OVERSERVED

OVERSERVED- Joe Gatto, writer/director- Liquid Lunch Productions

By Adam Stander

It all started with an email from acting coach Peter Kelley that the independent feature OVERSERVED was looking for extras for an upcoming scene to be shot at the Sam Adams Brewery. It sounded like fun, and I had just been in another feature the week before and thought what the heck.

I convinced my photographer friend Mark to accompany me on the shoot, promising this wouldn’t be his average Sunday at a bar. And proceeded to get lost searching for the tour plant in Jamaica Plain.

We found the brewery and went directly to the set where I met director Joe Gatto and immediately joined the small crowd of extras sitting at tables near the bar. The cozy and well appointed pub just inside the tour facility of the brewery has been where the main action takes place for most of the movie. Joe has used the space provided by Sam Adams (on days when there aren’t tours) for rehearsals and the movie, which is already 75% shot. He plans to have a final cut by late September of this year.

After two quick scenes of interactions between patrons and wait staff, we graduated to the bar where the real fun takes place. We quietly sip our Sam Adams’ drafts and mime talking during takes. We can barely hold back the laughter as we listen to the hilarious banter back and forth between bartenders, waitresses and wise-ass customers, while dp Tony Flanangan swiftly readjusts the camera angle for a different take.

OVERSERVED, as you might have guessed, is about the bar business, and Arlington native, Joe Gatto, knows a lot about that subject having been a bartender in both Boston and California for over ten years. In Joe’s words OVERSERVED is a revenge movie for anyone who has been in the restaurant business, it’s like Clerks meets Cheers.

Joe is no stranger to the movie business either. His first short BEYOND RANDOM a ten minutes short, comprised of skit humor ala Saturday Night Live. He shot it in the San Francisco area six months after having re-located there from Boston in ’91 to pursue an acting career.

BEYOND RANDOM earned a couple of comedy awards at local festivals and he went on to make 3 more shorts after that. One entitled ANTI-CHRIST KITTEN, a cat comes back from hell to dominate the world, a :45 second short that won at a short attention span festival, this was shot on a mixture of high 8 video and super 8 film.

Joe returned to Boston in ’98 and shot a short entitled PAIN SCHMAIN, a spoof of a Tylenol ad, shot on super 16 that played locally in Harvard Square. Joe worked with long time friend and collaborator Tony Flanagan producing and writing the short. Joe and Tony shot a follow-up documentary-spoof on the making of the movie, where Tony and Joe play clueless directors who have spent millions on an ad that goes nowhere.

OVERSERVED follows the antics of two bartenders, one played by Joe, working at a bar called The House of Booze taking place in a two month time period of working in the business. Along the way a wager is made that puts the bar in jeopardy of closing pending the outcome of an employee baseball game, to be shot on the diamond of the Boston Common. Now add two more endings to this hilarious plot, and this audience is in for an interesting ride.

Joe has devoted the past year to writing, casting, and fundraising for OVERSERVED. Coincidentally it was when Joe was bartending for Sam Adams Jam Fest last year he saw local stand-ups Scott Carney and Lamont Price perform, and asked them to be in the movie, Scott just happened to work for Sam Adams and greased the wheels for the brewery to be the first sponsor to come on board providing the rehearsal and shooting sequences for the bar scenes.

In March Joe showed a Beta-Sp version short of OVERSERVED at the House of Blues in Cambridge, a fundraiser he arranged for the movie. There were performances by local stand-ups and bands 3 Percent, Average White Boys who wrote the title music for the movie. There are a total of six local bands on the original soundtrack for OVERSERVED.

Joe’s screenplay has impressed many important artistic and technical heavyweights here in Boston. After having read the screenplay John Rule came on board as a sponsor donating his Sony High-Definition 24p camera system and gear on a deferred payment basis. Local Emmy award winning editor Christo Tsiaras offered his editing services after being sent the script.

I had the opportunity to work with Rule’s Sony High-Def package last year and was totally awed by it’s film quality, and it’s playback convenience. Talking with OVERSERVED assistant cameraman Will Barratt, he made the distinction in price between shooting with the High-Def 24p camera and 16mm film.

The high-def package Tony and Will are shooting with for OVERSERVED normally runs $1500/day for the camera package, and $800/day for the prime lenses, tape stock is $60 per 40 minutes of tape. A 16 package could run you $650/day plus $350 for a lens, 400’ film stock at about $130 per roll good for about 11 minutes, and processing at 13 cents per foot, and super 16 would be a bit more expensive, still less than shooting on 35.

But as Will said you have to think creatively what you want the final product to look like. Super 16 blown-up to 35 looks very good. And even high-definition would need to be blown-up and transferred to 35mm, that would be about 3 transfers total to get to 35.

Bottom line is, Joe Gatto has been diligently paying his dues in the bar and movie business and has assembled the ingredients to make a great little movie: start with a hilarious script, add local talent along with stand-ups and bands, mix in great crew, equipment and sponsors, and poof! You’ve got the next Boston crowd pleaser along the lines of Cheers. Pour me another beer Sam!

AUTHOR-My personal thanks to all the cast and crew, and especially Joe Gatto and production manager Chad Fay for their cooperation in making this article possible. For more info on the movie see the website: overservedthemovie.com.

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