The Now Casting Film Festival!!

By Richard Gilbert-Hill (06-08-2005) Click for Bio  The Now Casting Film Festival was born out of our  continuing desire to encourage actors—and filmmakers in  general—to get out there and “make something happen”.   Jesse Levy is the writer, director, and producer of Red Lion.

 NOW CASTING: What’s your history with filmmaking?

JESSE LEVY: I made three short films while in Junior High school in NYC. The less said about these the better although I get a kick out of seeing them again every, oh, 20 years or so.

In LA in 2001 my team and I shot a half-hour short comedy called StigmatZa, which we wrapped in 2004 (due to unfortunate delays). Then in October 2004 we began work on Red Lion, which we completed in just three months! Talk about changing your karma!

NC: How did you come across this project?

JL: Red Lion began as a dream I had a few years ago. StigmatZa was such a naturalistic film, I decided to do something different for our next project. I liked the dream imagery I saw and felt this would be a good starting point for a surrealist style film. So I wrote it and expanded it to what I felt would be a tolerable length for an audience.

NC: How did you finance this project?

JL:With money. And credit cards. We really cut a lot of corners and got huge support (and favors) from those we worked with before. This project came together so well on the limited budget we had.

NC: How did you gather a cast?

JL: Well, and this is true, we got 90% of our cast from Now Casting.com! I'm glad I did because I got good people and they are now part of my stable. If I need to use them again I will. The rest were friends or friends of friends.

NC: How did you gather a crew?

JL: I used some of the same people I used on StigmatZa. I had worked both seasons on a Nickelodeon live-action show called 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd. I used some of the DPs from there. The rest were again friends. And just ourselves! On our last day of shooting it was just the lead actor the DP and myself doing everything! Talk about tough.


NC: What was the hardest part of pre-production?

JL: As always lining everything up and making sure we had all that we needed in place. The producer's hat is a hard one to wear. It's a lot of legwork and a lot of heavy lifting (literally sometimes). Like loading the flats in to the studio and putting up the ceiling piece. I'm just not built for that sort of thing! ...Anymore.

NC: What was the hardest part of production?

JL: Not having enough crew on the last day. Or enough extras, or enough money, or enough food. I could go on this way but you get the idea. Shooting on this level requires so much dedication from everyone and we got that but it would have been nice to be able to treat everyone to a little more time and comfort.

NC: What was the hardest part of post-production?

JL: This post-production process was a dream compared to the last one. By that measure there was nothing hard about this time at all. And I'd like to say that PlasterCity Digital Post did a superb job on both our projects. They are technical wizards but more importantly, they are nice people. All talent, no attitude.

NC: What did it feel like to have your film picked to be included in a festival?

JL: Are you kidding? We were floating on air! This film has been blessed a few times by being selected for various festivals and screenings but the Now Casting Festival was special because we got most of our cast from there, and because of the quality of the other films chosen. It made us all proud to be a part of it.

NC: What were the biggest lessons you learned in making this film?

JL: One lesson was just to get the ball rolling. Even if you don't know where the money is coming from or what to do next. Just get the project started and let it take on a life of its own. Also, don't cast your good friends in major roles unless they can handle the part and can handle being directed by you. I actually learned that from our last film and applied the lesson to Red Lion and I think we got a better film out of it as a result.

NC: Are you interested in making another? And what is your goal in filmmaking?

JL: Absolutely! Can't wait to get back on the set. We have several short scripts in mind and one pilot so the next few years should see JL Open Productions very busy. My eventual goal is to direct my feature-length script for a major studio.


Visit Jesse's website by clicking on www.jlopen.com


As previously announced, all twenty-five Semi-Finalists can be viewed online for one year. The eight Finalists will remain online for five years.

Click here to view the “Top 25” short films of our first Now Casting Film festival!!