The Bet! New Indie Thriller

Do you like SAW? How bout Unknown? If you like a good horror thriller it looks like the new indie film The Bet will bring you more of what you love. Rarely do I see an indie film that looks so polished, so I am quite excited to tell you about this film.

 

Many things led to the decision to make a short film based on the short story "The Bet.” As an art director at a Las Vegas-based advertising agency, Michael Dunn had been involved in the production of a number of commercials. This provided valuable experience as well as the opportunity to make a number of connections (and friends) in the industry, including those that made up the majority of the cast and crew on "The Bet.” It was a commercial for UMC that brought together what would become the core crew on "The Bet.” The commercial was produced by Matt Wilkinson of Abe Froman Productions and directed by Kurt Rauf.

The script was co-written by Michael Dunn and Chris Smith who, as art director and copywriter respectively, created campaigns for a wide variety of clients, including Bellagio, Treasure Island, UMC and Las Vegas Monorail. It’s ironic that two of the most resonate images from the film, including the origami angel dollar, were Chris’ contributions.

 

Once the script was complete, two major obstacles faced the production: cast and location. With less than $5,000 budgeted for the film, a location proved problematic. There were only three locations in the script, something that made the story seem ideal for making into a low-budget film, however the look of the derelict setting was key to selling the despair of the situation faced in the script. When a practical location didn’t present itself, the option of building sets became the only option. Still there needed to be somewhere to build the sets. The director’s son’s school, Imprints, a private, arts-focused school, offered their theatre to the production. Because the school was operational, the theatre was only available on weekends. This meant that once the school closed on Friday evening, production moved in and, through Saturday night, built and dressed the set that would be shot that Sunday and subsequently torn down that night to clear the school by Monday morning as if nothing happened. Three locations. Three long weekends. Nearly 150 hours.

 

The cast was another matter altogether. The script had been written with Lou Diamond in mind for the role of Henry. Lou had worked with the filmmakers on the aforementioned UMC commercial. Michael Dunn went through online casting sites and found both Lou (whose contact information had been outdated from the time of the commercial) and Courtney Gardner-Stavros. A lunch and casual discussion with each of them and producer Matt Wilkinson was all that was needed to cast them in the film. The role of James proved much more difficult to fill. A number of actors auditioned but did not have what the filmmakers were looking for. Frustrated, Michael contacted Leana Hildebrand at Impact Models (whom he and still photographer Francis George had used on a number of photoshoots) who introduced Walt Turner to the mix. Walt’s first audition was at a Starbucks with a callback during the construction of Henry’s room set (one week before James’ scenes were filmed). Walt saw the backdrops the students had painted for one of their productions and thought they were being used for "The Bet.” When he came back for rehearsal the next week (having nailed both auditions and hired on the spot) he was shocked to see the full set for James’ room up and dressed, looking nothing like what he expected. Checkout some stills from the film below and be sure to watch The Bet trailer on Terrorfeed!