Liars and Lunatics :: Film Blog

Liars and Lunatics is part courtroom drama. (Actually, one of the working titles for the story was ”The Trial”.)

As many of you probably know, courtroom drama is not the same thing as what takes place in a real-life courtroom.

Even the sole purpose of “Judge Judy” is entertainment. Or watch for the amazing last-minute confessions revealed in the final five minutes of an old ”Matlock” episode (Or “Perry Mason”… Or “JAG”… Or… You get the picture…)

Well, as film director Alfred Hitchcock once said, “What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.” 

And so, when we began drafting the screenplay, part of our plan was to cut out all those dull bits…  Which meant, we skipped over the swearing-in of the witnesses. We did away with all sorts of courtroom conventions…

But, hey… it’s drama after all!

{{ photo :: The gavel Karen Lynn Gorney (as the Judge) used in the film. }}

Found this quote by playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950):

“I don’t know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum.”

Hmmm… Maybe that’s the reason why we—the Moon Brothers—decided to set our first feature film in a psychiatric hospital… Moreover, naming it Liars and Lunatics (See our blog from March 15th.)

{{ Photo: “Getting ready to shoot Scene 62 in the hallways of our ‘hospital’. If you look closely, you might even spy one of the Moon Brothers in the shot. Or perhaps it’s just a trick of the light and you’re just imaging it…” }}

The news has been all abuzz over the past few years about the benefits of napping during the day.

We Moon Brothers have known the benefits of the power nap for a long time. Yes, even on our film shoot for Liars and Lunatics last August, we’d stretch out any opportunity we had and take a 5-10 minute cat nap.

Shooting a movie is draining. Even the actors got in on the action—or rather in-action—by catching a few winks. This was especially noticeable in the courtroom scenes which were filmed in a church. Every once in a while you’d wonder where an actor was, only to find said actor lying flat out on a pew. Once our Second AD had to wake up one actor when—ahem—a low snoring sound was picked up by the boom mic!

Winston Churchill had the right idea:

“You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures… Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one — well, at least one and a half.”
(Winston Churchill quote)

Power naps… Something our mothers—and a guy named Winston—knew about a long time ago.

Since we’re on the topic, we might as well let you know that there is a “C.S. Lewis” character in our feature film Liars and Lunatics. He appears in the imaginary courtroom as one of James’ witnesses to speak about the “trilemma” we mentioned in an earlier blog. 

The character of Staples—played by Patrick Mitchell—is actually connected to that of C.S. Lewis. (You might have been able to figure that out if you know what the “C.S.” stands for.)

When we polled our cast and crew about their favorite character in the film, over half of them chose Staples as the role they admired the most. We included some of their reasons in this blog:

• “The only one who had any sense about what’s really going on.”
• “Thought provoking… with unshakable faith.”
• “Stands up to James with great conviction.”

{{ Photo of Staples, played by Patrick Mitchell. }}