The cast and crew of Fighting Owl Films traded a soundstage for a graveyard this month, setting up cameras and lighting rigs among the headstones of Springhill Cemetery for an overnight shoot on the Mobile-based company’s debut feature, “The Night Shift.” Director Thomas Smith led the production through a night of filming at the historic cemetery, marking one of the more visually striking milestones yet in a project that has been slowly taking shape in front of Mobile audiences since late last year.
The graveyard setting is not incidental. “The Night Shift” follows a cemetery night watchman named Rue Morgan, and much of its story unfolds after dark among the dead — making an actual overnight cemetery shoot an essential, if logistically demanding, piece of bringing the script to the screen. For a small independent crew, filming through the night in a working cemetery means coordinating lighting, sound and camera equipment in a location that, unlike a rented soundstage, cannot simply be reset or relit at will and must be treated with the same care and respect any working cemetery requires.
From Script Read-Through to Principal Photography
South Alabama News first reported on “The Night Shift” in January, when Fighting Owl Films was still deep in pre-production. At that stage, the company had just wrapped costume fittings and a full cast script read-through, with Smith describing the process as going “pretty good” while the crew locked down casting, wardrobe, locations and a shooting schedule. At the time, Smith said he expected filming to begin that spring.
The Springhill Cemetery shoot represents the production moving well past those planning stages and into full principal photography — the phase of a film shoot where the script is actually captured on camera, as opposed to the behind-the-scenes work of casting and scheduling that precedes it. For an independent production working without a studio’s backing, reaching this stage typically means securing filming permissions for each location, coordinating a volunteer or lightly paid crew around day jobs and school schedules, and building a shooting schedule that can bend around weather, equipment availability and cast members’ other commitments. Night shoots in particular add another layer of complexity, requiring portable lighting equipment to simulate or supplement moonlight, extra safety precautions for cast and crew working in the dark, and often a complete flip of the crew’s sleep schedule for the duration of the shoot.
A Company Built From the Ground Up
Fighting Owl Films is very much a homegrown Mobile enterprise. Smith, who serves as writer, director and producer on “The Night Shift,” got his start making short films with friends in 2007, and the company grew out of that early, informal filmmaking. Rather than relocating to a larger production hub, Smith has built his slate of projects around Mobile and the surrounding Gulf Coast, relying on local actors, crew members and filming locations rather than importing outside talent for his productions — a model that has become increasingly common among small independent producers working outside the major coastal film markets.
That local-first approach mirrors a broader, slow-building presence of independent filmmaking in the Mobile area over the past couple of decades. While Alabama has landed a handful of larger studio productions over the years — among them “Big Fish,” “42,” “Selma” and “Get Out” — the vast majority of filmmaking activity in the state has historically come from smaller, independently financed projects like “The Night Shift,” made on modest budgets by local crews rather than out-of-state production companies. The Alabama Film Office, established in 1978 to help connect filmmakers with locations, permits and local resources, has long served as a point of contact for productions of every size looking to shoot in the state, and the Alabama Legislature passed the Entertainment Industry Incentive Act in 2009, creating a new state tax incentive aimed at drawing more film and television production — large and small — to Alabama.
Filming in a Working Cemetery
Using an active, historic cemetery as a film location comes with its own set of considerations that don’t apply to a typical set. Productions filming in cemeteries generally need to secure permission from the cemetery’s owners or managing association well in advance, work around visiting hours and any scheduled services, and take particular care not to damage grave markers, landscaping or other cemetery property. Night shoots add further logistical demands, since crews must bring in their own lighting rather than relying on daylight, and often need to secure additional permits or notify local authorities when filming after dark in a public or semi-public space. For a company working on an independent budget, all of this typically falls to the production itself to coordinate, rather than to a location scout or production manager on a larger studio payroll.
Night shoots also carry practical safety considerations that daytime filming does not. Crews working after dark commonly rely on generator-powered lighting towers, reflective gear and clearly marked pathways to reduce the risk of trips and falls in unfamiliar or uneven terrain, and productions typically build in extra breaks to manage fatigue during a shoot that runs against the body’s normal sleep cycle. Insurance coverage for cast, crew and the property itself is another standard requirement for any production filming on a real, third-party location rather than a soundstage built specifically for the production, cemeteries included.
Mobile is home to several historic cemeteries scattered across the city, reflecting the area’s long history as one of the oldest European-settled cities on the Gulf Coast. Springhill itself sits within one of Mobile’s oldest and most storied neighborhoods. Located roughly six miles west of downtown, Spring Hill was originally developed in the early 1800s as a summer retreat for Mobilians seeking to escape the yellow fever outbreaks and swampy conditions closer to the bay. The neighborhood takes its name from the natural springs found throughout the area, and it grew through the 19th century into a community of large country estates, culminating in the founding of Spring Hill College in 1830 — the oldest institution of higher education in Alabama. That long, layered history has left the broader Spring Hill area with a number of historic sites and cemeteries, the kind of atmospheric, deeply rooted settings that can lend an independent horror or supernatural film a sense of authenticity that would be difficult to replicate on a constructed set.
The Story Behind the Shoot
“The Night Shift” is described by Fighting Owl Films as a supernatural comedy-adventure centered on Rue Morgan, a night watchman whose job keeps him tied to a cemetery seemingly for good. The premise plays on a familiar horror-movie setting — the graveyard at night — while leaning toward comedy and adventure rather than straight scares, a genre blend that has become something of a niche specialty for small independent studios looking to stand out without the special-effects budgets of major releases. Blending genres in this way also gives a low-budget production more room to work with: a supernatural comedy can lean on practical effects, clever writing and location atmosphere rather than the expensive visual effects that a straight horror or action film might demand.
Independent films of this kind rarely have the marketing muscle of a studio release, and they typically build an audience gradually — through film festival screenings, word of mouth in the local arts community, and eventually digital or physical distribution once a finished cut is ready. “The Night Shift” would go on to become an early calling card for Fighting Owl Films, winning the Best Fantasy Feature award at the Shockerfest International Film Festival and securing distribution through R-Squared Films — a trajectory that, while it played out after the Springhill Cemetery shoot captured this month, underscores how much rode on nights like this one for a fledgling local production company working to establish itself.
What Comes Next for the Production
With principal photography now underway, Fighting Owl Films still faces the work that follows any shoot: additional filming days to capture the remaining scenes in the script, followed by editing, sound design, color correction and scoring before a finished film is ready to show audiences. For independent productions operating without a studio’s post-production department, this stage can often take as long as, or longer than, the filming itself, since editors and sound designers are frequently working around other jobs and projects of their own.
For now, the image of a film crew working through the night among the gravestones of Springhill Cemetery offers a glimpse of the kind of scrappy, hands-on filmmaking that has quietly become part of Mobile’s arts and culture scene. As with many independent productions, exact details about additional filming locations, a release timeline or where local audiences might eventually be able to see the finished film had not been released as of this shoot. South Alabama News will continue to follow “The Night Shift” and Fighting Owl Films as the production moves toward completion, and will report further details on the finished film as they become available.