The (Brief Synopsis of the) Making of How to Fix Radios

The summer that brought to life our most beloved creation and changed our worlds forever.

Hector Jenkins, 35mm

December 30th, 2019, only a few days before the conception of the script of How to Fix Radios, I had driven past a local car wash. It was a late winter's night, not many cars were out on the street. A quiet night, perfect for contemplation. The outside of the car wash was cast in a strange green light, it was causing a haze against the cold night air, it was beautiful. Cinematic even. I had a sudden vision. The combination of this sight, along with the song playing through my headphones, "Keep the Customer Satisfied" by Simon & Garfunkel, struck me in a very peculiar way. I had the most vivid image of a strange scene: a pink haired, eccentric boy using a stop sign as a weapon against a hick in the parking lot of this car wash. I couldn't too clearly understand what this meant, at least not at that moment, but every time I drove past that car wash after that night, it was the only thing that I could see.

Eventually, I started to question the motive of this boy. I wondered why the onlookers of the fight were there. I thought about the grief and anger he directed towards the hick, who was twice his size and so clearly filled with utter contempt for him. After a few days of bouncing the idea around in my head, I decided that the pink haired boy would not be the central character to this story. Instead, I focused my attention onto one of the members of the small crowd. A scared, lanky boy. He was the pink haired one's coworker, and was, and still is the star of this story.

Evan and the Beginning Stages

“...He seemed to hold so much beneath the surface, in an abstract way that was a perfect catalyst for something that I had been carrying around for years. .”

Evan immediately stood out to me. While he didn't seem to particularly stand out in any obvious way, he seemed to hold so much beneath the surface, in an abstract way that was a perfect catalyst for something that I had been carrying around for years.

I had never properly processed my adolescence, and in particular my coming out and the years surrounding it. 2015 was a year of chaos and confusion. I came out to my school and then family to what I assumed was support (then later questioned) from my peers and teachers at school, and mixed reactions from my family. The environment of my community at school was a unique one (I was enrolled in an "academic" program at my small rural school) in that there were many people who could be labeled as "nerds" and other various social rejects, therefore protecting me from some of the other aspects of this environment, namely the blatant homophobia and ultra-conservatism. Yet despite this, I still absorbed many of the various internalized -isms that one acquires while growing up in a rural area, even despite the seeming protection that I had stumbled into. Some from floating voices and people in the broader community, and some from older relatives who still did not know about my identity, ones who would make offhand comments of a particularly Regan-era like tone. If you know, you know. Not only this, but the political climate at the time was rapidly changing. Trump was going full steam ahead with his campaign and the zeitgeist was being heavily affected by it. In particular, the alt-right's relevancy was brought more into the public eye by this, and something that many of the adults in our lives didn't know was that it was rapidly seeping into youth culture. I even had friends at the time who would jokingly engage in some of these toxic and vile behaviours and ways of thinking, something that I didn't even realize was wrong of them to do until many years down the road. Yet at the same time as this, gay marriage had just been legalized in the USA, an event that gave a much needed boost of hope to myself and many other young queer teenagers. It was an odd and polarizing time, the effects of which I am sure we will all feel for a while. All of these elements combined to make a very interesting memory of the years surrounding the beginning of my journey to discover myself.

After I graduated elementary school, I left for high-school in the city of Kingston, a half an hour from where I lived. There I was accepted into an arts program, one where a few other queer people were, and my first experience at feeling like I might be welcomed. Two years later, I enrolled in the school's film program (Studio LCVI) and found through it an incredible community of filmmakers and most importantly, many other queer youth who had an immense impact on the way that I viewed myself and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. As something to be treasured, something that doesn't need to have shame attached to it.

Evan was a reaction to the way that I felt upon realizing this, as well as how I connected with those other queer folk. The feeling of being completely amazed while simultaneously slightly intimidated.

I found myself applying these themes and concepts onto the characters in the original situation I had pictured, and slowly a story started to emerge. Two teens hired at a car wash to perform menial tasks over the course of a summer in 2015. A summer that would involve theft, revelation, conflict, and most importantly, friendship and community.

The basic idea of Evan eventually developed into an embodiment of the uncertainty, confusion, and general lack of a solid identity that I experienced for the majority of my adolescence. Ross' base was more built around the queer pioneers that heavily influenced me in the years that I spent away from rural areas. Yet I tried to imagine how these individuals and the spirit of their radical sense of self would react when placed into a situation like the one present in our story. And thus Ross was born.

These were just baseline ideas and identities for these characters. The real sculpting came in when I began talking to my friend Emily Russell and we upon discussing the central concepts of the story, we found that we had not only similar experiences but similar ideas as to what the possible rest of the journey could be. And so we began the writing process, spending the majority of January, February, and the early part of March developing and finalizing the script for How to Fix Radios.

The Pandemic

The pandemic hit us, like everyone else, out of nowhere. We had just begun the process of trying to find and apply for funding for the following summer when everything shut down and we went from spending five days a week in the tech room at LCVI planning what the upcoming months would look like, to sitting at home, twiddling our thumbs, and worrying about what tomorrow would bring. Our attentions took a hard turn into adjusting to the new routines we had been thrust into, trying to stay on-top of the new online class model, and practically every thing but the film itself. It was sometime near the end of April where we not explicitly, but more subconsciously, decided that there was no way forward for the film to proceed. And so we dropped it.

That was until May 31st. Emily and I had decided to spend a day together as we had both been in a practical quarantine for many weeks beforehand. Sometime in the late afternoon, when we both weren't too sure what we wanted to do with the remaining hours of light left in the day, I recalled a day in April. I had gone down with my dad, Wade Leonard, to the family quarry to photograph some of the ponds which turned into excellent reflecting pools when the sun set. The quarry used to be used for two main purposes. One of which was to export gravel to the local township and various other companies around the area for road maintenance and the like, and the other function was as a bait shop, where my father and grandfather raised minnows, walleye, and other various species of freshwater fish for over two decades before. Both of these operations had either come to a halt or a close by this year.

At the time of visiting it in April, I remarked on what an interesting location it could become given the opportunity (I even made a scouting video for it), and was now curious to see what my co-writer would think in May. So we took a drive 3 minutes down the road from my house and stopped in to see the quarry, which was now in the mellow like buzz of late spring. Emily immediately took to the surroundings, commenting on how the many tanks, uniquely shaped and coloured buildings, and flora and fauna on the land could be utilized to fit our story. One that could even add another element to the story that we didn't have at the carwash. Rural decay. Something that in the last two decades, and especially with the rise of unbridled capitalism, has been ever present in these communities. We had seen it in the hamlet where I live, stores closing up, businesses moving away, big city folk moving into the rapidly appearing sub divisions that consumed any and all untended lots. This factor added context, a texture to the pressure already present within the narrative that allowed it to come full circle. And we fell head over heels for it.

Our story went from two teens working an unimaginative job washing cars at a car wash, to two teens working at a decaying quarry on the verge of collapse, one that was being converted into a subdivision and was host to the owner's son's underground and secret drug operation. Now we really had something going for us.

Not only this, but we hadn't ever figured out how to convince the owner of the car wash to allow us to film there for an entire summer, and so with this hurdle removed, we felt more motivated than we had since March. That combined with the dust settling on the pandemic front (in terms of understanding guidelines and being more prepared, not in regards to the pandemic itself) made us wonder if it would be possible to pull filming off now. We pondered it for a few hours, then headed back to my house and began sending out emails to the crew we had been putting together in our heads throughout the time that we had been working on the project. I had worked with Dimitri (Watson) and Emily and I had both worked with James (Rudden) in the past and knew well of their abilities and enthusiasm for acting so they were among the first we reached out too. Then we assembled the rest of the cast, consisting of: Willa Crowder and Hector Jenkins, and Sam Hubbard and myself for two minor roles. We also recruited our great friend Leo Hilder to be our on set sound recordist.

After the first preliminary steps, I began assembling our pre-production paperwork materials and Emily researched and started to acquire the rig for the camera. After a few bumps in the road along June, including a few stressful moments where it felt as if we were desperately holding the seams of the project together, we finally landed at our table read. Everyone met (although most already knew or at least knew of the others) the rest of the cast and crew and immediately hit it off. There was great chemistry between all parts of the team and it was incredibly encouraging to see.

We began production two weeks later.

Production

“Our time spent here and the memories created over those three days would find their place best suited in a novel.”

Our first challenge we encountered was how to handle the precautions around COVID. Despite the relative management of the cases in our area, we were still very aware that the situation could have changed at any moment, and so wanted to be very prepared. Firstly, we made sure that everyone was explicitly aware that they had to screen themselves every time before coming to set and to immediately notify us if they felt ill in any way. We then discussed the concept of making social bubbles, and since there were so few cases in the area, we decided it would work. We also planned on the crew members wearing masks, but later realized that in extreme heat while performing rigorous manual labour, it is almost suffocating. Since we were outside, we scrapped that idea and went with protecting ourselves in other areas.

We planned to shoot for four days a week to accommodate various schedules. We also were shooting all of Ross and Evan's solo scenes at the very beginning of shooting as Willa (who plays Eileen) went to BC on a family matter in the latter half of June and had to quarantine upon arriving back in Ontario (taking us into the second last week of July). This meant we had to really get down to business and try to avoid reshoots. Thankfully, because it was summer, we had a solid 16 hours of usable light each day, which was incredibly important since we planned on using almost exclusively natural light. Unfortunately, because it was summer, this advantage also came with the sacrifice of working in blistering 38°c weather, of which we spent the first two days of shooting in. We lathered up with as much sunscreen as our poor dermises would allow (which didn't completely protect us from some minor UV burns), and sweat through all of our clothes. The first day was extremely rewarding, but also very challenging as we got used to the equipment when used in the conditions we were in. We left feeling inspired and craving the cool wind of an AC unit.

Over the next few days, it got progressively easier to get into the filming mode, and as we all got more comfortable around each-other, things sped up and became a little more seamless. It wasn't all work either. We had a ton of laughs and some good breaks swimming in pools, talking, and running around in fields.

I can't, of course, detail every moment in the approximately 24 days of shooting, but I can highlight some.

On July 18th it was time to film the party scene. We had troubles with trying to find people to be apart of the crowd that was supposed to be present at Jake's hangout, and last minute, due to the difficulty, nervousness around COVID restrictions, and realizing that it would be out of character for Jake to even know that many people, we decided to keep it small. Wade Leonard (my dad) and Scott Russell (Emily's dad) helped us set up the bonfire as well as gripping in absence of Hector as he was involved in the scene. We raced against the light as we shot the first part of the scene with natural dusk light, and the latter part with firelight. It was exhilarating and one of our first tastes of how filming some of the larger scenes would feel.

- July 28th we shot the fight scene. It was one of the biggest scenes in the entirety of the project, the moment that sparked the rest of the story, and so it was integral that we put our all into it. As with most days, the weather threatened us all afternoon. We wanted to shoot near golden hour and so we asked everyone to arrive around 4 to rehearse the choreography again, go through the plan, and to be prepared to pack a lot into an hour or two of usable light. We watched the weather change on a minute to minute basis with bated breath. It rained off and on on us as we discussed things and ate local pizza on my back deck. There were a few moments when we thought about calling the whole thing off, but it let up in the nick of time and we proceeded. We first set up two foam mattresses that were previously used as a guest bed (sorry mom) for crash mats, prepped Hector and Dimitri one last time, and started at the very top of the hill to film Ross descending into the metaphorical wasps nest. This was one of the most intense moments of the filming process. Everyone was hyper focused and in character. The pressure was real. Things were going well, Dee and Hector were handling the choreography incredibly, until our lights died. So we improvised with car headlights. Yes, incredibly amateur, but necessary. We picked right back up and were able to squeeze the entire scene in right before we killed both the batteries in the two separate cars we were using. Half of us had absolutely no mechanical knowledge and so unable to help until Wade came to the rescue, we sat on the ground staring at the vast sky of stars above us while those who had some idea what they were doing attempted to revive the poor things. We did eventually start them back up. What a night though. Needless to say I breathed a sigh of relief upon reviewing our footage.

- August 7th. We filmed an impromptu scene at the river as well as the scenes inside of Evan's house. After making a back-breaking, callousing, potentially life-threatening trek down the currents of the Newburgh river, we arrived at an optimal filming location, shot as much as we could, and then promptly unwinded by swimming in the river. It was a life affirming, coming-of-age moment and it felt like for a time, the chaos of the world was being sent down stream.

- August 19th, 20th, and 21st. We scheduled three days to shoot at my family cottage. It had been a place that I had visited since I was born, an old place. Built in the 1930's and bought by my grandparents in the 70's. The buildings on the property still look like they are from that era. It's an interesting place. The most unique space is a room in a cabin called "Robin Hood", names are written on the walls of this room. Mainly from kids and teens who stayed for a week's summer vacation over the years. It's only appropriate that the stories contained in these walls were used for inspiration. And so it became a framing device for a large portion of the story present in the film.

Our time spent here and the memories created over those three days would find their place best suited in a novel. But I am not writing a novel here. So I will only say that it made me connect with cinema on a wholly spiritual level. We, please pardon my strong language, kicked ass. It was very easy for us to adjust to our surroundings, communicate with it, and work within an environment that everyone, excluding me, had never been in before. The light and healing that takes place within the film during the scenes that we were shooting was perfectly mirrored within ourselves. Communities are formed and bonds are made during events like this, and I am forever grateful that I was able to share such a special place and such a special time with the unique souls I was lucky enough to call my teammates. For you all: I will never forget running into that freezing water under the milky way, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" blasting in the background, and the spirit of night in our eyes. I'd have a million more 5am conversations if time allowed it. Thank you.

- On August 29th we wrapped the scenes that everyone was in. It was Willa and Dee’s last day (Hector’s was August 7th). We wandered into the barnyard for the last time, it had just been recently worked on as an effort to avoid a total collapse of the structure that was left (the original barn was torn down due to safety in 2016). The construction equipment and general look of the barn due to the work added to the feeling of a turning point in the story. Restoration, building up from the ashes. We almost ended up leaving without any audio as the xlr cable had wiggled loose during shooting, so we fixed it, re-did the scene we were shooting and walked away knowing that we were almost at the end of the road. At home, we shared a large meal together, some brie, and treasured our time together. After that it was over. We wrapped production. Almost.

- October 3rd. The actual last day of shooting. Emily, James, and I ventured back up to Bob’s Lake with the equipment and a few lamps in the back. We were filming both the beginning scene and the very last scene of the movie. It felt very full circle in multiple ways. We only had one minor incident in which we discovered that the power and water had been shut off at the cabins, thus we had no lighting. Naturally, we improvised as usual and came up with a good solution. Our last shot was in the forest, Evan standing and looking out into the fields behind the trees. When we called it, it was slightly anti-climactic as not only were we incredibly tired, but the entire crew wasn’t there which meant that not everybody got to experience it. But it was still amazing to be able to confidently say that we had made a movie. And that we hadn’t completely screwed it up.

Post-Production

I feel like it is only appropriate to include a section about post here, but what is there really to say about sitting at a computer for 5 hours a day and staring at a screen. The best part about post was connecting with different artists and musicians from all around the world to collaborate on the film. It really felt like we were building a community which was much bigger than ourselves. There were of course some frustrating moments, some moments of excitement as I thought of interesting ways to cut and stylize the footage and story in general.

Now

That of course brings us to the present. The last few miles in our journey consist of applying to festivals, showing our friends and family the project we’ve dedicated almost a year of our lives to, and trying to navigate the next part of our lives in this unfamiliar but interesting world that we now find ourselves in.

If you have made it this far in the article, I give you my personal gratitude for taking the time to hear our story.

Any consideration for our film in this festival circuit would mean the world to us.