When the region opens for film shoots, filmmakers will be there – Times Union

1of11William Tragedy Yager, the subject of a new series, "Tragic Empire," being pitched to networks by Mike Camoin's Videos For Change (image courtesy Mike Camoin / Videos For Change)William Tragedy Yager (image courtesy Mike Camoin / Videos For Change) 2of11

"Darcy" producer-director Heidi Elizabeth Philipsen-Meissner (Personae Entertainment)

As public life inches toward reopening, filmmakers around the region and the country are asking: When can they get out there?

All the projects that got delayed back in March. All the new projects that bubbled up in the long weeks since. When, and how, will film production restart?

And when it does, will there be an on-set COVID coordinator keeping an eye on safety protocols? What will unions have to say? Will whole casts be sequestered for weeks or months at a stretch? Will there be a move away from the long hours and exhausting grind that have long typified movie sets?

Its all being bandied about, said Debby Goedeke, Albany's film commissioner, whos been in dialogue with the Association of Film Commissioners International and others in the industry. Its all those things that, really, theres no template for . . . . Were just taking it a day at a time.

Ultimately, film commissioners are hoping for a statewide set of safety guidelines that would provide continuity for film productions, including big-budgeted shoots with a hefty economic impact. According to Goedeke, Albany sequences in the Angelie Jolie movie Salt, filmed in 2009, brought in around $1.5 million. Nine years later, scenes from The Punisher brought in around $250,000 in just a few days, she said.

Modest- to micro-budgeted films, drawing less notice, are also in limbo. As with all aspects of New Yorks staggered reopening, no one knows when productions of any size might resume, but Goedeke said shes been working closely with the Governor's Office of Motion Picture and TV Development. Arts and entertainment are phase four, with two weeks between each phase, but each progression is contingent on health data.

Her chief concern, as head of Film Albany: Making sure that Albany is poised and ready when those calls come in. Because Albany certainly has a lesser density than New York City and I dont mean that in a bad way but I think that there will be some productions and series that want to film towards upstate versus closer to the city. . . I think we may open up a little bit sooner than the city will.

Its easier to avoid crowds in an outdoor shoot, for one thing. For indoor shoots, Theres gonna be a huge demand for larger spaces such as the Times Union Center and other state-qualified production facilities in the city of Albany (along with the Capital Center and the Armory at Sage) and the wider Capital Region. To that end, shes been communicating with county, city and police contacts and saying, Hey, we may see an uptick, here, and I just want to make sure that were all ready to move forward whenever out-of-town film productions return.

In the meantime, home-grown independent filmmakers are busy cooking up their own plans. Below is a sampling of locally based directors, writers and other movie professionals describing (via phone, email and Facebook messages) some of their COVID-delayed or freshly brainstormed projects that they hope to get outside and shoot. Links to recent films are included in parentheses.

Jon Russell Cring and Tracy Cring (Hobo Heyseus):

The partners in filmmaking and life have a few features in various stages. . . . We had to look carefully at what projects would be right in a post-corona environment, said Jon Russell Cring.

They landed on Barksdale, a film about a middle-aged biker, John Lee Barksdale, who moonlights as a background actor in films and struggles to build a new life with his girlfriend and her 11-year-old son, Tater. He has turned his back on the violence and mayhem of his youth until his girlfriend's shady ex husband finds a video from his past.

They hope to shoot it in November or December, knock on wood, Cring said.

Christopher Gaunt ("Catching Up"):

Gaunt is working as an actor and producer on Chickadee, a biopic based on Laurina Ecobelli, the late, longtime Ballston Spa restaurateur who was raped by her stepfather and gave birth at age 13. In a landmark case, she took him to court and won.

The film, to be helmed by Emmy-winning Sylvia Caminer, was written by brother-and-sister team Lora Lee Ecobelli and Tom Ecobelli Laurinas grandchildren and will be shot with Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper when enough funds are raised.

In addition, Gaunt has spent the last several months writing a couple of dramas plus a comedy, Turning 50 because I think the worlds going to need comic relief, he said. Hell start fundraising as soon as the green flag drops on post-COVID productions. As an actor, a screenwriter and a producer, Im very eager to get out there. Chomping at the bit.

Heidi Elizabeth Philipsen Meissner (Darcy):

Currently, Im in the midst of writing one film, tweaking the script in development for another, while doing research on a third, the filmmaker said.

In addition, she wrote: Im looking forward to graduating from Eastern Michigan University with my MBA, finishing the rough draft on my first book on film distribution and pushing toward getting my next feature film, Love & Vodka a romcom made.

Prince Sprauve (Cradle):

I am close to gaining a distribution deal for Cradle! Once this is all over, Sprauve said, I will be able to bring the film up to distribution standards and possibly put Cradle in a position for the world to see it.

He also said hes bouncing around rough ideas for new films, including something that might address the current Black Lives Matter protests and the deaths that sparked them. Honestly, he said, my films are motivated by whats plaguing the community.

Joe Bagnardi (Project D: Classified)

Bagnardi is weighing a few possibilities, one of them a modern take on Edgar Allan Poes Masque of the Red Death, which I was thinking of doing before the pandemic. Not sure on this one because it may cut too close to home with what's going on. The other two ideas were sequels to two films I did.

The screenplay for one, Shadow Tracker, Vampire Hunter: Resurrection, just needs a little rewrite," he said. The other is a sequel to my film Project D: Classified, kind of like The X Files. I've also been thinking of doing a 30-minute retro-60s-type black-and-white spy film for YouTube.

Bobby Chase (Welcome Home);

I'm writing/developing a new limited TV series titled, "Breaking The 10 Commandments, wrote Chase. It's a comedy series based on two struggling priests who begin to lose their faith so they set out on a mission to try and test god by attempting to break all 10 commandments. It's a road-trip buddy comedy with a lot of heart and dives into religion and humanity in its current climate.

Among his other projects: co-producing an interview series on YouTube, which is hosted by Greg Aidala and titled Lights, Camera, Chill"; and working as a writer-producer-director-actor on the web comedy QuaranTeam.

Bhawin Suchak (executive director, YouthFX):

We do have plans to work on student films that were interrupted by the pandemic, as well as new projects from some of our alums, said Suchak of the award-winning youth filmmaking program, located on Grand Street in Albanys South End. Lots of editing too that was disrupted that we will be catching up on.

Don Rittner (Karen or Bust)

I am going to shoot a pilot for a TV show in August, I hope . . . called History on the Road, Rittner said. Me and Justyna Kostek from NYC will be riding down the original highways of America stopping at historic villages, interviewing historians and trying to solve local history mysteries. They plan to start with the Great Western Turnpike, Route 20, which started in Albany in 1799 and stretches all the way to California.

John Romeo (The Neighborhood that Disappeared, co-directed with Mary Paley):

Romeo has spent this word time working on video pieces for Troy Foundry Theatre, he said, which will be in something coming up. Beyond that: Ive had a short film David Bunce, David Girard and I shot last summer-fall. I set it aside before I was to edit to have a little distance. .. and then all hell broke loose with COVID-19. And I just kept looking at it and felt why? It seemed so irrelevant. It wasnt until a month or so, when folks involved started asking about it, that I shamed myself back to the edit.

Bruce Hallenbeck (London After Midnight):

I have spoken to an Emmy-winning New York filmmaker (I can't reveal his name just yet) about two nonfiction projects that are close to our heart, Hallenbeck said. The first is a documentary about the various locations in the world where James Bond films have been shot (it would be a great excuse to travel the world!) and the second is a biography of Sir Christopher Lee. Once this horrible pandemic is over whenever that might be we hope to do one or both of these projects.

Mike Camoin (Videos for Change):

Among Camoins new projects is Tragic Empire, a reality show about Albany entrepreneur William Tragedy Yager thats currently being pitched to major networks by VFC. As the blurbage explains: He was a runaway, street punk, dumpster-diving, squatter, bounced drunks and broke a few legs. . . . Today, Yager is what they call a serial-social entrepreneur, owning barber shops, tattoo parlors, a laundromat, a meadery and even an ice cream shop. It concludes: They call him Tragedy, and this is his Empire.

Other Camoin projects include the documentary Scared to Debt: Americas Student Loan Scam and the docu-series "Out of This League, about the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

Jeff Kirkendall (Halloween Horror Tales):

My next project is actually an acting role in a feature film tentatively scheduled to shoot in late summer, Kirkendall said. Titled Camp Murder, its a collaboration between independent filmmakers Will Collazo from Long Island and Mark Polonia from Pennsylvania. I've been cast to star as the masked killer Terrible Tommy. My friend local filmmaker/actor Tim Hatch from Schenectady is also set to act.

The film concerns a deranged mental patient (who) escapes on the anniversary of the day he murdered his family and returns to the camp to start another killing spree, he explained.

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When the region opens for film shoots, filmmakers will be there - Times Union