Want to make a movie? Here’s how

BY GLEN STARKEY

Forget Hollywood. If you want to make a movie, stay in San Luis Obispo County.

We have poets and writers, painters and sculptors, musicians and composers, theater performers and dancers, but until recently there’s been one glaring hole in the fabric of our creative tapestry: filmmaking.

Well, consider that hole mended. The Film Collective, a group of local film hopefuls, recently wrapped taping on its first short movie, "Sepia."

Filmmaking has traditionally been a difficult field to enter, mainly because of expensive equipment and the high cost of processing film. But with high definition digital cameras and computer editing programs, more and more budding auteurs, actors, screenwriters, and cinematographers are finding a way to express themselves in this most glamorous medium.

The Film Collective began in January, the brainchild of April Raines, a local 22-year-old who spent a little more than a year in Hollywood pursuing her dream of being an actor. She played small parts on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Felicity," "Dharma & Greg," and "Freaks & Geeks" before a pancreatic ailment forced her back to SLO Town and three months of surgery. The idea of the Collective was born when Raines was left in charge of all her younger cousins during a relative’s funeral.

"I had a video camera and said, ‘Let’s make a movie.’ We made a western for my dad and a film noir for my grandmother," recalled Raines.

She decided to see if any other locals shared her love of filmmaking, so she hung a flyer at Cuesta College.

"The response was immediate," said Raines. "The first meeting we had 12 people, the second 30!"

Raines wanted her group to operate democratically, so they decided to vote on the first script to be produced. Various members pitched their ideas, Hollywood-style, but in the end Raines’ own script was chosen, with her as director.

"They decided mine would be easiest, because there were only three locations," said Raines, whose story "Sepia" is a "coming of age story," a "ghost story," a "mother and daughter" story. Abraham Hyatt, arts editor for the Santa Maria Sun, New Times’ sister paper, received co-writer credit for his help with dialog on the script.

Here’s the basic story: An old woman named Henrietta lives alone in a haunted house. The ghosts within come from various time periods from the past, and Henrietta photographs them. Viewers of the film soon learn that people lured to the house are killed by the ghosts, becoming ghosts themselves, and hence models for the photographer. But aging Henrietta needs a replacement, so when a younger woman named Tora comes to the house, a relationship forms and Tora finds herself being groomed to take over the macabre tradition.

The mostly youthful members of the Film Collective felt they could cast most of the roles from within their own ranks, but the character of Henrietta was pivotal, so they decided to advertise for an actor, which drew to the role professional TV and film actor Debby Wright, an newly arrived Atascadero resident who formerly hails from the Bay Area.

"I saw an advertisement for an ‘old’ woman, 40 to 50," recalled Wright. "I thought, ‘I must be antique,’ because I’m older than that!"

Wright, who’s played roles from Queen Elizabeth to a psychic, didn’t know what to expect when she came to read for the Film Collective, but she was immediately drawn to the idea of both the Collective and Raines’ script.

"When I read it I thought it was a really interesting idea, but not until we began filming and I saw how April [Raines] worked did I begin to think we had something special here," said Wright. "She’s amazing and I’ve become the biggest advocate for the Film Collective. It’s my new cause célèbre."

Raines wanted to use all her experience and the experience of each member of the group to make a really affecting story. Because the group has limited funds and only one camera and four lights, they had to film on shear nerve and creativity.

"A lot of the changes that take place in the story coincide with the lighting," explained Raines. "The film begins at dusk, becomes scariest at the darkest part of night, with resolution coming in a sunlit room."

The group had ten gels for changing the color of the lights, and lighting and make-up was all they had to create the needed ghostly effects–no costly computer-generation. Of course, Raines had hoped to have more equipment and a smoothly running set, but she soon learned the art of filmmaking frequently requires operating by the seat of one’s pants.

The day before filming was to commence, the film crew Raines had enlisted from Los Angeles called to say they couldn’t get a truck and equipment, so they wouldn’t be coming.

"That was the worst thing that could have happened, but we were determined to make this thing even if we had to use a camcorder to do it," said Raines. "We had already put so much into it, scouting locations, holding auditions, storyboarding."

Luckily a member of the Collective was able to secure a $10,000 digital camera on loan, and even luckier, Raines found a gifted cinematographer in Zack Grant.

"I don’t know anything about cinematography," said Raines. "So Zack was a lifesaver."

But the production was plagued by problems beyond a lack of equipment. One actor, who was supposed to be playing a Civil War ghost, refused to remove his eyebrow piercing. He was replaced. Other actors didn’t show up for filming. The part of Tora, for instance, had to be recast the first day of shooting. Assistant Director Maggie Boulware took over the role, soon finding her stage experience hadn’t entirely prepared her for the "hurry up and wait" and "do it over and over" world of filmmaking.

"Stage is so different," said Boulware. "You have to be ‘on’ for two hours with no screw-ups. In film you can screw up, but you have to do each scene again and again and again and again."

At one point, Boulware was to enter a room and be startled by one of the ghosts. The crew popped a balloon as she walked through the door, sending her almost out of her skin. That was a typical low-tech solution to the group’s needs.

Last Sunday the cast and crew of "Sepia" had their wrap party, but the 30 minute film won’t be seen for more than a month. Now the painstaking editing process begins. They eventually hope to have a premier at The Palm theater. They’re also preparing to pick another script and begin pre-production.

"We were looking for a way to collaborate as a community," said "Sepia" co-writer Hyatt.

Clearly they found it, and the Film Collective membership continues to grow. Æ

Glen Starkey is ready for his close up, Mr. DeMille.