I'm the writer & producer of the feature movies "DETOURS," which is available exclusively on Amazon Prime, and "Surviving Family," which is available on iTunes & Amazon Prime.
I blog about indie filmmaking, writing, and occasionally something tangentially related.
Showing posts with label The Strand Theater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Strand Theater. Show all posts
We had a great screening of DETOURS on September 18 at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ - it was a terrific return to one of the Ocean County locations where we shot back in October 2014. The team at the Strand was wonderful, both then and now, and I hope to have the opportunity to work with them again.
The crowd included a lot of our wonderful extras, and I was so glad to see that they really enjoyed the movie. It was such fun to actually HEAR when people recognized themselves on the screen.
Photos:
Top left: Actress Celia Schaefer, director Rob McCaskill, stars/producers Tara Westwood and Carlo Fiorletta, me, and actor Craig Wollman.
Center: Stars and producers Tara Westwood and Carlo Fiorletta
Bottom: Carlo Fiorletta taking photos with our extras in the lobby of the Strand before the screening
We're very excited to be screening DETOURS at the beautiful Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ on Sunday September 18 at 7 PM!
It will be almost exactly 2 years since we went into production right here in Ocean County, New Jersey. Everyone was wonderfully helpful and supportive, and we're thrilled to bring the movie back home.
In addition to shooting at The Strand Theater itself - a gorgeous venue that dates back to the roaring 20's - we hit a lot of great local spots. The photo at the top left is DETOURS star Carlo Fiorletta on a return visit to the delightful Bay View Cafe in Lavallette, with a photo that was taken of him, his co-star Tara Westwood, and director Rob McCaskill by our stills photographer Hank Gans.
At the top right is the wonderful Paul Sorvino with Tara Westwood at another great Jersey Shore location - Charlie's Farm Market in Normandy Beach.
Tickets are $15 in advance at www.strand.org and $20 at the door. Join us on the 18th for a delightful father/daughter road trip comedy from NYC to Florida, with a lot of Jersey beautfy!
Today's DETOURS project was a visit to the beautiful Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ, which is where we'll have our New Jersey premiere! We shot a great scene there - through the magic of cameras and editing, Tara Westwood and Carlo Fiorletta walk through a theater entrance in Florida (the The Palladium Theatre in Saint Petersburg, FL) and the subsequent interior scene is in the Strand. This beautifully restored theater was built in 1922 and is a national historic landmark.
I dropped off our posters for the event, tested the hard drive with their tech guru (it worked, always a good sign!), and got a tour from the delightful Fran Whitney.
DETOURS screens at the Strand on Sunday evening September 18 at 7 PM; tickets are $15 in advance at www.strand.org or $20 at the door. The address is 400 Clifton Avenue, Lakewood, NJ. There's a municipal parking lot across the street.
I'm very excited that we're having our New Jersey premiere at one of our great filming locations - the Strand Theatre in Lakewood on Sunday night September 17 at 7 PM.
We shot a lot of DETOURS at the Jersey Shore, at terrific local spots like the White Sands Hotel in Point Pleasant, The Ark Pub and Eatery and Used To Be's, Charlie's Farm Market, and the beaches in Lavallette. I've been visiting a lot of them this week to ask them to hang our flyer for the screening, and I really love the support that we continue to get.
The best part has been seeing photos from our shoot on display at several of our locations. First I stopped by the delightful Bay View Cafe, which, through the magic of movies, serves as 2 separate locations in DETOURS. I was delighted to see a lovely photo on their wall of director Rob McCaskill (in hat) discussing a scene with stars Tara Westwood and Carlo Fiorletta.
The next day I visited Charlie's Farm Market, and was thrilled to see photos of the great Paul Sorvino with Tara Westwood in a scene from DETOURS and also chatting with line producer Caryl Pierre.
Click the link below to get tickets to this great event, which will be followed by a q&a session with McCaskill, Westwood, and Fiorletta...and me.
My services include feedback on how to improve your existing script,
re-writing it if it's time for a fresh eye, and turning your short story or novel into a screenplay. Check
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It was a great follow-up to last Saturday's screening of DETOURS at the Long Island International Film Expo to learn that DETOURS was nominated for the Best Feature Film award. We didn't win, but it truly IS an honor just to nominated.
Next up is our screening at the Strand Theatre in Lakewood, NJ on Sunday September 18 at 7 PM. More on that next time!
Director Rob McCaskill, Actors Celia Schaefer, Carlo Fiorletta, Peter Graham, & Marguerite Stimpson
Next up is a week-long run at the Sutter Creek Theatre in Sutter Creek, CA starting July 22, and a special one night only screening at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ on September 18 (tickets are on sale now!). We shot a beautiful scene at the Strand, and many other scenes in and around Ocean County, NJ and are very excited to return.
I recently needed to put together a short video of Carlo Fiorletta's
best scenes from DETOURS, and decided to share it here as well. The first scene features the wonderful Deirdre O'Connell ; she is best known as a theater actress in NYC, and can be seen in Showtime's series "The Affair." The second scene - truly one of my favorites - is with the terrific Tara Westwood, who plays Carlo's daughter in the movie.
You can see DETOURS on Saturday night July 16 at the Long Island Film Expo in Bellmore, Long Island and on Sunday September 18 at The Strand theater in Lakewood NJ. More screening dates coming (very!) soon.
"Detours" is a road trip movie, and one of the decisions we made early on is that we'd shoot the interior scenes in New York and New Jersey, then many of the exteriors while on the road to Saint Petersburg, Florida. The road trip portion of the shoot would include only the 2 lead actors and a skeletal crew (about 1/3 of what we had for the NY/NJ portion).
Jennifer Giraldi (played by Tara Westwood) is moving from NYC to Florida to make a career change: she's gotten an MFA in Theater Management, and is giving up her acting career to be the assistant director of a theater company. The audience has to feel how big this decision is for her when she shows her dad (played by Carlo Fiorletta) the theater she'll help to run and introduces him to her new boss (Michael Pressman)
A year before we started principal photography, Tara (who is also one of the producers) and I traveled to Florida (and Savannah, and Myrtle Beach, and North Carolina...) to check out potential locations. We found several nice theaters in Saint Petersburg, but our favorite was always The Palladium. It had exactly the look we wanted, and their exterior decorations were their own - meaning we wouldn't need to get releases from other artists or companies.
While Tara and Carlo would be on location in Florida, the actor playing Jennifer's boss would not be, nor would the crew that would be needed for such a complicated interior scene. So we had to find a theater in NY or NJ that met these criteria: (1) could pass as the inside of the Palladium; (2) had a raised stage and a large audience seating area; (3) wasn't in the middle of a production; (4) didn't have artwork or signage around the stage, which would create licensing issues; (4) was willing to let us use their space for a half day shoot; (5) was geographically suitable relative to our other locations; and (6) most importantly - wouldn't cost a fortune. This was by far the hardest location for us to get.
To say that we were running out of time to shoot the scene inside the theater would be a (very) polite understatement. Our terrific location manager Audrey Lorea had almost run through the (long) list of possibilities - none of which worked for one reason or another - when she reached out to the terrific people at The Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ. Not only was it aesthetically perfect for the scene, it was close to where we were then shooting in south Jersey.
We spent a morning shooting at The Strand, and it went beautifully. It was another 3 weeks before we got to Saint Petersburg and shot the beginning of the scene, walking up the steps to the Palladium. But it works!
