Pensacola Independent News

A&E | Vol 6, No. 15, April 20, 2006
(Torture in Guantánamo)
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Filmmakers’ Paradise?

TALE OF TWO LOCALLY
SHOT MOVIES

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times for "What We Did On Our Holidays" director, W. Scott Peake.

He's on the corner of Palafox and Garden and his cast and crew of about 40 out-of-towners—including U.K. film celebrities Frank Harper and Gina Bellman—are dotting the streets and sidewalks of downtown Pensacola.

Peake, resting in his director's chair near New York Nick's sports pub, is oddly laid back while the film's director of photography, George Reasner, is blocking the exterior shot that ultimately ends up as the film's intro sequence.

"Are y'all shooting a film?" asks one passerby, speaking with an obvious "inside voice."

Peake smiles and nods.

"This is how I like to make films," says Michael Bowen, a veteran character actor known for his role in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" and David Carradine's younger brother. "We don't have a huge caravan of trailers with people who have egos on this set."

The film's British stars, Harper and Bellman, are decked out in stereotypical tourist garb—like a Hawaiian shirt and a golf visor—as Harper leads his on-screen family down Palafox.

The "Holidays" set is hot. Literally.

It's early September '05 and all four of the featured actors are sweating and fanning themselves from the heat. They're also swatting at what seems to be imaginary bugs while the camera pans down the street to capture downtown's timeless charm.

Fast forward almost eight months after that initial shoot, Peake says Pensacola's humid climate helped create a needed tension with his "Holidays" team.

"The one thing I really had going for me was the way I cast the movie," he says, calling from his home and post-production studio in Los Angeles. "For it being an 18-day shooting schedule, which is super fast for a feature film, every actor showed up totally prepared."

Peake says his cast of Brits freaked when they had to deal with the swarms of love bugs and mosquitoes that infiltrated his set at Adventures Unlimited in Milton.

"Some of the actors were going crazy about the bugs," he says with a laugh.

"I've noticed during edits that there are shots where you can clearly see the bugs flying around," Peake continues. "There's one shot where one is resting right on Frank Harper's forehead and he doesn't even notice it."

The 41-year-old director, who began production of his film days before Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast, says his experience shooting in Northwest Florida was generally positive.

"The only downside was shooting in Milton when the planes were flying over," he recalls. "We had to do several retakes because of plane noise."

One of Peake's producers called the naval base to find out if he could film around the flight schedule.

"The woman at the base told us that she couldn't do anything about it," he quips, "and that freedom was flying over our heads."

RAISING 'HELL'

Kevin Wheatley, a Gulf Breeze native and actor-director of "The Beach Party At The Threshold of Hell," says heat was an issue when shooting his film during the summer months on the white-sand beaches near Fort Pickens.

"People would complain how hot it was out there shooting, but I'm just thankful that things weren't worse. No one got hurt," he says, adding that the film's grip truck nearly avoided a head-on collision with a drunk driver.

"There was a little bit of red tape," Wheatley reflects. "Because we were shooting on a national park, we had to hire a park ranger during the shoot. All things considered, it ran fairly smooth. You look back at all of that stuff and something like the heat really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things."

Wheatley, who is currently taping a sitcom pilot with Christine Baranski in Los Angeles, says his experience filming near Fort Pickens ultimately turned out to be positive.

"I loved shooting in Pensacola and it was great being home with my family for a month," Wheatley adds.

And, he says, the locally shot footage—with its eerie Pensacola Beach landscape—has become the rage among his entertainment industry friends who've seen the finished product.

"The film is called the 'Threshold of Hell' but the whole idea is that it's a magical oasis in this post-apocalyptic world," he explains. "After seeing the film, people ask all the time about the locations and where we shot because it's such a unique landscape."

The full-length feature, which has been accepted into several film festivals including one in Los Angeles, is complete and ready for a premiere sometime this summer.

However, Wheatley is already planning ahead.

The filmmaker is in the process of hashing out two sequels to "Threshold of Hell," both set on the beaches of Pensacola. Wheatley is currently in discussions to shoot the films consecutively in Nov. 2007.

"The sequels will keep the same main characters and focuses on their struggles," he explains. "However, the threat gets bigger and involves literally the entire world closing in upon them."

FILM IN P'COLA?

Northwest Florida's film commissioner, Tom Roush, is optimistic about Pensacola's potential as a future leader within the film industry.

"The long-term benefits of these films is in the images they create that will be seen around the world," Roush says. "We want to be perceived as a desirable place to go, vacation and live. Look at your exotic film locales like Hawaii and Miami. Our goal by supporting these films is to elevate our image."

Roush says that the state's office of film and entertainment, led by Florida's film commissioner Paul Simmons, is spearheading the efforts to bring film projects to our neck of the woods.

In the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1, the state plans to triple the incentive funds, from $10 million to $30 million, set up to lure potential filmmakers to our state and ultimately to our region.

"It's going to be hard for Pensacola to compete with say, Miami, in the immediate future in terms of volume of production," he contends. "But as the area grows, media production will grow with it. What I'm really hoping will happen is that we'll end up with some niche within the industry that we can dominate."

Ed Schroeder, the Chamber of Commerce's vice president of tourism, echoes Roush's enthusiasm.

"I think the industry is going to grow in our area," Schroeder says. "What we can do to help it grow is to offer a larger inventory of production sites needed by the industry. If we have studios and set areas to compliment the natural beauty of our slice of paradise, it would make things easier."

Meanwhile, Schroeder believes locally shot films like "What We Did On Our Holidays" and "The Beach Party At The Threshold of Hell"—and the slew of TV shows recently shows shot on our beaches—will showcase Pensacola's unadulterated landscapes and almost-pristine beaches.

"Sometimes we forget how extraordinarily unique our area is, even while we're recovering from the hurricanes," Schroeder insists. "Just two weeks ago, there was a live remote of the 'Rick & Bubba Show' set up behind the Hilton Garden Inn and the shots captured the sun rising from 6 to 8 a.m."

The vice president of tourism says that the shock jocks were blown away by the beauty.

"Not only were the visuals captured by the camera just absolutely breathtaking," he recalls. "But the two hosts were overwhelmed by how heavenly and almost surreal it was."

Schroeder continues: "It's almost too much for them to handle how beautiful Pensacola is."

sam@inweekly.net

FILM FACTS

'WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS'

Director: W. Scott Peake
Starring: Frank Harper, Gina Bellman, Phoebe Thomas, Jonathan Bailey, David Carradine and Michael Bowen
Status: Post-production
Website: www.whateverentertainment.com
Plot: In this outlandish black comedy, Eric (Frank Harper), a mild mannered man, takes his wife (Gina Bellman) and his children (Jonathan Bailey and Phoebe Thomas) on what he believes will be a final happy holiday before his kids leave the nest. Instead of a peaceful vacation, Eric is thrust into a world of sexual decadence, headless corpses, sadistic policemen (Michael Bowen), murderous fish and one wise old man (David Carradine).
Possible Film Fests: Cannes Film Festival, Pensacola Bay International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Sundance.

'THE BEACH PARTY AT THE THRESHOLD OF HELL'

Director: Kevin Wheatley and Jonny Gillette
Starring: Kevin Wheatley, Paul Whitty, Chandler Parker, Jamie Bullock, Daniel Baldwin and Jane Seymour.
Status: Final cut
Website: www.thresholdofhell.com.
Plot: Based upon the events of American History at the end of the 21st Century. The locally shot film is about the wasteland the U.S. has become after it's been nuked. Cut to 20 years later in the year 2097 when the survivors have emerged from underground bunkers and are now deciding the political fate of the renewed nation.
Possible Film Fests: Boston International Film Festival, Brooklyn Underground Film Festival, Pensacola Bay International Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.

InWeekly

Filmmakers’ Paradise?