In April the Focus Fest 2005, The University of Memphis student film and video festival, took place to a sold out audience at downtown's Muvico Peabody Place 22 Theater.
University of Memphis independent filmmakers pitched their current film projects by previewing 15 minutes of assembled footage. Memphis-based Old School Pictures headlined the festival with a prologue to their work-in-progress, "Act One."
After eight films together and many years in the business, the creators got straight to the point this time by beginning the preview with the caption: "The purpose of this piece is to create awareness of the project and to find potential investors before the remainder of the film is shot in summer 2005. It is the intent of Old School Pictures to compete in the film festival circuit in the fall of this year."
The film festival they referred to was the Indie Memphis Film Festival that ran all last week at Muvico. The caption proposed a number of goals for the project before filming began July 21. As they accepted the Best Narrative Feature award Saturday night, they finally began to celebrate the accomplishment of these goals.
"We all met in high school during our senior year in a film and video class taught by Joey Watson (who is now on the faculty in the Communication Department on campus). From then on, the rest is history-in-the-making," said Mark Norris, producer of "Act One."
Norris, along with Allen Gardner, Matt Weatherly and Brad Ellis graduated from Houston High School in 1999.
All with the exception of Gardner went to The University of Memphis where they continued to learn from Watson, who they call the "Yoda of Old School Pictures."
"These guys were film students of mine, and I saw in them, from the beginning, strong visual skills and a sharp awareness of genres," Watson said. "We started making movies together almost immediately. I remain proud of all our efforts together."
Ellis, the film's director, pointed out how different it was to shoot this movie.
"I remember when we were filming "Path of Fear" in 2002, and Starbucks wouldn't let us do a simple dialogue coffee scene in their shop," Ellis said. "Now, Starbucks is one of our biggest sponsors for this project."
Starbucks, along with Malco Movie Theatres, The Blue Monkey and Black Lodge Video, were among sponsors that brought this movie's budget to $12,000, up from $2,000 for their previous projects.
"The prologue was used for investors, but it was primarily used to catch the seriousness of us making this film," Ellis said.
"We didn't have any problems with anyone not letting us film a scene this time around," he continued.
This could be in part due to the success of "Hustle and Flow", a movie filmed exclusively in Memphis by Craig Brewer, who attended Old School's prologue screening back in April.
"He's attended most of our premiers and has offered me some really good industry advice," Ellis said.
Old School Picture's Web site (www.oldschoolpictures.net) describes "Act One" as a "comedy-drama that relays the story of Kevin Hansen, a confident, immature 22-year-old screenwriter."
The screenwriter, Kevin Hansen, is played by Gardner, the actual screenwriter. The female lead is played by Bettina Adger, an actress who auditioned in Los Angeles, where Gardner lives.
According to Weatherly, "Allen had to step it up because of Bettina. She gave him a new level to perform at. This is Allen's best performance to date."
Watson himself also stars in the film as Joel Goldsmith, a smart, savvy, talented producer.
"Even though this is our second festival win, I feel it certainly demonstrates a maturity amongst the group, both aesthetically and narratively," Watson said. "It shows that we're continuing to develop our skills and utilize our talents as filmmakers."
Watson also brought along Casey Cannon who plays Gaby Lane, the sweet, earnest, multi-talented love of Kevin's (Gardner's) life. Also on board once again was Natalie Jones, a University of Memphis Theatre graduate, who has appeared in numerous Old School features.
Old School Pictures premiered "Act One" on Thursday night to a sold out crowd at the Peabody Place.
"It's a movie about connecting with people while transitioning into adulthood in an abstract way as well as physical," said Ellis. "Everyone is going to take something from this movie. Everyone is going to connect."
Studio on The Square is talking to Old School about running the movie.
Meanwhile, they have already begun their next project - "I Kid You Not," a sketch comedy show. Old School Pictures creators continue to be ambitious and dedicated to their passion.
"So many of our friends get in so many bands and break up," said Norris. "We live together and work together. We all think it's amazing that we're still doing this after something started in high school. It's only going to get better."
