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 A Comedy for the young (and sometimes immature) at heart.
Spencer Keating, a 24 year old florist, hasn't been with a woman for 350 days. If approaching that ego- smashing year mark isn't bad enough, he has to deal with his overbearing, over-sexed best friend, a business deal headed down the gutter, and the all-too-familiar problems of living the single life. | |
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"All I ever wanted to do was make people laugh," Brian Blotner, writer/director of "The Dry Season" freely admits. But what may surprise you is the level of his commitment. Did he wait on tables to raise money for the film? Tend bar? Knit sweaters? Not quite. Brian raised a portion of the budget cleaning houses. "I must've been on hallucinogens," he jokes. "I've cleaned approximately 3600 toilets, 1700 showers, 1100 ovens, and dusted more lamp shades than any one human being should be allowed to dust in a lifetime." |
| Raising the money was only the beginning. Finding a producer seemed an even tougher task. Brian spent hours and hours debating on the correct strategy to secure a qualified producer until he realized the most obvious choice was someone he had known for years, his friend, filmmaker Mitchell Bard. After using his astonishing powers of persuasion, as well as good old-fashioned guilt, Brian convinced Mitch to produce the project. And after bringing aboard associate producer Liz Hanellin, the three began the pre-production process, taking on multiple roles such as production manager, production designer, art director, and casting director. | |
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They also assembled a skeleton crew, led by director of photography Louis Mullen-LeRay. Louis, who wrote, directed, shot, and edited a feature film with his wife as the only other crew member, wasn't fazed by the low budget nature of "The Dry Season" in the least. Neither did it scare off sound mixer Rocky Reid, himself a veteran of such low budget projects as "The Brothers McMullen" and "The Daytrippers." Both took the fast paced shooting schedule in stride, and the shoot was completed on schedule and on budget. You might say things went without a hitch. Well, almost...
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It seemed bad enough that Rocky's car, which, by the way, also transported Louis and the camera equipment, blew out a tire on the George Washington Bridge making them 4 hours late on the only day the hair salon was available. However, having multiple power failures in Brian's house ruined take after take leaving him with hundreds of feet of useless celluloid. Typical low budget filmmaking difficulties, you say? That's what the crew thought too, at least until Brian, Mitch, and actor Jonathan Bray found themselves on their knees, hands up against the wall, being frisked by two Rockland County police officers with their guns drawn. "I was just looking at the toy gun," asserts Jonathan, who played police officer D.B. in the film. Problem was, D.B. was in street clothes, and somebody observed him looking at the gun outside the flower shop and called the police. Despite the interruption and confiscation of D.B.'s prop badge and gun, the set was not closed. And after a 15 minute "what the hell just happened" session and some quick thinking (a toy badge and a knife handle in place of the gun) the shoot went on, and the day's schedule was completed. But having survived these difficulties, including ill-timed dog barks, insomnia, an emulsion scratch on the first set of pick-up shots, loss of weight, 30 hour editing sessions, and a mild case of schizophrenia, Brian ultimately feels he was able to translate his vision to the screen. But is this vision personal? Brian won't shed much light on how much the story revolves around his own experiences, but he will admit that a story about a guy who hasn't been with a woman for 350 days is something a lot of people can relate to. "It's universal," he hedges. "We've all had our dry spells...some just longer than others." In the end, personal or not, "The Dry Season" is a fast-paced, well-structured story that will even make the toughest laugher laugh. | |
Contact Information
Brain Entertainment, Inc.
email
All copy written by Brian Blotner & Mitchell Bard
All still photography by Liz Hanellin
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