The Swain house was actually broken up into 3 distinct locations: two in Jefferson Park, and one in Forest Park. Most of the scenes shot in the Jefferson Park locations were extremely cramped, making for some pretty difficult shots.
We also had the infamous shot(s) where Ralph smashes his coffee cup against the wall, which is the early fan favorite in THE MAKING OF PYRITE documentary, featured on the DVD Extras. The shot of RJ behind the camera in the basement is from that sequence, and the pic of me getting the broken glass set properly in the dustpan while writing a check has been good for a joke or two — and that’s not even mentioning the white “booties” we were all required to wear by the owner of the house!
Some other quick notes…
Yes, that is Nick Lewis touching up Howie Johnson’s makeup. Hey, the makeup artist had to leave early that night damnit!
The shot with Jason Madoch holding Jonathan Lacocque’s legs as he reaches out the window, that was to black out the windows so we could film a night scene in the Swain den. By the time they were done blacking out the windows and had the scene actually lit, it was dark outside.
The shot with Alex Fischer and I in the bathroom (I told you it was cramped!), we were recording running water for foley… which it would turn out was completely unnecessary, since we wound up with Alex Ullrich (part of the Academy Award winning team from THE HURT LOCKER) doing all of our foley work in post.
