By Katie Botkin
Assistant A&E Editor
Photo / Theresa Palmgren / Argonaut / Benjamin Huber as Clayton, and Duke Novak as Jay, rehearse one of the scenes in the film "First aid for choking" that is being filmed in John's Alley Tuesday. The movie is being filmed for eighteen days in Moscow.
“Full sound.” “Set ... action.” The clapboard came down with a sharp whack, and the camera focused on the back of a car. A man with heavily gelled hair closed the trunk and then got in the passenger door as the car pulled away from the curb of Friendship Square in downtown Moscow.
“Good?”
“Good.”
Apparently, Moscow can be inspiring. Megan Griffiths is currently directing a film she wrote based on the town’s locations, drawn from her knowledge of the place as her high school and college home from the years 1989-1997.
Naturally, the themes run deeper than the location that gives it its small-town ambiance.
“It’s about a girl trying to find a family in her friends when her own dysfuctional family fails her,” Griffiths said.
The character, Gillian, attends Mr. Leon’s School of Hair Design (Frankie’s School of Beauty in the script) in hopes of gaining a widely-marketable skill so she and her friend Jay can move away. “But, on her first day she encounters a face from the past who throws her back into old, unresolved problems,” Griffiths said.
Noon light filtered through clouds and the trees of friendship square lit the shoot as three actors did another take, this time on the steps of Basilio’s. “I just want to get out of here! Why can’t we just leave this town for a little while?” Gillian, in the form of Jennifer Perreault of Seattle, demanded of Jay, played by Duke Novak.
Clayton, the self-described “accountant, tuba-playing love interest,” as portrayed by Ben Huber, appeared briefly in the scene to ask what was going on.
People passed them in the background, coming and going up the stairs, some glancing at the camera. They did the scene again.
“Good? Got your footage?”
“It’s clean.”
Griffiths worked out logistical problems with her crew as the actors took a break. They looked like normal college students hanging out, and one might miss seeing the unobtrusive camera and sound equipment.
Her cast of nine and crew of nine come from Ohio, Seattle, and Germany, as well as Moscow. There are three local actors: Char Fluster, who plays Frankie; Chris Stordahl, who plays Tess; and Lauren Fins, who plays Ruthie. Most of them are people she’s met over the years.
Griffiths graduated with a bachelor’s degree in visual communication from UI and then moved to Ohio, where she attended film school at Ohio University. Then she moved back to the Northwest, to Seattle, and wrote the script she is directing from.
When it is completed, the film will probably be around 100 minutes long. “I hope to finish it over the next six months and have a local premiere for it,” said Griffiths. “Then I’ll try my luck with the festival circuit and hope for success.”
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WSUıs improv comedy group opens
Nuthouse, WSUıs theater improvisational comedy group opens at the R.R. Jones Theater today and Saturday.
³People love improv because it is based around audience suggestions,² said Pat Moss, Nuthouse director. ³Itıs comedy, and itıs for them.²
Nuthouse tickets are $2, and for this, the first performance, itıs buy two, get one free. Tickets may be purchased at the box office beginning at 7 p.m. on show nights.
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