The Last Stop in Yuma County cinematographer Mac Fisken

In The Last Stop in Yuma County, an empty pump at an isolated desert gas station strands a collection of characters (including a pair of bank robbers and knife salesman Jim Cummings) at the adjoining roadside diner.

Written around the standing sets available at Four Aces Movie Ranch in Palmdale, California, the feature debut from director Francis Galluppi was partially funded by the sale of producer James Claeys’ house. That provided enough budget for a 20-day shooting schedule, a cast of familiar genre faces (including Richard Brake, Gene Jones and Barbara Crampton), a few epic needle drops and one talented stunt bird.

With the movie out today in theaters and on digital, check out my interview with The Last Stop in Yuma County cinematographer Mac Fisken over at Filmmaker Magazine.

Below are a few excerpts from the piece. The film was shot on an Arri Alexa Mini with Zeiss B-Speed lenses.

Filmmaker: You’ve shot almost everything that Francis Galluppi has directed—shorts, music videos and now his debut feature. How did you start working together?

Fisken: My old roommate, who didn’t even know Francis very well, was supposed to shoot a short for him. He had to bail to take some job that actually paid money and passed the short on to me. I met Francis on that shoot, which was basically him and 10 friends going out to his friend’s cabin. Pretty much none of them had ever done anything on set. They’d all watched YouTube videos about how to be a camera assistant or a grip. So, I kind of walked into it and was like, “What is going on?” But they were all really great people and Francis was an amazing director. From that first short, I think we were both like, “We should do this again.”

Filmmaker: In the opening shot of the film, Jim Cummings drives up from the deep background to the gas station. During that long oner, there’s a bird sitting on a pump in the foreground. When Cummings pulls up, the bird flies off. My only experience with bird wranglers was on this commercial in an abandoned warehouse. A batch of birds was supposed to fly through the frame. They did it, but then flew away through a hole in the roof. I asked the wrangler, “How do you get your birds back?” And he was like, “Oh, I have to catch new ones now.” (laughs) I was pretty dumbfounded that you got this bird to actually do that bit of action.

Fisken: I was dumbfounded too. I remember Francis saying, “I talked to the bird wrangler and he’s claiming he’s going to be able to get this bird to just sit on this gas pump. Then, once we cue him, the bird will fly off screen.” They had planned for it to be maybe a 30-second shot, but when we actually framed it up and had the real car do the drive, it took almost two full minutes. And we’re just like, “There’s a zero percent chance this bird will sit still for two minutes and not do something weird.” But then the bird just did it. I think we did maybe four takes of that shot and, if I’m remembering right, the bird absolutely nailed it every single time. I couldn’t believe it.

Filmmaker: What’s your favorite shot that wasn’t designed in prep? Something you found on the day.

Fisken: This isn’t exactly that, because it was still due to our prep, but the day before we started shooting we brought our significant others out to the set to shoot a test of the slow-mo Roy Orbison “Crying” sequence. Francis was worried about it because the timing had to be specific [to last the exact length of the song, which plays in its entirety on the jukebox just before the movie’s violence erupts]. We shot the whole scene and realized that we were missing a good seven or eight seconds. We played around and found maybe three new shots of Charlotte the waitress [played by Jocelin Donahue] walking toward the table of the bad guys, and those are now some of my favorite shots in the movie. It was something we didn’t even know we needed until we were in the space.

Filmmaker: I just assumed that “Crying” was chosen in post, because on a movie with a smaller budget you don’t always know what you’ll be able to clear when you’re shooting.

Fisken: I told Francis not to count on getting that song. I’ve had that experience several times on movies at this budget level. And he’s like, “Mac, we’re committing. We’re going all in so that they can’t possibly go back on it later. Once the song is locked in, it’s locked in.”

Filmmaker: You end that sequence with a slow-motion dolly zoom. It’s a unique-looking application of that effect. For a second, I thought that maybe you had the actors physically on the dolly.

Fisken: I’m glad [the effect] showed up for you. The dolly zoom is such a funny shot. You do all this work and then it can be pretty subtle. You’re really hurtling that dolly down the track, especially when you’re shooting at 120 frames per second, and zooming out really fast while the focus puller is cranking at full speed. It’s funny to go through that whole process and then play it back and you’re like, “Oh, I guess it’s moving.” [laughs]