“The Story of Luke” begins principal photography, stars Lou Taylor Pucci

Producers Nina Leidersdorff (Fluid Film), Julien Favre (DViant Films) and Fred Roos (FR Productions) are pleased to announce the start of principal photography (August 6th - September 2nd) of “The Story of Luke” in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. Written and Directed by Alonso Mayo, and starring Lou Taylor Pucci, “The Story of Luke” is a lighthearted coming-of-age about Luke, a young man with autism who, after being sheltered his whole life, embarks on a quest for a job and a girl.

“The Story of Luke” is Alonso Mayo’s feature directorial debut. It is partly based on his experience in the Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru, a school and research center for people with autism and other developmental disabilities in Lima, Peru, as chronicled in his short documentary “Just Like Anyone”. Alonso Mayo won the Student Academy Award with his American Film Institute thesis film “Wednesday Afternoon”. His recent projects include the Academy shortlisted documentary “Viva La Causa” and the unscripted webseries “Untitled Fiction Project”.

Principal cast includes Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker, The Go-Getter) as Luke, Seth Green (Austin Powers, The Italian Job) as Zack, Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Saw) as Uncle Paul, Kristin Bauer (True Blood) as Aunt Cindy, Kenneth Welsh (Adoration) as Grandpa Jonas, Tyler Stentiford as Cousin Brad and Mackenzie Munro as Cousin Megan. Supporting cast includes Lisa Ryder, Sabryn Rock, Art Hindle, Zoe Belkin, John Boylan, Ann Holloway, Mike Kinney, Jayne Eastwood and Pam Hyatt, as well as local talent from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.

Principal crew includes Cinematographer David Klein, ASC (Zack and Miri Make a Porno), Editor Vikash Patel (Smallville), Production Designer Craig Lathrop (It’s a Boy Girl Thing) and Costume Designer Melissa Stewart (Running Mates). Casting by Monika Mikkelsen (US) and Stephanie Gorin (Canada).

“The Story of Luke” is being funded by Showbox/Mediaplex (South Korea), Northern Ontario Heritage Fund (Canada) and White Stone Associates (USA).

Official Site: http://thestoryofluke.com

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038693/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/thestoryofluke

Twitter: http://twitter.com/thestoryofluke

Production Photos: https://www.facebook.com/thestoryofluke?sk=photos

/untitledfictionproject: A workflow for structured improvisation

Note: Although this post is about my experience with “Untitled Fiction Project 1.0”, an unscripted dramatic web series, I believe the process can be applied to any short or long-form fiction project that relies on improvisation.

“Untitled Fiction Project” was born as an experiment in minimalist fiction filmmaking. The original plan was to make a handful of 5-10 minute short films that all shared the basic premise of “two people in a room” (two actors, one location and one continuous scene). I wanted to create a space where I could concentrate on directing and feel free to experiment without the usual time and budget constraints of a film shoot. In fact, I decided that I would have no crew but myself, a minimal camera & sound setup (Canon 5Dm2 rig), no “movie lighting” (only ambient light), a location (borrowed) and the actors (brave students from the Gloria Gifford Conservatory). And of course… No screenplay.

Being a sometimes “one man band” filmmaker, I felt perfectly at home with most of the rules. But “no screenplay” was frightening. A screenplay gives a fiction project direction. Without a screenplay… What is there? Still, “unscripted” fit perfectly with the minimalist concept of the project and it had the possibility of adding a freshness that would be unique. The first short became an experiment in finding an unscripted workflow and my actors (Jeffrey Casciano & Lauren Plaxco) were key in helping shape the process. In fact, I enjoyed the process and it’s outcome so much that I decided to keep the storyline going. The short became Untitled Fiction Project, Episode 1.

Now, I wasn’t looking for complete improvisation since I didn’t want to compromise visually (if I don’t know what the actors are going to do, where do I put the camera?). The process should have the freshness that improvisation can bring along with the visual variety of traditional film coverage. I decided to work under “structured improvisation”, where a basic storyline is agreed upon before the shoot, but the detailed actions and dialogue aren’t discovered until rehearsals or during the shoot itself. Here is our workflow in a nutshell:

1. Pick a theme: I actually started the process with only one actor, and together we decided what were the general themes we were interested in. Once we picked a theme, in this case “an affair”, we found the second actor.

2. Develop characters: Once I had both actors, we developed backstories for their characters and came up with possible storylines. The actors on their own time developed extended backstories for their characters and for the relationship between the characters.

3. Lock down the storyline: The closest I came to writing was putting together a short description of what could happen in the scene. Once we had this general storyline we could lock a friendly location, find any needed props and set a date for the shoot. Here is the 3 paragraph storyline that resulted in Episode 1:

   They come home from a dinner party. They’ve both had a bit to drink and are in great spirits. She opens a bottle of wine as they make fun of the guests at the party. They kiss. She begins to undress playfully. He doesn’t respond to her teasing. He has something to tell her. He’s cheated on her.

   At first she thinks it’s a joke. It’s not. Then she puts on her jacket and goes for the door. He stops her, he has to really put some effort as she is hell bent on leaving. He holds her tight. She snaps and hits him as she breaks down crying. There’s nothing he can do or say.

   She asks him for details. He refuses to answer as the questions grow more explicit. She is about to leave for good when he suddenly drops his facade. He begs. They embrace. He grabs the bottle of wine. They drink straight from it. He doesn’t try to convince her of anything, but after a while, he makes her smile. And laugh. She’s not leaving him.

4. Rough scene blocking: Once on location on the day of the shoot, I went over the general storyline with the actors and we came up with a rough blocking for the whole scene that was refined through a series of run-throughs, where some ideas for dialogue were also added to the mix.

5. Break up scene in segments: We divided the full scene in smaller segments, looking for natural breaking points (like the actors moving to a new part of the location or a change in direction in a conversation). The idea was to tackle each chronological story segment on it’s own, and not move on to the next segment until the one before it was completely done. In the case of Episode 1, it was divided in 10 segments:

   • Hallway: They enter the apartment and walk to the kitchen.
   • Kitchen: She changes clothes as he checks his phone.
   • Living Room: He sits on the couch. She serves wine.
   • Living Room: She sits next to him on couch and kisses him.
   • Living Room: He gets up and paces. He has something to tell her.
   • Kitchen: She grabs her purse and heads out the door. He goes after her.
   • Hallway: She tries to exit the apartment but he stops her.
   • Kitchen: She wants to hear details of the affair.
   • Kitchen: He serves himself a drink.
   • Bedroom: She sits in bed. He comes towards her.

6. Rehearse/shoot by segment: This is where all the backstory work really pays off as we constantly dipped into it to find details that would enrich the scene. We usually ran at least a couple full rehearsals of each segment before we shot to come up with more dialogue, actions or blocking ideas. The actors found it helpful to keep notes of their dialogue as we rehearsed so by the time we started shooting they had put together a dialogue list of the segment. I picked the wider shots to start with so we could continue to finesse the segment and usually only when we came to the close-ups would the dialogue finally be locked. Once we shot out the segment, we took a short break, and started the next segment. And on and on until the full scene was finished.

In general, I would say that structured improvisation shooting takes 1.5 to 2x as long as regular scripted fiction. In “Untitled Fiction Project 1.0” this was somewhat offset by the fact that I shot documentary style (handheld & ambient light only). The average 4-6 minute episode took about 8 hours to shoot. This style also had a big repercussion in the editing room since it pretty much guaranteed a mountain of footage. I had an average of 2.5 hours of raw footage from each episode or about a 30:1 shooting ratio. Still, it facilitated an incredibly fast turn-around from idea to finished product (as fast as 4 days). And it was damn fun.

/roby: The story behind the adaptation

When I first read Edmundo Paz Soldan’s short story in which I based “Roby” I was shocked. Not because of anything particularly graphic or violent, but from the fear that came from knowing that its premise was completely plausible. His tale of a boy who gets seduced by the evil ways of an older friend is every parent’s worse nightmare. It hits home especially hard because I think most people have had moments where they could relate with a fascination to the forbidden. When one is thirteen, morality is something that is not completely formed, and swaying one way or another could be as easy as having the right, or wrong, role model. How far would you go for a friend? Your only friend?

“Roby” is an exploration of the world as seen through the eyes of a boy who thought he had things figured out, who thought he was smarter than the rest, and who thought he was doing good. It’s a study on how a righteous character can be completely turned under the right circumstances. “Roby” is about discovering fascinations and even obsessions that make somebody not even recognize themselves in the mirror. It’s about playing with fire, and the horror that comes when one realizes they may be enjoying it. But especially, “Roby” is about coming to terms with one’s weaknesses, and then deciding to do something about it.

I’ve followed Edmundo’s work since I was in college in Peru. After reading one of his early short story collections I was determined to adapt his work into film. I received “Roby” as part of a group of his unpublished stories in 2003, several of whom I picked to adapt into short films, including my American Film Institute Thesis and Student Academy Award winning film “Wednesday Afternoon“. “Roby” never left my mind and I knew I would someday come back to it and adapt it into a feature film. I love stories that know no boundaries, that are so universal that anybody anywhere can appreciate the plight of their character’s. “Roby” is one of those stories. You just can’t shake it off. It’s so haunting you are forced to share it.

/thestoryofluke: A research trip becomes a documentary

As part of the development of the screenplay of “The Story of Luke”, I made several research trips to Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru, the school for people with autism and other developmental disabilities that my mother founded, and whose students and parents provided inspiration for The Story of Luke. On one of my trips I decided to document the lives of some of the families I met, resulting in the short documentary Como Cualquier Otro (Just Like Anyone).

“Just like Anyone” gives us a glimpse into the lives of 5 families that are doing their best to help their sons succeed, even though they are faced with severe developmental disabilities. It explores the journey that all these families have been through to accept their sons as who they are, and then begin to work as a family, and in cooperation with their school – Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru – to help them reach ever increasing goals.

The full documentary is available to view here.

/thestoryofluke: The spark for the film

What is it like to be on the outside? To experience life in a different way? What is it like to see other people living full lives and know that you will never have that yourself? And what happens when you decide that you will not accept your fate but make your own? This is the story of Luke.

Since I was a child, I was surrounded by people with special needs, their parents and the professionals that serve them because my mother runs an educational center for kids and adults with developmental delay in Peru. I started my film career by making training videos about supported employment programs and have always been particularly fascinated with autism and especially those individuals who stand close to the line between the “normal” world and their own.

It’s a tough place to be in, where society has little expectations of you, where you are categorized based on your limitations and are basically regarded as a person of lesser value. But just as I have seen many examples of discrimination and frustration, I have also seen examples of the exact opposite, of what happens when you stop looking at someone’s limitations, when you forget about what a certain person should realistically achieve and just treat them like anybody else. That tough place suddenly becomes a place that, for anybody that cares to look, is filled with surprising achievements, with laughter.

Luke will make you look. And not because he is autistic and so different than you or anybody you’ve ever met, but because he is so similar in the most basic way: Luke wants a job, a girlfriend and to live on his own. What makes Luke so special is that he wants to live, desperately. And it’s a desperation that is contagious. Someone that doesn’t know him could look at Luke and see him as a disabled person that merits pity. But give him a minute of your time and you’ll see that Luke is actually a hero on a quest.