Indie film series comes to Tempe

 by Tye Rabens
 published on Monday, February 25, 2008

Extra/Ordinary Film Project will kick off a nationwide series of feature films Thursday at the Pollack Cinema in Tempe.

The Hendersonville, Tenn., project's ambition is to travel to five different cities in 2008 to shoot and premiere a movie in each city.

"We come into an area, make a movie, premiere and promo it in two months," said screenwriter and program director Jon Russell Cring. "It creates more of a grassroots movement."

It's a simple concept to understand, but complex in design, like much of Cring's creative motivation.

"I try to show the 'ordinary person put into extraordinary circumstance,' " he said. "[Movies are] all about entertainment in Hollywood, but I search more so for the relatability in reality, how well have the potential to do great things in us, and the potential to do nothing."

Extra/Ordinary and its most recent offering, "Melvyn's Clock," indeed have a kitschy and low-budget aura, which Cring hopes will be instinctively charming to the campus audience.

"The great advantage to college is that [students are] young enough to go out and expand their borders," Cring said. "And this film deals with themes of politics, sex and insanity — themes that all college kids understand."

The strength of the premiere, which begins at 7 p.m., is its local appeal. Scenes were shot Valleywide and beyond in a bit of a home-movie road-trip format.

"If it was within 70 miles and on a map, we drove there," said Cring, referring to sites including Tempe, Gilbert, Scottsdale, and Sedona. Also, some of the more than 150 actors and extras in "Melvyn's Clock" are locals, like ASU marketing sophomore Alexander Maeser.

"The process [used in making this film] is not what one would normally expect," said Maeser, making his feature-film debut as Randy, a high school athlete-turned-father.

"It was segmented, but fun, and you definitely gotta stay in character," Maeser said. "[Scene-making] was a longer process than I thought, but John worked hard and the directing is great. I'm just excited for the premiere, and hopefully the movie gets the recognition and accolades it deserves."

Tickets for the premiere of "Melvyn's Clock" cost $5 and can be found at www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com.

Reach the reporter at: trabens@asu.edu.