NOTES FROM A HAPPY VALLEY

 

Did you know that Happy Valley, where we abide, is also a term for paradise?  It’s right there in your Thesaurus.  Our third film, titled “Chasing Butterflies,” or “Jagen der Schmetterlinge,” in German – which rolls right off the tongue -- was anything but paradise to make.  But now that shattered windows, shattered dreams and a vintage Corvette nearly cracking in half are a distant memory, it is time to answer the Q & A queries of Chris Gore (Film Threat):  

 

1.  What was the budget?

The budget was south of $100,000, scary considering the grant-givers tend to view what we do as “commercial.”  If only!   Most of the money was spent on Twizzlers, Red Bull and half-drank bottles of water—or so it seemed.  We received $300 in meal money from Penn State, which lasted two days.  They promptly asked for it back when we shattered our fleet van window in a freak accident, which cost $700.  That’s a lot cheaper than restoring the front end of a 1973 Corvette once it has fallen off a faulty rental trailer ($900).  And it is cheaper than replacing 3-pane-thick bullet-proof glass when it cracks under the heat of an HMI ($1600).  Insurance covered the last one, less a deductible, thank goodness.  I also think Zach Myers (Chipper) made more money watching it rain than the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore.  He worked eight extra days because of the weather.

 

2.  How long did it take to shoot?

Twenty-nine days/nights (sometimes both) I think.  I believe there is Biblical significance in that number, in that I swear it rained 29 days and 29 nights, interrupted by scattered episodes of sunshine and I believe I saw the moon once just long enough to be maddened by it.  You recall the Stock Market Crash preceding the Great Depression was in 1929, ending on Black Tuesday, October 29?  It feels as if we could lose just as much on this picture.  However, if I were to leap out my window I would probably only ruin a hydrangea that is already paid for.  I have been accused of being a deciduous filmmaker at times, however.

 

3. Is the film autobiographical?

Ha!  No, I mow the grass, shovel snow (often in the same week), cook, clean and endure the humiliation trying to convince film students that they are merely a Rigil Kentaurus distance away from stardom.  My life should be so interesting.  That said, I have seen DJs put on long cuts and leave when I was in college radio.  I climbed out a window once to visit a girlfriend when I was 15 (she was asleep when I got there, and a good thing because I wouldn’t have known what to do next).  But let’s face it; if I vanished now my mother-in-law would hunt me to the ends of the earth just to remind me that she never cared for me in the first place and then she’d beat me to death with her broom.  

 

4.  Where did you find your actors?

Nothing personal, but you can’t swing a cat and not hit an actor, especially if you post a casting notice.  And that doesn’t count the approximately 180 million other Americans who consider themselves actors, if only given the chance.  I tend to cast the same people and ask them whom they suggest.  I found Zach Myers in a drama class in Carlisle, PA, through a friend’s mother.  Amy Brienes (Nina) is best known as the “woman who wrestles the turkey” in the Jennie-O ads.  Eric Walton (Slash) is a successful and somewhat controversial illusionist.  His one-man show Esoterica has played here and abroad to excellent reviews.  Maria Cellario (Mrs. Davis) has a long theatre career, plus film and television work in notables like Children of a Lesser God and Fools Rush In.

 

5. Where did you get the idea for the film?

I began with George Feydeau’s one act “The Marriage Go-Round.”   I asked myself:  how could this happen today?  I also played a writing game with myself where I tried to make sure that any detail came back later in a new light.  That’s when the idea of the butterfly effect and the notion of chaos theory (seemingly random events that are deterministic stemming from their initial state) took hold thematically.  The three story lines are reminiscent of 1930s, late 1950s and contemporary road movies, respectively.    

 

6. What does the title mean?

I think I answered that.  The working title, “East of Jesus,” was a play on the Midwestern slang phrase for the middle of nowhere, “East Jesus.”  I thought it was an idiomatic phrase, but I found that people either thought that I was being sacrilegious or, ironically, that I had some hidden religious agenda.  It was harder to explain than f-stops to the camcorder generation.  Think beauty, fate and futility.  That’s this movie.

 

7.  What format is it?

DVCPro HD format.  I’ve been trying to scramble this and spell other words.  With one vowel, that’s pretty tough.  But backwards it’s very close to Door+PC+VD, which tells me if you aren’t using a Mac you are likely to catch a virus.

 

8.  Who are your influences?

Well I start with those who tell me “no,” like my wife.  Then I move on to my lack of money, which profoundly influences what I do.  From there I try to channel Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks and others through a semi-contemporary viewpoint.  The films I like best look like they were easy to make, even though I know that they weren’t.  That’s when you feel like you are in the hands of a good storyteller.

 

9.  Where did you shoot the film?

Right here in Happy (Monsoon) Valley, PA.  Home of the Penn State University.  Home of the Nittany Lions, the most unoriginal cheer in history (“We are…!”), and a coach so old that he saw Rutgers play Princeton in 1869--and still uses many of the same formations.  He’s also won more games than the New York Yankees, I think.  We have a stadium the size of Bryce Canyon where fans perform what is called a “white out,” as if this town wasn’t white enough already.  Actually it’s a very nice place to live and gets more diverse every day.  The Stevens Motel is 30 miles south of here in Lewistown, PA.  It’s not easy to find a motel with windows to climb out of, which was necessary.  Among the challenges there were moths the size of crows—that would attack--but that you could not kill, as if they have evolved from armadillos.  It was best to reason with them.

 

10.  What’s the film really about?

The “butterfly effect” posits that one small change can affect history by changing the never-ending chain of circumstances that result from that decision.  Weren’t Adam and Eve stupid people?  She took the Apple, didn’t she?  We could still be in Happy Valley if it weren’t for those two idiots, though I’d cut Adam some slack—she was naked and she offered.  He was straight and under 50.  No excuse, but I see his dilemma.  Nevertheless these are our collective parents we’re talking about. Take that to therapy.

 

11.  What else are you working on?