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PADDY/JOSH "Kiss
me I'm Irish" (L) Lasher Brown as Josh and (r)
Boston Comedian Bill Campbell as
Paddy Gavin in GAVIN'S WAY.
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"My first script was this
big budget, Tarantino-esque film," says D.R. Farquharson.
"And that was a big mistake."
Farquharson is sitting at
a table at the Front Street Coffeehouse in Salem,
Mass., where he did some of the writing for his second
script, the one that got it right. Borne of more knowledge
and experience, this one is a smaller story that integrates
his experiences growing up in a blue collar, Irish-Catholic
family with the world he's discovered as an actor.
He didn't make any of his characters actors, but by
contrasting the liberal, anti-establishment views
and restlessness of the creative world with those
of tradition-burdened Irish-Catholics, Farquharson
found sharp conflict that worked well as comedy. For
example, in an early scene one of the three male leads
announces to the family that he's gay, and then tops
it by introducing his boyfriend, who is black.
"Basically," Farquharson says,
"I wrote a story that would make my great-great grandmother
turn over in her grave."
Farquharson is the writer/director/star
of Gavin's Way, a first-effort film that some viewers
have likened to LOOK WHO'S COMING TO DINNER meets
THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN. It earned praise in 2000, including
winning the Breakthrough Film Award at the New York
International Independent Film and Video Festival
(held in Los Angeles).
The on-line magazine Film
Threat listed it among the "Ten Best Unseen Films
of 2000," and wrote, "It comes as a welcome surprise
to finally encounter a contemporary romantic comedy
where the characters behave like mature and intelligent
adults who face genuine and heartfelt scenarios. If
any US indie film feature deserves a distributor,
this is it."
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Director, D.R.
Farquharson (Middle) talking with (L) David
Chic - Art Director and (r) Socorro Ortega -
Assistant Director on set of GAVIN'S WAY at
the Beachcomber on Plum Island,MA.
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It may have also netted a
profit: as this story was filed, Farquharson and his
filmmaking partners (Denton Hunter and Dan Johnson
from Newburyport, Mass.) were mulling a distribution
offer. They were hoping for at least a limited theatrical
release, and to recoup enough to fund their next project,
a film which begins shooting in June.
"I was looking at this as
a calling card film, and it actually went above and
beyond that," says Farquharson, who lives in Salem.
"It's been a nice calling card, to tell you the truth."
Filmed in 13 days (spread
over three weeks) on 16-milimeter film, GAVIN'S WAY
was shot on Massachusetts' northern shore, in Newbury,
Newburyport and Salisbury. Much of it takes place
on Plum Island. Shooting took place in October 1999,
at the same time THE PERFECT STORM, was shooting in
Gloucester.
Because he doesn't have the
distribution deal signed, Farquharson is reluctant
to release budget numbers. "Basically, what we're
talking about (to shoot the film) is the price of
an average sedan," he says. "Until the deal's locked,
we don't want to talk about what the exact dollar
amount was. I'm excited to lock it up, because I'd
love to tell people what we spent."
Farquharson, 29, was an actor
who went to Los Angeles and got some work as an extra
before the Martin Luther King Day earthquake of 1995
(and the girl he was living with) convinced him to
move back east. Disheartened by the experience, he
took a day job as a technical recruiter, and set about
making money to pay off the debt from his LA stay.
A year later, he began to
write. Over the next two years, he composed a first
script that was terrible.
"When I first read it, I didn't
know it was," he says. "I was sitting at my cubicle
thanking the academy and wondering what it was going
to be like to have Tim Burton as a neighbor. Then
I actually started to let people read it. My friends
thought it was cool, but then I sent it out to somebody
in LA, and they just creamed me. They told me it was
terrible. My feelings were hurt, but after a couple
of months I realized that it really was bad."
He began taking classes, starting
with one at the Boston Film and Video Foundation taught
by Scott Anderson. Anderson (who has a small part
in Gavin's Way) invited Farquharson and the others
in the class to join the Harvard Square Scriptwriters.
"That's where I got hooked,
and where I started writing my second script, which
was GAVIN'S WAY." Those who read the script were enthusiastic,
and it fit the requirements of a low-budget independent.
It's a character-driven piece with just 10 sets and
a small ensemble cast.
Farquharson intended this
as a showcase of his acting and writing, and also
wanted to direct. He got a boost from an unexpected
source when, while taking classes at the Harvard Extension
School. He met filmmaker and Harvard grad Frank Ciota
(THE NORTH END) of Lynn, Mass.
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The Gavin Cousins
w/ Nana Gavin Bernice "Bunny" Bronson. The Gavin
cousins (L)
Brian Hammer- Ralph, (M) D.R. Farquharson, Eric
and (r) Beno Chapman, Nic.
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"I sat in on a meeting where
he talked about how he got his film made. At the end
of it, I asked him if he'd read a script. I had just
finished GAVIN'S WAY.. He said, Yeah, sure'" Farquharson
took Ciota's business card and overnighted the script
to him. The following day, Farquharson walked into
his apartment after work and learned that Ciota had
called twice. The phone rang again, and it was a very
enthusiastic Ciota.
"He said, This is a really
great script. This is funny You've got to do what
it takes to get this done.'
"He was basically giving me
the same advice he had gotten from Michael Corrente
(FEDERAL HILL, OUTSIDE PROVIDENCE). He had met him
a year before he made THE NORTH END. (Ciota) gave
me some advice and got me set up. He showed me what
he did in the beginning to get things done, and told
me that if I really wanted to do it, just do it. Don't
wait around for anybody else. It was that encouragement
that really made me believe. That was the thing that
solidified it for me.
"Up until then, I had my goals
but it still felt like it was family and friends.
This was a total stranger who had been through the
business and told me, Hey, this is good.' It was
a great push for me."
Johnson, an actor friend,
hooked on as co-producer and took one of the roles,
and the two put a notice on the Mass. Film Office
Hotline in January 1999. They cast the film over the
next few months, and began extensive rehearsals. The
film required a 15-person cast (six featured roles)
with a 14-person crew.
Executive producer Denton
Hunter had never produced before.
"He's a salesman, fascinated
by film, has always loved it," Farquharson says of
Hunter, a friend and roommate of actor/co-producer
Johnson. Johnson brought in Hunter when a deal with
another producer/investor fell through. Hunter had
no experience, but he had enthusiasm and contacts.
"He knew a lot of people who'd
done well in the dot.com market, and this would be
a novelty investment for them," Farquharson says.
Hunter came through, although
when shooting started the coffers were long on promises,
and short on cash.
"We had half the film ordered,
the crew was there, we looked in the bank account,
and there was only $6,000 there," Farquharson says.
"A lot of people had committed, but when it came to
collecting they were still kind of iffy. So, we started
bringing them down to the set as we were going. We
shot the thing in 13 days, so we had to raise all
the money in that 13-day time period to get everybody
paid."
Most of the members of the
crew had just worked on an independent film that was
never finished, because the producers ran out of money.
Some were owed money for some of their work on that
film, and were concerned that it might happen again.
"For the first couple days,
they were a little grumpy," Farquharson says. "It
takes a little bit of trust to win them over. By the
end of the film, we were like one giant family, because
people were getting paid, they knew it was going to
happen, and they enjoyed working on the set. In independent
film, if you don't have a reputation, they really
don't know. They're going out on a limb that they're
going to be paid on Friday.
"When we set out, we knew
this was going to be of BROTHERS MCMULLEN quality,
because of the limited funds that we had. It came
out looking a lot better than we thought. The cinematographer,
Matt Wagenkect is just unbelievable. He did a great
job. He maximized the dollars that we had." One well-known
Plum Island location that actually served as multiple
sets is one called Atty May's Beachcomber. Half of
the L-shaped building was undergoing renovations,
and the owner let the crew use that side as a soundstage.
"We had to take turns with
the guy working on the roof," Farquharson says. "We
worked out a plan where whenever we went to shoot
- it takes an hour, an hour and a half to actually
set up a shot - he stopped hammering."
While Hunter was able to gather
the money for shooting, the filmmakers needed additional
cash to complete editing of the film. The version
that won the award at the New York Independent International
Film and Video Festival was a rough-cut version shown
on Beta.
"It's taken a long time to
get it edited, mostly because we've all got day jobs,"
Farquharson says. "We were scraping pennies to get
it done, too."
For more about GAVIN'S WAY,
check it out at www.gavinsway.com
David
Rattigan's writing has appeared in several national
and regional magazines. He is writing a screenplay
with flat characters and a moronic plot, which he
expects to sell to Hollywood.
