The Friend Zone

The "dance montage" featured at the midpoint of the film, where the characters mingle with strangers on the dance floor of a crowded club, was shot on location at the popular Midtown Bar & Grill in Charleston, South Carolina. The crew went into principal photography not having a location for the scene, as several options had fallen through. Their plan was to film at a small venue and use extras and camera tricks to make the club appear larger and more populated. However, on set two days before the scene was scheduled, Executive Producer and Composer J.R. Getches mentioned to Director/Producer Zachary Bucholtz and Executive Producer Sumyhr Harris that his band, The Louie D. Project, was playing at Midtown that Friday night and that he'd get them in to shoot.

Colleen Kinslow, Anna Brooks, Sam Rehr, Paul Vites, and Anna Omori - the actors in the scene - joined Harris and Bucholtz, who carried one handheld camera into the club during its busiest hour. Since two of the actors weren't yet 21, they were given special permission to enter under the condition they didn't drink. The scene was shot in less than an hour and highly improvised, with Harris and Assistant Director Omori recruiting people in the crowd to serve as extras in the scene and to interact with the actors, who used hand signals to communicate with Bucholtz as it was too loud to hear. The actors would then direct their extras, and many of the moments used in the final cut of the film are actually clips of the actors telling the extras what to do (such as when Anna Brooks mouths "just walk away" to a guy her character is flirting with).

Paul Vites, who plays the goofy and lovable Charlie Dunlap, had to be dragged from the club because he was getting hit on in character.