Behind the Behind the Scenes: The “Hunting Photoshoot” of NIGHT VOICES

When you watch a movie, there’s a good chance you have seen a photograph existing of the characters seen on screen used as a prop or as part of the set decoration—maybe it’s a family photo hung on the wall or a save the date sent out by a happy couple. You may notice sometimes when you see those prop photos that they may end up not taking place within any scene you get to watch play out… so you may find yourself wondering, ‘How did that photo come to be?’

Night Voices features two photos that had to be created with the actors in the movie taking part in scenes not viewed anywhere else in the film.

One particular photo plays a pivotal role early on in the film. It’s seen briefly on a wall featuring Jack Packer (“HUNTER”) along with a few faces seen only in this photo—Ben Reist (“TYLER”), Jeffrey Yunginger (“TYLER’S GRANDPA”), with Jack Packer’s beloved dog Lucy making a cameo as the hunting dog. While it is true that the principal photography of Night Voices took place over just four days on Labor Day Weekend 2022, this photo had to be taken about a week and a half before filming began in order to be printed in time to have it on set playing its key role in the story.

August 21, 2022 is known to Team Night Voices as the “Hunting Photoshoot” day. Director Bradley Hawkins, Producer Peter Fenton, Co-Producer Andreas Quiroga, and the team’s Still Photographer and 2nd Assistant Camera Jordan Carvalho met up with Packer and his family, Reist and his family, and Yunginger, to stage multiple setups of the guys spending a day on a small game hunting trip to capture moments that could be used as options for the photo in the movie—pictures were taken both candidly in action and also with the men posed together as a group.

Even though there was no dialogue or even video being captured, it was incredibly important for our actors to remain in character and act out these scenes from the hunting day in order to make the finished photos as believable as though they came from real life. Bradley Hawkins was just as much in "director mode" here on the photoshoot day, coaching our actors' movement and performances for still photos, as he was each day when the cameras rolled during principal photography.

So, which picture(s) from the hunting trip ended up in the final cut of Night Voices? You’ll have to keep your eye out when you see the movie! Night Voices is expected to enter the film festival circuit in Spring 2023.