Scenes for psychological thriller filmed in Wrens

A Wrens office building and home doubled as the interiors of a cult’s ranch, a hospital and a mortuary last week as Augusta-based Beyond Casual Media shot several scenes for its latest film, a psychological thriller called The Observance.

The office building on North Main Street was formally a medical billing office and originally a church and the home was a just a few blocks away on Ellis Street.

“It’s about a woman who slips into a coma and six years later she wakes up to find out that her family has pretty much entered a cult and she’s now trying to challenge the cult, fight for her family and she gets her life back. There are lots of twists and turns,” said Karl King, a producer of the film, standing in front of the Ellis Street home as crew went about setting up cameras, lighting and microphones inside. “Right now we’re shooting a scene where our lead character has just woken up and is trying to find out about her new life and what’s happened for the past five years.”

King, who currently lives and primarily films in Ireland, was brought in for this project and according to IMDB is known for his work on Joyride and The Crown.

He is part of a crew that averaged 30 people a day filming for around a week at the two locations. The film, written by Amy Rhinehart Bailey and Robert Hollocks, is the fourth produced by Augusta’s Beyond Casual Media (BCM). Encounter, their first film, a science fiction movie starring Luke Hemsworth, won Best Independent Movie in the 2022 Saturn Awards.

Their second (Applewood), third (Mister Sleep) as well as this current movie, have all been written by Bailey and Hollocks. And Hollocks, who directed the second and third, has returned for the current production.

Wednesday, between scenes, Hollocks stepped outside the Ellis Street set to talk about filming in Georgia.

“We haven’t shot Wrens before. It was kind of an accident. We found the spot and we just love the environment,” Hollocks said. “It’s somewhere new and fresh. And everyone here has been so great and welcoming. This location we’re at now, we had another location in Augusta and that fell through. And there was a guy visiting the set who said, hey, I’ve got a house down the road, you know, come shoot here. And it was great. That would never happen in LA. We’re not big budget productions. We do a lot of smaller indie things. I love it. I love everything about this place.”

Hollocks has been in the entertainment industry for around 25 years, working for Paramount Pictures from 1994 to 2007 and with production companies including Lucasfilm, Amblin, Cruise-Wagner, Nickelodeon and MTV. He first came to the Augusta area to work on BCM’s Encounter.

He said he came down and fell in love with the Augusta area and the people.

“In all the years I’ve done this it was the first time I walked on a set and everyone was having a great time, friendly, nobody was fighting with each other, as can happen,” Hollocks said. “I just fell in love with the place and the people. There’s a great crew down here.”

Brent Dye, the former owner and neighbor to the office building, said that he has enjoyed meeting everyone on set, helping connect them with area resources and is excited about what projects like this can bring to small towns like Wrens.

All four BCM movies have been filmed primarily in the Augusta area, using many local and Georgia-based crew and actors.

“There are so many advantages to coming here,” Hollocks said. “The people are more welcoming. They are interested and excited about it and not as cynical. Obviously, there are great tax incentives for shooting here. Atlanta has become more popular than LA. It’s hard to shoot there. It’s hard to get anything done.”

Small independent production companies like BCM, would have a hard time affording to shoot on the West coast, he said.

“And there are so many places here that have never been seen on film. Augusta in particular, and the cities around it, you can almost find any location you want,” Hollocks said. “I’ve seen things and thought, 'that could double for New York'. You know there are parts of this place that I feel like look exactly like England. It’s all so versatile.”

Parts of The Observance are being filmed all over Augusta, King said, at Perry’s Landing in Hephzibah, in Rhinehart’s Oyster Bar in Augusta and at Thurman Dam.

Hollocks said that particularly for this movie, he and his partners were looking for interesting locations that had not been seen before on film.

“It’s fun to work in new places and in new communities,” Hollocks said just before beign called back to set. “It’s really important for both of us, myself and Amy, to try to give back to the community, to take people who might want to learn about the industry but might not have the chance without moving to Atlanta or LA and to train them, to teach them about the different roles on a film. I think 90 percent of the crew here is local. A lot of the actors are local and we prefer to use local actors when we can and build that community.”

While Hollocks returned to the set, King sat with other crew members watching the scenes being filmed in the next room on a series of monitors.

“In Atlanta and Dublin (Ireland), where I work, people are just so used to filming. It’s so nice to come to a place where everyone is excited about the film coming in and they want to help. We’ve met so many amazing local people who have helped us with locations or finding vehicles,” King said. “We’re looking at doing other projects in the Augusta area.”

And communities that tend to be welcoming, helpful and excited about the projects, those are communities King said they want to return to.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Wrens welcomes film crew producing independent psychological thriller