by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Jacksonville is beginning to build a filmmaking community. Local indie filmmakers and writers work cooperatively to form a community in which they can bounce things off each other and benefit from their differing areas of expertise.
“We all work together,” says Mike Breen of Me Again Productions “I’m helping Patrick Barry [Blue Llama] and his friend Tony Sarte…I help out more on story editing, my strength is writing and directing actors… We all write together we all edit together…Show each other rough cuts…We’d just be at the Starlite and talk shop.”
Breen is part of the burgeoning film community. He moved back to Jacksonville from Seattle and then started doing black box theater at 9th & Main as well as TSI. He began writing short films and has been doing that for the past year and a half. So far he’s done 3 shorts, one on his own and two with Damian K. Lahey, who wrote Cocaine Angel.
“I have the highest respect for him as a writer and an actor…” says Breen of Lahey. “My job is just to make sure all [his]…stuff plays out right. It’s the biggest opportunity for me.”
Breen and Lahey are currently working on several shorts, which they hope to finish by the end of this year and have ready for the big screen by early next year.
“He wants me to do five shorts with him and we’re going to do it as kind of a compilation, called Five Mile Drive. They’re all within the confines of 15 minutes….They’re tragic- comic with this little…scenario, just this little spice of life and I like that.”
He’s also working with Lahey on a feature length project, another Jacksonville-based film. Despite the same local ties as Jacksonville, this film will be a departure from Cocaine Angel, with more of a literary bent.
“It’s just totally different. The characters vary from businessmen to…children…teachers. I’m really excited about doing his stuff…As a director, that’s all you want, great material. I don’t think anyone understands how great a writer we have here in our own backyard.”
Before moving back to Jacksonville, Breen lived in Seattle, where he racked up some film creds.
“I did experimental shorts in Seattle, nothing to write home about, but I got one in the New York Film Festival and the L.A. Festival…God knows how. I think it was basically because it had Anna Faris in it…it’s not something I show people anymore.”
You might recognize Anna Faris from the Scary Movie series, which parodies Scream, but she’s also appeared in more serious roles including Brokeback Mountain and Lost in Translation. Breen worked with her just before her career was launched to a new level earlier this decade. Her name and new-found fame helped get Breen play at some of the major festivals.
Breen’s just wrapped up his last film here in Jacksonville, Face to Face. He describes that project as “sort of like a Death of a Salesman for The Internet age…It’s a …clash of culture with a Gen X person versus a Gen Y person, the disconnect that goes on between them.”
Speaking with Breen, it’s clear that he wants to help Jacksonville grow a larger community of filmmakers who aren’t afraid to use each other as resources and who have ties to the local community. It’s about artists in a collaborative relationship rather than a competitive one.
“We use all local people...We use local musicians to do our soundtracks… We just want to build this [local film] community, you know like how Austin did, how Athens and Seattle did with music.”
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