Production Notes
By Daniel Kraus, writer/director

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS… ON A BUDGET

Fortunately, Kraus designed the story to play out like a true "insider" tale, with less emphasis put on the sports action and more emphasis put on the private, whispered conversations held in locker rooms, dugouts, and in the backs of team buses. "It's the story of a puppet master," says Kraus, "and a good puppet master knows never to step into the light."

Representatives from Panasonic met the filmmakers at a "new technology" expo and were so impressed with that they pledged as much free equipment and support as they could, and that went a long way to making the movie a reality. "We were given deals on equipment left and right," says producer Jason Davis. "Wilmington, North Carolina is third only to New York and L.A. in American film production, but it's also a small town where people can help out their friends. And we had a project that made people want to help out." The filmmakers even managed to finagle a night's worth of free rain towers for the film's final scene. "For a minute there, we looked like a big Hollywood movie," recalls producer Damian Lahey proudly.

Before coming aboard the Ball of Wax team, producer Allen Serkin worked as location manager on the TV show "Dawson's Creek". "Having those connections really helped," says Serkin. "People knew my face, trusted me, and gave us access to mansions, hotels, offices, even entire professional sports complexes."

For their locker room scenes, the filmmakers used the brand-new Raleigh Sports Arena, home of the pro hockey team the Carolina Hurricanes and the NC State Wolfpack. For the exterior baseball scenes, the filmmakers were lucky enough to use Five County Stadium, the home of the AA baseball team, the Carolina Mudcats. "The second I saw the stadium, I knew we had to have it," recalls Kraus. "It's a big, beautiful, brand-new ball park with bright red seats - the perfect color! We weren't about to take no for an answer."

CHAIN SAW KILLERS, SOCIOPATH BALLPLAYERS, AND FREAKY ACTORS

It was the script, however, that was the main draw of the project. "I've been spoiled," says actor Mark Mench, who played the sociopath Bret Packard. "I've turned down many auditions in the past year because the scripts haven't been up to the Ball of Wax par. Obviously, I might have to lower my standards or I'll never work again."

Over 300 people auditioned for the 16 speaking roles. "Good acting was always top priority," says Kraus. "I made a decision early on that if we had to sacrifice a cool camera move, or a pretty shot, or anything, we would - as long as we got the best performance possible." The actors rehearsed for two months. And because of the unusual size of the role, Mench and Kraus rehearsed for almost four months. "He was obsessively precise," says Mench. "He would talk about how certain sentences should sound, or certain words, or even certain syllables. It might've driven some actors crazy, but I loved it."

"Mench had a really bizarre way of memorizing lines," recalls Kraus. "He made out all these freaky note cards with these tiny words scribbled all over them in a totally haphazard fashion. They were so scary-looking that we ended up using them as props, as Bret Packard's own psychotic notes. I'm not sure how Mench feels about that, but, hey, what are you gonna do?"

"IT'S LIKE THE BAD NEWS BEARS ON CRACK."

Luckily for the crew,a huge hollywood baseball film had recently shot in North Carolina, and much of the leftover baseball equipment - including cleats, pants, jerseys, bats, balls, batting gloves, sweatbands, eye black, resin bags, umpire gear, you name it - managed to "find its way" to the Ball of Wax set. "Everything was acquired on the up and up," assures Kraus, "but suffice to say we got more out of this Hollywood baseball film than any audience probably did."

Although the mood on set was overwhelmingly positive, Ball of Wax had its tough moments. "Our first night at the ball park, we almost got booted out," recalls Davis. "We had a scene where a disgruntled fan throws a flaming molotov cocktail onto the field. We thought we had cleared it with the ball park owners. They thought otherwise. Luckily, we were able to sweet talk our way out of it without a lawsuit."

"The Zebulon ball park is beautiful," says Kraus, "But it's in the middle of nowhere. So we put up the entire cast and crew at the nearest hotel, which wasn't exactly the Ritz." Actor Kevin Scanlon, who played "Sal", remembers it this way: "We had a few beers in our room for the cast and crew, and these strangers would just come stumbling in off the street, grab a beer, and leave. Then, in the middle of the night, this scary lady started banging on the door asking us if we wanted her to come in. We said, 'Go away, lady.'"

One person affiliated with the movie broke into several crew members' apartments one night to swipe cameras and CD players to pawn off for, uh, "cab fare". "It was not the movie's brightest, shining moment," admits Lahey. "But everything was returned and apologies were made. When you're making a movie, stuff like that is barely a blip on the radar."

But even grand theft pales next to the fate of actor Tom Huff, who played "Jacob Moss". "We were doing this simple dugout shot. I was supposed to react to this giant snake and ended up tripping over the stairs when heard this little 'pop'," remembers Huff. "I was like 'Ow', and they were like, 'Get up, Huff', and I was like, 'No seriously, ow.'" Turns out, Huff had severed his Achilles tendon. An ambulance was rushed to the scene and Huff was taken to the nearest hospital. He spent the rest of the shoot on crutches and the rest of the year in physical therapy.

"He was a good sport about it," says Kraus. "Everyone was a real good sport about everything, about the whole damn movie. It certainly wasn't easy and it sure wasn't cheap. And I'm not even counting the wrap party, which cost more than my car. But let's not get into that."

Daniel Kraus
April 15, 2002