophy extended to the casting. 

“This is a character driven thriller,” says Sean.  “Lou wrote roles with arcs and subtlety and several moments of emotion that needed to be communicated without words, so finding strong actors was critical.  At the same time, it wasn’t important to us chase after name talent when there are so many great actors in New York looking for this kind of project to display what they can do.  The key was finding a veteran casting agent who knew the talent pool and could bring us all together.”

“We were incredibly blessed to have Donna DeSeta Casting come on board to assemble our cast,” says Lou.  “She and David Cady were just what we needed.  They work not only in film and theater, but are very active in casting commercials, so they’re seeing a line of young talent every day.

“Donna and David brought us terrific options, and really grounded the film by bringing in veteran stage actors for the older roles.”

The highest anxiety surrounded finding the right Cassidy.  That concern quickly faded when Tyler Hanes read for the part.  “Tyler was terrific from his first reading.  He made bold choices and has a striking presence.  Watching him the first time, I almost felt like I was being given the chance to cast Tom Cruise in his first role – but I don’t want to condemn Tyler by setting over-exuberant expectations.  I will say he made it pretty hard to imagine anyone else as Cassidy.  I wish I could call Tyler an undiscovered gem, but he actually works pretty consistently on Broadway.  His steady work there gave us the opportunity to be some of the first to put him on film.”

“The decision to cast Tyler was pretty simple,” adds Sean.  “At least until we found out we couldn’t have him.”

Tyler was working in “The Frogs” at Lincoln Center.  He could have left to take the film with 4 weeks notice, but the offer wasn’t made until production was less than 3 weeks out.

“We were excited to learn Tyler was very enthusiastic about the offer, but none of us were willing to tarnish his theater career by asking him to break his contract for us,” says Lou.  “But – I really wanted him for my movie!”

“We looked really hard at the schedule,” remembers Sean.  “Tyler had to be at Lincoln Center by 7PM every night, plus matinees on Wednesday and Saturday.  Sundays were his off day.  If I made crew call at 7AM and we could release Tyler by 6PM, shoot his night exteriors on Sundays, and make Wednesday the off day for production to avoid one of his matinee days, we could hire him”

Having the lead rushing off of set everyday at 6 didn’t leave much opportunity for overtime if shooting got behind schedule.

“I cut my teeth as a PA on indie features,” continues Sean, “so I knew 14-16 hour days aren’t exceptional.  They are pretty much the norm.  For us to make our days would require exceptional planning and discipline.  We would have to keep moving, but we can’t move on from any scene until we get what we need.  Otherwise, there’s no point.  However, one of the peculiarities of moving the off day to Wednesday was that it meant our first off day would come only a few days into shooting and our last off day on the 18 day shoot would come only a few days before wrap.  This let me schedule a blank 19th day without needing to ask the crew to work any 7 day weeks.  So the 19th day was there, and the goal was to not need it.”

“It was a bit complicated, but Sean worked it out,” says Lou.  “For us, Tyler was worth rearranging the whole production schedule.  And, luckily, our movie was interesting enough for Tyler that he was willing to work 2 jobs with no days off for the length of our shoot.”

The other major roles required no less care, even if they were easier to schedule. 

For the female lead of Cassidy’s imperiled sister, Jessica, the filmmakers cast James Katharine Flynn, and as Cassidy’s best friend, Michael, they hired Robert Dionne.

“Cassidy, Jessica and Michael form a love triangle of sorts,” says Lou.  “There’s the familial love between Cass and Jess, the friendship between Cass and Mike, and the romantic potential between Jess and Mike.  The chemistry in each of these relationships needed to work.  Katie is great.  She is able to turn on this very sensual innocence.  It’s easy to see why Cassidy would want to protect her and Michael would want to seduce her.  Robert brought just the right playful cockiness.  But he also brought so much more.  He can summarize an entire scene with a look.  In editing we had to resist the urge to end all of his scenes with a lingering reaction shot of soap opera intensity.”

The role of the mysterious Helen went to Alison Fraser, an accomplished stage actress with 2 Tony nominations.

“Alison arguably had the most difficult material in the script,” says Lou.  “Some of the lines she’s asked to deliver have the potential to be somewhat out there.  Alison never flinched.  She gave us exactly what we thought the script needed and a lot of options to take into editing.”

“At Alison’s audition,” says Sean, “I remember telling Lou that if we had shot her reading on a green screen, we’d have what we needed for the movie.  But she brought even more to us on the day”

Finding young and talented department heads was greatly aided by drawing on Film School experiences.

“Working on shorts, both your own and your friends’, you meet some great people who you want to keep on your team,” says Lou. “Our DP Aaron Medick had shot a short thriller Sean produced the year before IN THE BLOOD went into production.  Watching that short and Aaron’s reel and hearing Sean’s praise, I was eager to find out how he would approach IN THE BLOOD.  If we were on the same page, I was ready to stop looking.”

“I think I’ll talk to Aaron first on any project I’m doing,” says Sean.  “Though I hope my budgets keep up so I can continue to afford him.  He’s a terrific collaborator.  He brings some wonderful ideas to each project.  He makes his case, but if the director wants to go another way, he stays focused on the director’s vision.  And he’s a wonder on set.  He understands the constraints of low budget productions and knows how to quickly get his setups without sacrificing quality.  And his attitude is very motivating to both the camera department and the G&E crew.  Aaron was vital to our getting our days without going into overtime.  More importantly, his work looks terrific.”

Shooting on Super 16 instead of video, Lou didn’t want too crisp a look that would carry the feel of the film away from its 70s era influences.

Production designer Michael McKowen was recommended by a friend who had used him in her award winning Coca-Cola commercial.  Michael in turn recommended costume designer Amy Bradshaw.

“Michael and Amy blew us away with what they accomplished on their budgets,” says Sean.  “Michael’s ingenuity continuously impressed me.  Every scene except for one at Manhattan Mini Storage and a night exterior was shot on Columbia University property, meaning that if an interior wall isn’t covered with wood, it was a simple off-white that we couldn’t paint.  Wrapping up our first production meeting with Michael I felt like I was handing him a ball of twine and a check for $5, pointing to the forest and saying, ‘Out there is where we want you to build the castle – but don’t cut down any trees.’ But he took those resources and he did it.”

Sasha Gordon created an original orchestral score for the film that helped ground Lou’s 70s influenced style firmly in today.  “In my first rough cut, I temp scored the film with Bernard Herrmann tracks,” says Lou.  “Then I quickly pulled them.  The film needed something much more its own.  Sasha came on board and wrote a marvelous strings heavy score that any modern thriller would envy.”