That’s a wrap!

June 10th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Article, General News | No Comments »

Principal photography wrapped on “Just Say Love” at the end of May. We’d like to take a moment to thank Granite Media Center, Eliza Leadbeater, Bob Callahan and the State of NH for their support throughout this project.

Post production has begun and we will begin posting clips to youtube in the coming weeks. Be sure to check out this blog along with our YouTube page for clips and more information as we move forward!

Photos from the shoot will be posted to our image gallery shortly, so be sure to check them out!

Granite Media Center launches first feature film

May 16th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Article, General News | No Comments »

Printed in The Winnisquam Echo May 16, 2008

BY ERIK ZYGMONT
EZYGMONT@SALMONPRESS.COM
TILTON — As the first feature film being shot at the Granite Media Center, “Just Say Love”is opening the eyes of seasoned, L.A. types and film-industry locals alike to the untapped potential and natural beauty of New Hampshire.

Granite Media Center hosted a launch party for the production last Thursday, with members of the cast, crew,and production team in attendance.

California-based actor Matthew Jaeger said that he has been enjoying the relative serenity of the Lakes Region.

“Because it’s so much quieter, it’s more conducive to focusing,” he said, adding that he enjoys waking up every morning at the inn where he’s staying to look out on Lake Winnisquam.

Jaeger added that he has been rock climbing up in Plymouth, and a crew member has been showing him the best local hiking trails.

“After lunch today I pulled two ticks off me,”he said.

Jaeger’s co-star in the two-man movie, Robert Mammana, said that he enjoys more mellow pursuits with his Lab-greyhound cross Ben.

“While you guys were driving up here,I was out in the lake with Ben, rowing,” he said. “You can get everything done, but you can still relax.”

Mammana also noted the New England hospitality.

“You sort of expect everyone will be terrific to the people involved (in the film),”he said, “but they bent over backward for my dog!”

“Just Say Love,”originally a play,is a story about two men whose physical attraction points to something much bigger, said New Englander David Mauriello,who wrote the script.

“It talks about the infinite part of us, rather than the physical,”he said.

Mauriello, like the rest of the crew and production team, had glowing comments on the Granite Media Center and the more general experience of shooting a film in the Lakes Region.

“The whole is just running so smoothly it’s amazing,”he said. “One of the characters (in ‘Just Say
Love’) talks about life being a giant jigsaw puzzle. It’s so apropos of what’s happened here.”

Executive Producer Kirkland Tibbels,from Los Angeles, said that he was pleasantly surprised by the array of resources available at Granite Media Center.

“David (Mauriello) kept saying,‘You’ve got to see this place! You’ve got to see this place!’”said Tibbels, noting that though Mauriello’s exclamation turned out to be valid, enthusiasm doesn’t
mean much where he’s from.

“In L.A., when you wave to someone you don’t know across the room, they’re your best friend when you see them in a meeting the next day,”Tibbels quipped.

Co-producer Tyler Heon is a Somersworth native, and he said that he is ecstatic to be doing his dream job in his home state.

“It’s awesome,”he said. “I’m really glad we have something like this around, and I hope it brings more work to the area. I don’t want to have to move out of the state to do what I love.”

Producer and director Bill Humphreys noted that about half of the dozen-or-so crew members responsible for lighting,sound,makeup, etc., hail from New Hampshire.

“We have a few converts we’re working on,”he added.

Shooting for “Just Say Love”wraps up on May 22.

Humphreys said that the movie has no car-chase scenes and the special effects basically consist of fake rain, snow, and leaves being blown by a fan. The film is devoted completely to the
story,he said,“keeping focus on the acting of the actors and the writing.”

“We’re trying to translate good-quality literature to the screen,kind of like they did in the 30s and 40s,”he said.

Tibbels said that “Just Say Love”is guaranteed a DVD and film festival release.The film has the “rock
solid base”of the gay audience he said, though he hopes to see it expand to an audience “as broad as we can find.”Tibbels said that the broader appeal of the nature of attraction itself, combined
with the fact that gay subject matter is “less taboo”nowadays, will hopefully propel “Just Say Love” toward commercial success.

“It’s not a gay movie,”he said.“It’s a love story.”

Gay NH-Based Playwright Gets Film Deal

May 13th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Article, General News | No Comments »

Gay love story is first film production attracted

May 12th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Article, General News | No Comments »

By Ray Carbone

Printed in The Laconia Daily Sun

5/9/08

TILTON — The Granite Media Center (GMC) held a reception yesterday to celebrate the start of filming of the facility’s first motion picture. Public offcials and private business leaders from throughout the community came to meet the cast and crew of “Just Say Love,” a film that is expected to open later this year. Stagewright Productions, the producers, starting filming earlier this week and expected to be done in about one week.

Producer/Director Bill Humphreys of Elliot, Me. said he chose the local facility for several reasons.
One was simply to be able to work near his home and employ New Englanders experienced in the field. (About one-third of the crew of “Just Say Love” is New Hampshire residents.) The other was simply to save money. “To get a facility this size in Los Angeles or New York would have been four or five times the costs,” Humphreys said. “And there’s no sales tax here.”

For Eliza Leadbeater, former executive director of the Belknap County Economic Development Council, the filming of “Just Say Love” is the fulfillment of a dream she’s had for over 12 years.

That’s when she first saw the old farmhouse and property on Autumn Drive. At the request of state arts official, she examined the 40,000-square-foot facility with the idea that it could be turned into a film production studio that would bring a touch of Hollywood magic — and business — into the Lakes Region.

Leadbeater thought she had a commitment to have a Meryl Streep movie shot at the still unfinished plant until Massachusetts film officials swept and offered the film’s producers financial inducements that couldn’t be locally matched. But shortly after Leadbeater left the council in 2007, she met with local businessman Robert Callahan and the two starting work on creating the GMC. Now production companies that are filming commercials, producing special media projects and hosting corporate events are using the facility more and more regularly.

Besides the filming facilities GMC rents both long and short-term office space while providing services — from office equipment to catering — to whoever is using the building.

While Leadbeater was talking, several members of the “Just Say Love” crew were demonstrating some “movie magic” for the crowd of about 70 people who attended the event. Co-producer/production manager Tyler Heon and electrician Danny Belinkie walked around a set where it was “snowing” — tiny soap bubbles.

Before the event kicked off, Humphreys said the movie is an adaptation of a play by David Mauriello. “The story is about a relationship between two people and how they go through that initial phase of being physically attracted to each other,” Humphreys said, “then it progresses to be something more spiritual, into and a platonic relationship.” The two main characters are gay men in their early 30s, he added.

Addressing the reception audience later, Humphreys said that what Stagewright is aiming to do is the opposite of what usually occurs in movies today. “We’re not interested in car chases or explosions,” he said. Instead the company wants to take small intimate plays like “Just Say Love” and adapt them for the screen without “opening up” the way Hollywood filmmakers usually do.

L.A. actors brought in to film regional play

May 7th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

Bill Humphreys has spent the last 35 years working in film, television and radio, 25 of those in Los Angeles. But instead of Burbank, the next project he produces and directs will be on a sound stage in Tilton.

Yes, Tilton.

But the actors come from Los Angeles.

Cast and crew will be calling the Lord Hampshire on Lake Winnisquam home this May while they shoot Just Say Love. It’s the first major production at Granite State Media (www.gmcnh.com), the Tilton facility that opened in the fall. It’s also an initial attempt on a new take for turning plays into film, Humphreys said.

“There’s been two standard methods to make the transfer from theatrical material to the screen,” Humphreys said. One is to place scenes in real-world settings, and the other is to stage the play in a proscenium arch in front of a live audience. “Both seem to come up short in some ways,” Humphreys said. For him, “that sense of theater has been lost,” he said.

Regional playwright David Mauriello was of the same mindset, the two discovered late last summer. “We both had the same vision of how to accomplish this task which has been tried time and time again,” Humphreys said.

They chose Mauriello’s play, Just Say Love, to test out their theory.

Essentially, they want to mount a black box theatrical production in a sound stage, but “impose the cameras into it” and shoot it cinematically, Humphreys said. The style would be “referred to as Brechtian,” with minimalist sets, he said. Instead of shooting in a park, for example, Boston Common will be represented by gravel and benches on the sound stage. An apartment will be a platform with doors but no walls.

“Rather than laying it all out for them … I’d rather have the audience spend a little time being curious,” Humphreys said. “The goal, of course, is to bring the audience in to the story and let them understand it from inside out, basically,” Humphreys said.

Just Say Love is a “beautifully written story, about the evolution of a relationship,” from initial physical attraction to a more spiritual and platonic relationship, Humphreys said. It was nominated for Best New Play by the Independent Reviewers of New England. It premiered at the Players Ring in Portsmouth and has also been staged in Chicago and at the BCA in Boston.

Stagewright Films auditioned in Los Angeles and cast Matthew Jaeger as Guy, a sensitive vegetarian gay artist, and Robert Mammana as Doug, a straight carpenter.

Humphreys said initially he wanted to film in New Hampshire because this is his home. Mauriello also lives in the region. But also, it’s a lot more “cost-effective” to shoot in New Hampshire than in California, or even Boston. Even though Massachusetts offers a tax credit to shoot within the state, sound stage rates can be about four times higher. And New Hampshire has no sales tax.

In addition, the Lakes Region is a “very conducive place to do creative work.”

Humphreys has won three Emmy awards. One was for a documentary about the California death penalty. Another was for a dramatic interpretation of Robert Frost’s poetry. The third was for a dramatic piece that dealt with “the plight of rural American farms.”

The cost of making the individually financed film fluctuates, but Humphreys said at least $250,000 will be injected into the Lakes Region economy from the project during May.

Stagewright plans to wrap on May 23, and has set an Aug. 1 deadline for the final product. The group distributes through Funny Boy Films in Los Angeles (www.funnyboyfilms.com), which will handle theater and television release and DVD home sales.

Humphreys said the long-range goal of Stagewright Films is to create a series of plays filmed in this manner and hope that sparks an interest among audiences in seeing live theater. “The human nature of actors performing live is just a very magical thing,” Humphreys said.

Eliot filmmaker looks to bring ‘Just Say Love’ to the big screen

May 6th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Courtesy photo Eliot, Maine-based filmmaker Bill Humphreys, right, and producer-writer David J. Mauriello on the set of their film “Just Say Love.” The pair are filming the movie in Tilton for two and a half weeks starting May 5. It’s scheduled to be distributed later this fall.

ELIOT, Maine — Bill Humphreys, an Eliot-based filmmaker, is hoping to parlay the recent stage success of the play “Just Say Love” into a hit feature film.

Humphreys, who is currently in Tilton preparing to film a screen adaptation of the play with producer-writer David J. Mauriello, said the movie will be shot entirely in an enclosed “black box” soundstage. Humphreys said he and Mauriello decided to forgo the typical on-location settings of regular feature films and incorporate the theatrical techniques of stage plays by using a bare-bones set. The pair said the minimalist style was partly inspired by Lars von Trier’s “Dogville,” a 2003 film that contained few set pieces and used painted outlines to indicate scenery.

“Our focus on style is to really try and make a marriage between live theater and the cinema,” said Mauriello, a Wakefield, Mass., native.

Humphreys, who grew up in California before moving to Eliot 20 years ago, wrote the screenplay for the film based on Mauriello’s original stage script.

“Just Say Love” explores the physical and spiritual bonds between two men, Guy and Doug, who eventually find enlightenment through their relationship, according to Mauriello.

“It’s a male love story,” he said. “It transcends the normal way we look at relationships.”

“I’ve never had anyone complain about the subject matter,” he continued. “It’s an amazing phenomenon.”

Since premiering at the Player’s Ring theater in Portsmouth last June, “Just Say Love” went on to play at the Boston Center for the Arts in Massachusetts and is scheduled to be produced in venues across the country in the coming months, according to Mauriello. The play was nominated for Best New Play by the Independent Reviewers of New England and Best Original Script by the Spotlight on Arts awards.

For the movie version, Stagewright Films, a New Hampshire-based production company, landed Los Angeles actors Matthew Jaeger and Robert Mammana for the lead roles. Jaeger has appeared in the film “Room Service” with Howie Mandel; Mammana has appeared in “Flightplan” with Jodie Foster, as well as the television shows “Numbers,” “The OC” and “Charmed.”

The film will be shot in the Granite Media Center in Tilton from May 5-22. The actors and crew are staying at the Lord Hampshire hotel in Tilton.

“We’ve taken over the place,” Humphreys said.

After post-production work is complete, the film will be distributed by the Los Angeles-based Funny Boy Films.

Mauriello originally wrote the first draft of the play in 1992 and didn’t revisit it until 2005, when he cut out much of the “philosophy” language.

“Kind of like a boiling-down process, where what’s left is the stew,” he said.

Mauriello credited the play’s success with the publicity it gained after premiering at the Player’s Ring.

“Without these small theaters that are willing to do original plays by people who are completely unknown, these works would never get out to the audience,” Mauriello said. “It shows how important it is for all of us (playwrights) to have an outlet.”

Media Center gears up for its first major project

May 6th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

THE FILM CREW at Granite State Media Center is preparing to shoot a segment of the film. On the left is Bill Humphreys. On the right are Tiffany Eddy and Tom Griffith. (RAY MONGEAU/For The Citizen)

East met west Monday when two Los Angeles-based actors joined their New Hampshire-based movie producers and began filming Just Say Love — a feature film about relationships and the first full-length movie to be filmed entirely in Tilton at the Granite Media Center.

Joining the cast of Stagewright Films of Portsmouth were WMUR’s “New Hampshire Chronicle” anchors Tiffany Eddy and Tom Griffith, who filmed a week’s worth of their news magazine segments using the media center for their backdrops.

“This is such a great asset for the state and the New Hampshire film industry,” said “Chronicle” Producer Maryann Mroczka, who described the media center as “spectacular.”

Mroczka is also on the board of directors for the N.H. Film Commission and said filming movies and television in Central New Hampshire is just what the state needs.

As Griffith and Eddy practiced their scripts in front of the Teleprompter in the screening room, Just Say Love producer and three-time Emmy winner Bill Humphreys joined about 20 members of his cast and crew for a catered lunch in the media center cafeteria.

ACTOR MATTHEW JAEGER plays one of the two leading characters, Guy, in a film being produced at the Granite Media Center. (RAY MONGEAU/For The Citizen)

“This place has been wonderful,” said Humphreys, who said part of the crew spent last week building the sets and filming had just begun at 6:45 a.m. Monday.

Makeup and hair artist Annette Sousa, who worked in Los Angeles on television shows such as “E.R.,” “Friends” and for six years “The West Wing,” recently relocated to Milford and is thrilled to be plying her craft in New Hampshire.

“It’s amazing this is here in the middle of nowhere,” she said in saying how relaxing it is to be working in New Hampshire after “escaping” from L.A. “No more two-hour traffic jams just to get home.”

The quiet and relative solitude of Tilton is something Just Say Love co-star Matthew Jaeger agreed is restful and relaxing.

“No traffic, I can go home [to Lord Hampshire Motel and Cotteges] and have a nice glass of wine and look out onto Lake Winnisquam,” he said telling his lunch buddies a tale about rowing around the lake on his day off.

“I did this panorama thing on my phone and sent it to my girlfriend in L.A.,” he said, laughing.

“‘I hate you,’ she says back.”

Bill Humphreys who is directing a film being shot at the Granite Media Center in Sanbornton talks with some members of the filming crew during a lunch break. (RAY MONGEAU/For The Citizen)

Fellow co-star Robert Mammana and his dog Ben are also enjoying the outdoors and the quiet of Tilton, spending some lunch time on the front lawn playing catch with a stick.

“It’s gorgeous,” said the dark-haired actor who appeared with Jodie Foster in “Flight Plan.”

Both Jaeger and Mammana said they are overwhelmed by how nice everyone at Granite Media and in the Lakes Region have been to them, saying that if given another film opportunity in New Hampshire they would both grab it.

Jaeger said he was especially impressed by Laconia Athletic and Swim Club, which gave the entire cast and crew complimentary memberships to use during their stay.

Meanwhile, Granite Media owner Bob Callahan and adviser Eliza Leadbeater seem to be everywhere at once ensuring the smooth operation of the equipment and facilities.

“We worked 18 months for today,” said Callahan.

“All the feedback from everyone has just been wonderful,” said Leadbeater, who added that Monday was the first time the parking lot was packed — and with cars from all over the country. “Just what I hope will continue.”

Tiffany Eddy and Tom Griffith are filmed talking about New Hampshire and it’s advantages to the film industry. (RAY MONGEAU/For The Citizen)

Meanwhile, filming for “New Hampshire Chronicle” continued, moving from the screening room to the actual set to produce another half-hour segment.

“This is a no-brainer,” said Mroczka looking around at the brand new, state-of-the-art facility. “This is so unique and it’s happening right in our own backyard.”

The “New Hampshire Chronicle” segments filmed Monday will air in two weeks.

Just Say Love will continue filming until the end of May. There is no set release date, yet.

Stagewright getting it in gear

April 24th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Article, General News | No Comments »

Printed in The Portsmouth Herald on 4/24/08

Written by Jeanne Mccartin

Well they have a name finally — Stagewright Films — a solid team, and the actors, which means David Mauriello and his crew will finally start shooting “Just Say Love,” his original play. “The actors arrive April 28. We’ll have a few days of rehearsal …; let people get to know one another. Then Bill (Humphreys) will start filming on the fourth, (at Granite Media Center in Tilton),” says Mauriello.

This is the first play Stagewright plans to film — doing so in a manner that maintains a theatrical sense while adapting it to the medium. The team includes Humphreys, the “hands on guy,” says Executive Producer Mauriello, who describes himself as the behind-the-scene/overseer.

Kirkland Tibbels is an executive producer and Tyler Heon and Brad Branch are co-producers.

The project has signed on with Funny Boy Films of California.

“They’ll bring us to the distributors.”

They also arranged the California auditions that brought Matthew Jaeger (film work examples: “Room Service” with Howie Mandel and “Elevator” with Elizabeth Berkeley; TV: History Channel, and A&E), and Robert Mammana (film examples: “Flightplan” and “Berkeley” and TV “The Unit,” “Numbers,” and “The OC.”

Turnaround will be fairly quick, says Mauriello. “This is not like the old days where you waited for film to be developed,” says Mauriello. “I think early summer we’ll have something, maybe not the final …; but fairly soon.”

The group originally planned to move right into its second project. But on the advice of Funny Boy we’ll wait “and see how this went first,” says Mauriello. “If this kicks in real fast and we get some money back, well, boy that would be terrific, and then we’d certainly get into the second one.”

Lights…Camera…

April 17th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Article, General News | No Comments »

STAGE WRIGHT FILMS producer Bill Humphreys, right, and Co-Producer Tyler Heon discuss the set for the film ‘Just Say Love’ that they plan to shoot at Granite Media Center in Tilton. (DARYL CARLSON/CITIZEN PHOTO) * Order a print of this photo

Granite Media Center has landed its first feature film contract and with production scheduled to begin in May, the project could be a boon to local businesses.

According to producer and three-time Emmy winner Bill Humphreys, the filming will require a crew of 30 professional technicians, all of whom will be staying at a local motel and eating local food.

“We’re taking over the majority of the Lord Hampshire [Motel and Cotteges],” said Humphreys. “We’ll plow about a quarter of a million into the local economy.”

Stagewright Films, a New Hampshire-based production company that melds the world of stage with the world of screen will begin filming Just Say Love on May 5. It expects to have 16 filming days and hopes to be finished by May 23.

Humphreys said the company will begin building the set on April 28 and he expects to get to know the people in some local hardware stores pretty well because the five individual sets will be built from scratch.

Written by David J. Mauriello, who is also the executive producer of the film, Just Say Love is about the evolution of a relationship and, in its original theater version, played successfully to audiences in Portsmouth, Boston and Chicago last season.

The film version stars Matthew Jaeger, who has appeared with Howie Mandel in Room Service, and Robert Mammana, who has appeared in the Broadway production of Les Miserables and in the movie Flight Plan with Jodie Foster. His television credits include Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise.

When asked why he chose the Granite Media Center, Humphreys said his company didn’t want to leave New England to produce the film and he has a long relationship with the media center, having been one of the original people who looked into converting the existing building into a film studio.

“To come back was really a treat,” he said.

Humphreys spent many years in Los Angeles before he came to New Hampshire to be the executive producer of New Hampshire Public Television, producing a series on Robert Frost’s work for public television. The last 10 years he has been an independent producer.

He said this type of film attempts to recreate the stage experience, only on the big screen. It will be filmed entirely inside the 10,000 square-foot studio, where the five different sets will be built, rather than on location.

Humphreys described his style as almost retrofitting back to the early days of Hollywood, when the set was stationary and the screen was backlit and rotating, giving as an example how in early filming the actors would be in a stationary car and the set would move behind them to simulate motion.

Humphreys has high hopes for both the Granite Media Center and New Hampshire in general as a place to make movies.

“To rent this much space in Boston would cost four times as much,” said Humphreys, adding that about 90 percent of the crew would come from New Hampshire, including interns from Keene State College.

As for the actors, Humphreys said they were “thrilled to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind them.”

“One is even bringing his dog,” he said, laughing about the “set hound” that is half Labrador retriever and half greyhound.

New Hampshire has a lot going for it, said Humphreys, who added that the lack of a sales tax plus its Right-to-Work status makes the state a desirable place to do business.

“Massachusetts tax breaks are enticing but New Hampshire still has a bigger payoff,” Humphreys said.

He said the relative quiet of New Hampshire, as opposed to Boston, helps with the “creative process” and the facility is very close to mountains, the ocean and rural areas.

He said Stagewright Films also has other projects in the works and Laconia might be a good setting for one of them.

Humphreys said Just Say Love will be ready for distribution in the fall and he anticipates the premier will be in the Lakes Region.

Meanwhile, Eliza Leadbeater, the former executive director of the Belknap County Economic Development Council who is now a consultant with Granite Medial Center, said they have been kept busy preparing office space for the crew, private space for the actors and getting the center ready.

She said they’ve hired a Laconia caterer, Christine Ricker of Portable Feast, to feed the 30-member crew during their stay and have made lists of local attractions, including places to go and things to do during their off time.

“We’ll be eating in your restaurants and visiting lots of local businesses,” said Humphreys. “You can count on that.”

SWF Featured in ‘Imagine’ magazine

April 15th, 2008 by Tyler | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

You can read all about Stagewright Films and “Just Say Love” in the April issue of Imagine Magazine!