Local Filmmaker Rob Lucas
Writer/Director and Creator of American Stories

Indie filmmakers are a different breed. They've got enormous vision to be carried out on a shoestring time-and-money budget. Add a diminutive group of acting talent, slapdash location changes and complicated shots to be completed in very limited windows of opportunity, and one must wonder how any nano film project makes it to the finish line. For American Stories director Rob Lucas -- pictured here with the film's Tim Regan and Brian Winterrowd -- the answers to overcoming obstacles are your best friends, humble persistence and time management.

Or forgetting about the clock altogether. See, Lucas has a lot going on. On top of being a filmmaker, he's an assistant editor at local boutique publisher Gray & Company and the founder of the Akron Independent Film Festival -- which is gearing up to celebrate its fifth anniversary this coming spring. American Stories is the Akron native's first feature-length comedy, which started as a 2002 grad school project. Written and directed by Lucas, the flick offers a window into four members of the fictional indie band the Little Devils -- in the midst of an Ohio tour when they encounter some mechanical problems with their ride. Hilarity ensues. Jon Favreau, eat your heart out.

During a recent interview with Cool Cleveland, Lucas talked about what it takes to keep all the plates spinning in the air, offered insight on what it took for him to complete his hilariously lo-fi road movie, offered why road movies endure and explained the importance of the upcoming “Think Local” Film Festival this Friday and Saturday, August 17-18 at the Cleveland Institute of Art's Cinematheque.

Of course, one of the first questions to cross any indie film fan's mind is how the director managed to bankroll their labor of love. Without any major financial backing, investors or studio support, most directors go straight for their own wallets -- call it the "Kevin Smith Credit Card Approach" from Smith's mid-90s classic, Clerks. In Lucas' case, he also consulted the First National Bank of Spouse.

"My wife Sara and I paid for whole thing out of pocket," Lucas said, between sips of Lindemans Raspberry Lambic at the Buckeye Beer Engine in Lakewood. "When I first started shooting American Stories, I did not have a full time job. I was at the University of Akron teaching video production classes." She was just as passionate about him completing the American Stories project, "so my wife and I sat down and made a budget and she really ended up bankrolling a lot of it."

"Almost all of expenses associated to the project were for [video] tapes and food -- that's how paid everybody, with food," he added with a smile. Kinda like when you're asking your friends to help you move to a new house or apartment? "Yeah. When you're not really paying your crew and they're in school, and they're working with you because they're friends and excited to be working on a film, feeding them ends up being very important. Everyone was fed at one time or another, sometimes twice in a day. And we went with unique local places because with pizza every day, people get tired of that."

Lucas and his crew "worked some really long days, some of them well over 12 hours," with members switching out when they had to go to class, do homework or go run errands. That was only one of the major challenges he faced: free props and locations to shoot at were pretty hard to come by. "I remember I paid for two costumes, which I sort of regret doing now," Lucas recalled with a smile. "And not just because they looked cheap either, which they did, but because we didn't get a discount at the shop we rented them from. They looked like costumes from an old porno. Not very believable."

Casting wasn't nearly as challenging, though it certainly provided some rather fond recollections for the director. Lucas had the actors for the four main characters in mind nearly from the word go -- both Regan and Winterrowd are Lucas' best friends from high school. They drove up to Akron from Memphis to act in the movie. They were also both Lucas' Best Men in his wedding. He chose actor Larry Miles, the big-voiced big-time wrestler character The Ripper, after a rather public audition at a local Burger King. And he had Liz Bauer, who played the grandmother in the film, try out without really having a role in mind for her at first.

"She did a reading at the end of a [casting] day where I really didn’t find anyone. I remember her reading this monologue and it being pretty outrageous, this megastar/diva part she was playing," Lucas recalled. "I was shocked and impressed based on that performance, but I did not have a part for her at the time. She's pretty young, so the thought she would play the Grandma role was a bit of a stretch until she showed me this video where she did 10 minutes exactly like she was in the movie -- in a babushka with a walker. She was great."

With the casting in place, did Lucas set about to make an enduring road movie? "I like road movies a lot and I'm a fan of taking road trips, because it always ends up being a great personal, dynamic and weird experience. And everyone who is on the trip experiences it differently, which is what I set out to capture in the film," Lucas offered.

"I went on trip with two friends of mine to New Hampshire and back," added the fan of Donnie Darko, Star Wars, P.T. Anderson and the Farrelly Brothers. "We spent a week in a van together and before you know it, all the [personal] stories com out. When you spend so much time with people in such close quarters, you begin to bond at an even greater level and you want to tell [those] people about what's going on with you and share your stories."

American Stories also gave Lucas the opportunity to showcase some of his favorite bands in the region, including local favorites the Dreadful Yawns, Mike St. Jude and the Valentines, Lords of the Highway, the New Lou Reeds, New Planet Trampoline and Southeast Engine. "I had very specific ideas in mind for music before we started shooting," Lucas confirmed. Another main character in the film, Ben Gmetro (he of the bands Volta Sound and the Dreadful Yawns), was a friend of Lucas' in college. Gmetro helped with the opening and closing music for the film's credits and also brokered some of the other bands in the film.

Lucas originally screened the completed American Stories at the Akron Independent Film and Video Festival (which he helped found) in April 2006. He started the fest with the UA student and alumni organization the 2380 Project to "show my friends movies and to show them my movies," he smiled. "But then it ended up expanding a lot. It started out as one night of shorts, last year it was three days of shorts and documentaries. And next year, well, we're moving it out of the [Akron] university to someplace with even better projection and sound. It’s got its own event organization now and we're looking at four days for it."

All of which leads us to the Cleveland Institute of Art's Cinematheque and their inaugural Think Local! Film Festival. American Stories is one of five locally-produced films being showcased this weekend; so how were the films and directors picked for it?

"I sent my movie to [Cinematheque Director] John Ewing hoping that he might consider it for a screening," Lucas said. "I pretty much thought there would be no chance, because they just don’t show local movies very often. But then I ran into him a few months ago and at that point he was thinking of putting together a festival. I think Robert Banks helped him put things together. Hopefully, it will be an event that continues every year."

So, the big question: will events like this one really make a big difference in exposure for local upstart filmmakers... especially in the age of technology? "Absolutely," he replied.

"Things in film are changing so much now. And 10 years from now, local movies won’t be made in film anymore. Some people think it's a good thing, some think it's a bad thing. Who knows what the right answer is, but in terms of accessibility, it's a good thing. I'd like to think that the craft itself will eventually sift out people who are trying to make movies from those who are just making videos."

Lucas' American Stories will be featured at the Cleveland Cinematheque this weekend, along with Luke and Andy Campbell’s action/comedy Cordoba Nights, Joe Ostrica’s B-movie homage The Horror Convention Massacre, Ted Sikora’s quirky superhero flick Hero Tomorrow and Bill Johns’ suspense thriller Madness. Check out our previews of all five movies in this week's issue, along with scheduled screening times. Visit http://www.cia.edu/cinematheque for more details.

To purchase a DVD of the film American Stories, and to learn more about Lucas and his craft, visit http://www.americanstoriesmovie.com.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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