GILROY
– Gilroy may not have the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but
one local director is changing all that and has begun filming an
independent movie set in local businesses.
GILROY – Gilroy may not have the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but one local director is changing all that and has begun filming an independent movie set in local businesses.
Grant Richards, of Gilroy, always has had an interest in the movie-making business and credits his father, Jack, who is a professional movie screenwriter, for introducing him to cinema.
Richards is now a cinema professor at Gavilan College with an extensive background in cinema and English education. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Sacramento State, San Jose State and the University of California at Santa Cruz. When he was not teaching cinema, he says he was busy writing his own screenplay, “It’ll Happen,” and has now spent the last four months filming it.
“The film is about this guy who basically goes on the worst dates imaginable to eventually find his true love,” Richards said.
“I was divorced four years ago and have been on some pretty bad dates,” he said. “Most of the experiences I write about in the film actually happened to me.”
Richards has been shooting “It’ll Happen” twice a week since the beginning of April and has set the stage at many different establishments in Gilroy. Some of the bar scenes were shot at J.R. Brewskies, the Krazy Koyote Bar and Grill and the Claddagh Irish Restaurant and Pub, while other dating scenes were filmed at the Gilroy Health and Fitness, Station 55, Pizza Cove and Gavilan College.
“All of the businesses have been so generous and open about us filming,” Richards said.
“I was happy to have them filming at my restaurant,” J.R. Brewski’s Owner Jeff Parsons said. “I think it is neat that we are going to be featured in this movie.”
Richards said independent films have a very low budget, and the more help he gets from the community, the better. The low budget leaves very little room for money to pay a good crew and the actors, so finding people to work is much harder. He decided to recruit people from the community to help with operating the equipment, like 20-year-old A.J. Juncker and 22-year-old Dai Graham, of Gilroy.
Juncker and Graham are in charge of everything from lighting and sound work to filming, Richards said.
“Al has never missed a shoot. His ideas are fantastic,” he said.
The crew has been using all high-tech equipment, from professional cameras, enormous lighting and cranes to anamorphic lenses. Graham, Juncker and Richards are the only working crew members and already have devoted hundreds of hours to making the movie a success.
Kacey Frazee, 26, of Gilroy, also has been offering her time and knowledge as the administrator of physical production. Frazee previously worked in Los Angeles with MGM Studios and decided to take some time off and move back to Gilroy.
“I am excited to be working on a movie again, and it is great that we can do it here in Gilroy,” Frazee said.
Her knowledge of the industry was very useful, Richards said.
Along with having a good crew, Richards also had to find a cast that was professional and talented enough to bring his characters to life. Jennifer Rycart, 31, of Gilroy, is playing the lead woman’s role. She said this is her first full-length feature. The mother of three said she is excited to be involved with a movie that features Gilroy because it is her hometown.
“I will take anything creative that comes my way,” Rycart said. “It’s very time consuming but so much fun.”
Gareth Jay, of Gilroy, is acting alongside her as the leading male.
Richards also needed many extras to play fillers in the background scenes, so he offered extra credit to the students in his cinema class. Elias Carrillo, 18, of Hollister, Kasey Estorga, 18, of Gilroy, and Norma Aceves, 19, of Gilroy, all took the offer and had the opportunity to see what it felt like to be movie stars as they shot one of the bar scenes at J.R. Brewski’s from 8 a.m. to late afternoon one day.
“We were shooting for a long time, and I didn’t know so much work went into filming one scene,” Carrillo said.
This romantic comedy will be rated PG-13, and Richards hopes to be done shooting by the end of this month. He says the movie should be completely edited by October and ready for distribution at the Sundance Film Festival by the end of November. He also hopes to get the Platinum Theatres in Gilroy to have a premiere showing of the movie for the public.
When asked if Hollywood was going to be in Richards’ future, he joked, “Definitely not Hollywood. It’s too crazy. I love working in small communities, like this one.”
