For Margaret Miller and Trevor O’Neil of Nashville-based Hideout Pictures, producers of the horror thriller “The Whistler,” they’ve been scouring their slate to go back and shoot in Colombia as soon as they can. “The Whistler,” was their very first overseas location shoot and it was an experience they want to repeat.
Working with an all-Colombian crew was “absolutely, hands down one of the best experiences ever,” says Miller. “They were so hard working and professional, there was never a ‘no.’ It was always ‘sure, no problem, we’ll make that happen.’”
O’Neil describes how they would arrive on set and be amazed that the crew had managed to build entire sets and bring power to such remote locations, even in the middle of the rain. “I kept asking, ‘How did you even do this?’ They would just laugh and say, ‘This is nothing. We’ve shot in the Amazon, where we send gear down on rafts.’ To them, this production was relatively straightforward. I remember thinking, Wow, I would put Colombian crews up against American crews any day.”
The project was brought to them by its Venezuelan writer-director Diego Velasco (“The Zero Hour”) who had been toiling for some 14 years to get it made. They loved it and agreed to fund it entirely, after which Velasco introduced them to seasoned producer Diego F. Ramirez of 64A Films (“Dog Eat Dog,” “Killing Jesus”) who signed on to handle production services.
