Reel Report

REEL REPORT WHODUNIT?

Don’t Film the Crime if You Can’t Do the Time. In the three years since filmmaker Michael Eric embarked on shooting his crime drama, Connected, here on digital video, the director-producer-writer has gotten married, had twins, seen a Hollywood crew come and go in his footsteps, literally, and rewritten his own script (co-authored with David V. Allen) numerous times to accommodate the unplanned entrances and exeunts of various key actors. He’s shooting again this weekend, and hopes to premiere the finished feature next year: "The end is in sight. I think we’re going to be done shooting this summer. The editing is already being done, we’re in post-production stage." The Strongsville resident describes Connected as the story of a kid growing up in a mobbed-up section of Brooklyn, N.Y., torn between the right side of the law and the glamour of crime: "He gets involved in some trouble and he gets himself and his family in some trouble." Except for some second-unit location work in New York, Connected was shot in Cuyahoga County, finding an East Coast flavor in a neighborhood much frequented recently by 35mm Hollywood movie folk shooting their own crime flick: "The Collinwood area had a look we wanted." Eric also found that the Welcome to Collinwood crew frequented the same locations he had previously used during his once-and-future shoots, such as Broadway and East 55th. While Welcome to Collinwood got quite a bit of media attention, Eric has deliberately kept Connected low-key, despite the participation of literally hundreds of local folks and extras along the line. So, as Connected edges toward completion, what has first-time filmmaker Michael Eric learned? "The biggest lesson is I don’t want to do another project that’s going to take three years to shoot. It’s been a great experience, but I learned that I want to try and at least shoot in a concise time frame."

Crime Story 2. Meanwhile, at a different rate of speed, prolific Cleveland writer-director-producer Alex P. Michaels is at it again, commencing a new digital-video film noir feature about a kidnaping, entitled I Dare You to Kill Her. "This is supposed to be a quick one," he says, "editing as we go along, and I’ll try to have it out late September." Shooting in the Cleveland State University area, I Dare You to Kill Her stars Dawn Michele Sniadak, along with local martial arts champ (and Michaels’ producer) Johnny Wu. You can watch the feature’s progress online at Michaels’ production journal and website, http://www.prelude2cinema.com/, which also gives vital information about Michaels’ call for movies for distribution on his own VHS and DVD labels. You can check out a multimedia interview with Michaels at http://www.filmedincleveland.com/.

O Chuck Barris, Where Art Thou? This may be a crime report also, depending on one’s sensibilities. If you’re sick of the "reality TV" craze, in which voyeuristic cameras follow the travails of contestants to win big prizes and a simulacrum of achievement and honor, then the place you won’t want to be is Shooter’s on the Water on the West Bank of the Flats, today, July 11, from noon-8 pm. That’s where emissaries of the WB Network are holding tryouts for Lost in the USA, a reality show intended for the network’s Sunday-night fall lineup. The program will pit three-member teams against each other in 48 hours of harrowing cross-country tasks and stunts (like, what, trying to watch two days of WB programming?). Bring a valid ID and a recent photo of yourself. If you can’t make the audition but still want to represent Cleveland in the reality-TV constellation, you can mail your qualifications (include a phone number) to: "Lost in the USA" Casting, 15303 Ventura Blvd., 9th Floor, Sherman Oaks, CA, 91403. — Charles Cassady Jr.