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| Guerrilla filmmaking: First-time director Aram Rappaport (l.) spent a week filming his kidnap drama, 'Helix,' in real time
in Chicago with a small crew. Courtesy of Danielle Garnier/Windward Entertainment |
In Chicago's streets, a thriller shot in a single take
A young director and his cast dash through the busy city – catching bystanders unaware – for a film about a kidnapping.
from the April 18, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
"Helix" is loosely based on a real kidnapping of a young woman that occurred in Chicago. To Rappaport, telling the story in one take was important.
"I was really interested in that moment of desperation and why people react in a certain way. I wanted to show the event in real time ... and see how people react as time progresses," says the director. "To do justice to the story, we had to do it in a way that doesn't break the audience out of the movie."
For a homeless man, a Catch-22
While "Helix" is gritty and clearly aimed at a teenage audience, it probes moral dilemmas and issues of courage, survival, and redemption. The kidnappers have made some wrong decisions and get entangled in their mistakes. In the meantime, a homeless character is torn between getting involved and keeping silent.
"One of the themes is that people don't really do anything," says Rappaport, who studied acting and theater at California State University at Northridge and has since written, and starred in, several small independent films. Symbolic shoes
Shoes also play a symbolic role in the film. One of the kidnappers is wearing someone else's shoes. Vega's character is forced to remove her shoes to make it difficult for her to escape. The homeless man, "a symbolic truth-teller," says Rappaport, has saved his money to buy shoes so he can get into the library to read. His shoes are stolen and he tries to find them.
"We base our humanity on so many material things, and with something just as simple as losing a pair of shoes you can be sort of de-classed," Toland says. "The theme is everybody's survival. Well, what do you need? You need shoes to survive."
The Jeep exits Lake Shore Drive. Toland spots a gas station. "Sputter, sputter," he says, jokingly, as he pulls in. "Made it."
Amid all the activity, actors try to stay in character and remember their lines – without the luxury of a second take. "Every day I've messed up a line, but these guys will cover for me, and we'll keep the scene moving," Vega says.
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