China Lake [Low Budget Masterpieces]

Robert Harmon's 34-minute short film from 1983 is my all time favourite short. The film has all the elements I like from movies - strong performances, well developed characters, a fascinating story and beautiful cinematography.

The film is the story of Donnelly (played by a perfectly cast Charles Napier), who is an everyman motorcycle cop with a somewhat unusual hobby. When he takes a vacation to the idyillic China Lake, Donnelly takes the trip on his police motorcycle and remains in uniform. The climax is a fine example of a great misuse of power by a law enforcing figure who has gone off the rails. The plot appears to take influence from Spielberg's classic TV movie, Duel, as well as shaping Harmon''''s feature debut, The Hitcher.

Having started his career as a stills photographer on film sets, later graduating to the camera department, Harmon delivered a very confident directorial debut. His cinematography on this film extracts a certain beauty from the barren surroundings. The shots of Napier exercising out in the desert really add to the eerie ambiance of the movie and stay with the viewer for a long time.

Clocking in at 34 minutes, this is a truly fantastic mini-movie that us students of film making can learn a lot from. The story really captures the unsettling idea of controlled psychotic behaviour from an authoritative individual who is able to easily get away with his wrong doings.

Production of China Lake

Robert Harmon co wrote the script with Beth Tate, who later went on to produce a television movie based on this story, The China Lake Murders, in 1990.

The shot for China Lake took 11 days in 1981. Harmon managed to secure a high quality crew for the film by allowing them to do a job above their usual pay grade. For example, he would get a working assistant editor to be in charge of cutting the whole movie. This is mutually beneficial to the director, who gets a great film, and the crew member, who then has a great piece for their porfolio. The lush, high budget look of the movie shows this approach works, however it did lead to post production taking over 2 years.

Harmon intended to use China Lake as a showcase for his directorial talents, in the hope of a promotion from the camera department. On the strength of this work, Harmon was able to direct the cult road movie thriller/horror The Hitcher in 1986.

Get The Hitcher DVD from amazon.com which includes this short, and study it as a textbook example of how short films should be made. This really is ideal research material if you are serious about making stylish thrillers or action.