Prologue from "The Crow: The story behind the film" by Bridget Baiss
The night of the last Tuesday in March, 1993, should have been just another long, intense session in the production schedule of the movie THE CROW.
The cast and crew of the film assembled a little before 8 p.m. on sound stage Number 4 at Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, to begin Day 50 of principal photography. In fact Day 50 was Night 50, since almost the entire schedule of the movie consisted of night shooting. But the end was now in sight, with only eight days work left. The major scene for the night was a flashback, in which the Crow character - the hero of the movie, Eric Draven, is murdered by a group of hoodlums. Itīs a crucial scene in the movie, indeed the pivotal event of the story.
But its dramatic importance did not give this particular evening a different feel from the previous fort-nine days of production. Some time after 11 p.m., the star of the movie, twenty-eight-year-old Brandon Lee, had arrived on the set, Eric Dravenīs Loft. Eric is a rocker, with long hair, who is dressed in a leather jacket, tight velvet pants, boots, and a T-shirt with Hangmanīs Joke, the name of his band, writen across it. The Director, Alex Proyas, took the cast and crew through two rehearsals of the scene. The atmosphere was friendly but tense, since they were all suffering from tremendous fatigue as a result of working twelve to fourteen-hour days for two straight months.
Soon, the actors moveswere set, the lightening was finally adjusted, and the cameras focus positions were marked. By midnight it was time to roll film. The Property Master showed Michael Massee - the actor playing Funboy - that he had just loaded the .44 Magnum with which he would shoot Eric Draven, with a single, full blank charge, which would produce the desired flash of flame from the end of the barrel.
The cameras and sound began rolling. The first Assistant Director, Stewe andrews, yelled "Action!"
In the scene, we find Funboy, and his partner T-bird, played by Davis Patrick Kelly, in the midst of a violent assault on a prett brunette, Shelly Webster, Ericīs fiancée. The front door opens and Eric enters the Loft, carrying a bag of groceries. Funboy spins around, gun in hand, sees Eric and fires.
The blank went off - Bang! According to plan, the small explosive in the grocery bag detonated, exploding milk container and ripping a hole in the bag.
Eric grabbed his stomach, spun around and then sank to the ground against the doorway. It had all happend almost exactly as it had been rehearsed.
The action continued briefly, with Shelly and the hugs reacting to the shooting, screaming and yelling, while Eric lay there motionless. After enough time to get their reactions. Director Alex Proyas shouted "Cut!" The action stopped.
It took a few moments for the people on the crowded set to realize that something had gone wrong.
It would take several more hours for them to realize that Brandon Lee had filmes his last shot on THE CROW, and that a tragic event had occured, one which blurred the line between the real world, and the world of movie making.
The lives of everyone present would never be the same again.