Store is set for movie
Young aspiring filmmakers and actors Tuesday transformed Alison's Alley Antiques in downtown Butler into their own movie set.
The group of film students were using the store to record their 10-minute independent film, which will be an ode to the filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.
The store was chosen for its detailing and charm, said Kevin Lukacs, a Slippery Rock University senior who wrote the “Prior Engagement” script.
“There are these really awesome, lovely red walls and all the knickknacks, antiques, and all the glass. As soon as I walked in, I knew it was perfect,” he said.
Lukacs, along with director Dustin Furman, who works at Hoffer's Video Productions in Renfrew, actors Holly Boyce, a Grove City College senior, Austin Uram, an SRU student, Shannon Donovan, a Point Park University freshman, and photographer Carly Ratica, a University of Pittsburgh student, filmed all of the scenes at the store Tuesday afternoon. It's a summer project they're doing simply to get more experience at their craft.
Like Hitchcock's films, their film is more about suspense than anything else, Lukacs said.
“We're not trying to scare you,” he said. “We're just trying to freak you out a little bit.”
The movie centers around three characters at a jewelry store: Madeline, played by Donovan, Peter, played by Uram, and Valerie, played by Boyce.
Peter and Valerie, who are recently engaged and work at a jewelry store, are disturbed by Madeline's sudden presence as a customer.Repeating lines over and over, Donovan spoke Madeline's part slowly and forcefully, and with a wistful accent, as if from another time. She also dressed more formally than the other characters, wearing a black satin dress and big diamond earrings.Furman used two cameras, sometimes simultaneously, hoping to imitate the way things were when Hitchcock created movies in the 1950s and 1960s.He recorded each scene using tripods and other sliding mechanisms to keep cameras steady.“Cameras were very large and very bulky at that time,” Furman said.He hopes to edit the scenes to give it a “Technicolor '60s look.”Alison Rider, who owns Alison's Alley Antiques, described their interest in filming there as “serendipitous” since she worked in Los Angeles doing public relations in the film industry for many years.Once the film is finished, the group likely will host a small reception in the coming weeks.The film also will be uploaded onto Furman's YouTube account, at http://www.youtube.com/dustinfurmanfilms. His other films also can be viewed there.
