Psycho Films, The Making of Welcome to Shirley, Ladue Graduates Tell All Part - I

There were many hands that touched Psycho Films’ latest project, Welcome to Shirley. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-200 people were involved in some way, no pun intended. At the core, there were six executives, about a dozen actors and as many crew members.

Patch had the pleasure of sitting down with five of those core people for an in depth interview. Joe Weil, Director, Paul Brick, Screenwriter, Jake Torchin, Associate Producer, Blake Lawrence, Executive Producer and Mark Holzum, Actor talked about all that it took to make their movie.

Now in their first year of college, Weil and Torchin have been making movies separately since middle school. They met while at Ladue High school. Then, they worked on a project in broadcast technology class during their senior year, which brought them together as filmmakers.

“We were always buddies. We would hang out in high school and definitely respected each other as filmmakers. Maybe a small competitive nature was the reason why we never worked together on a project (before),” said Torchin.

Their school project led to another one, a professional one, the summer after they graduate from Ladue High School. It was a film written by Paul Brick, also a Ladue grad.

Weil and Brick had known each other since elementary school, but it was not exactly a bromance at first sight.

“We were fierce not-friends,” said Brick with a chuckle.

Weil smiled and agreed, “Yeah, we were not friends at all. Then we became friends early in high school. Then we worked together at an overnight camp.”

“Blake and I had known each other for a while, but not on a professional level,” said Weil.

They all met Holzum in February 2010 when he auditioned for the lead role, Nate Bannerham. Holzum is a St. Louis University High School graduate.

Besides most of them being Ladue graduates, they have something else in common, their passion for filmmaking; it is their lifelong dream.

When these amazing young men are not making movies in St. Louis, they are studying acting, creative writing, filmmaking, journalism and law on their respective college campuses. They are scattered at universities all over the country including the University of California film school, Binghamton University, Saint Louis University, and Mizzou.

Lucky for Patch, the incredibly talented filmmakers were in St. Louis during their winter break from school finalizing the film and getting ready for their first premier. And they were willing to share their experiences with us. This is what they had to say about the making of their film Welcome to Shirley.

The Interview Part I:

Patch: Are you living your dream?
Joe Weil: Most everyone in this room is. I mean I think everyone is (all confirmed). I’ve wanted to make movies for as long as I can remember. Somewhere along the line I just picked up a camera and started to do it. That is really what this is all about. It is sort grassroots, guerilla-style filmmaking. People who love movies, had a great script, got a camera, raised a budget themselves and powered through and made it.

Patch: How long did it take you to make Welcome to Shirley?
Jake Torchin: We started shooting on July 1, 2010 and we pressed the final export button and the project was officially done about two nights ago. (The interview was given January 2, 2012.) As far as the creative end, he (Paul) wrote it in November, so about 14 months.

Patch: With a low budget can you make a good movie?
Joe Weil: It has become easier and easier with new technology. You don’t have to have a huge budget. Blake Lawrence: There are some very talented people in this room and some very talented people we worked with. Not only can you make a film with a low budget, but a really good film if you have the right people with the right attitude, and some talent. I think people are going to be blown away at the product we were able to put on the table for the amount of resources that we started with.

Patch: You seem to have all of the bases covered, sort of a collective effort.
Jake Torchin: We are all kind of cogs in a machine. Each one does what he does best. That result is a huge collaborated project that so many people specialized on. I couldn’t make a whole project by myself. I couldn’t throw this all on my own shoulders, neither could Joe or any of us. And the fact that we can all respect each other as individuals in this field, come together and do what we did makes it ultimately better and I think that is really cool.
Mark Holzum: With acting my job was done over the summer technically. I mean I came in and did some audio stuff. So, I gave my performance then I trusted these guys to do whatever they would with it to make it a cohesive project. 

Patch: What inspired this story?
Paul Brick: It is very far from the original conception. I have a twin brother and I was thinking about the relationship between me and him. I was studying at a rabbinical school at that time and he was off being a frat boy. And I was just thinking about the way our lives are and thinking about the relationship. And then this movie which centers mostly around the relationship between two brothers just kind of developed.

Patch: Is this story based on your life and your relationship with your brother?
Paul Brick: Not any more. When that Idea came about it was seven months before the script was finished, so it became a totally different animal by then and there is really nothing left (of the original idea).

Patch: Tell me, just how excited are you about your movie premier?
Joe Weil: Pretty pumped. The last two weeks have been more stressful than exciting. But especially these last 24 hours we have been doing a lot more of this stuff (interviews and promotion), talking to you and getting excited for it. It is going to be a great night. It is going to be a busy night. It is going to be packed and we’ve got two shows we are going to run. But, we’ve got a good 600 people coming out to see the show and we couldn’t be more excited about that.
Mark Holzum: Well, like I said, my job was done over the summer so January has seemed way distant. But now that it is here, I have started really getting excited about it and promoting it. I couldn’t sleep last night for thinking about how our movie is going to be on a big screen. It is pretty cool. I’m really excited.
Blake Lawrence: We have premiered a movie before, obviously, but this is the first foray into real 100 percent professional film and we are excited to have people realize that.
Jake Torchin: It is just the hard work we have put in. Last week Joe and I would be up until 4am and back at it at 9am. We were working so hard, Blake too. To see it all come together at the end, we can pat ourselves on the back. It is just nice to see the hard work pay off.

Patch: Because you are all college students, did you plan on the production during your winter break
Blake Lawrence: Yes, there were a lot of phone calls. We all go to school all over the country. Joe is at USC film school, I’m at Mizzou law school, Paul is at Binghamton in New York our makeup artist is at John’s Hopkins and our costume designer is at NYU. We had a lot to organize. But I think that helped, because we had to organize what we were going to say and what logistics we were going to plan. I think it worked for us in the end.

Patch: What do you mean when you say being at different schools worked for you?
Joe Weil: We have a representation across the country and it makes it so easy for us to spread the word and get new markets and get the screening out because we have people all over who can be promoting and talking up the film and showing people what we’ve got.

Patch: How many people does it take to make a movie like this?
Joe Weil: When we went through the credits the other night, we probably listed a good 150-200 people including extras. At the core of it were 6 of us, the writers, directors, producers and all of that, then a cast of about another dozen and a crew of about another dozen. Then there is everybody who touched the film across the country, our sound mixers in L.A. We have an animator out in L.A. We worked with extras all over the community. We worked with local businesses and restaurants for locations. So, really the film is being touched in some way by hundreds across the city. And that is one of the most exciting things.
Blake Lawrence: We were amazed with the level of talent that we were able to recruit. I mean, really, there are some talented people in this community and we are excited to put that on film. We dealt with people who really new what they were talking about. I was really impressed. I am proud to be a St. Louisan definitely.

Come back tomorrow for part two of this interview and find out what it was like on the set of Welcome to Shirley and read some amazing stories of triumph and overcoming obstacles.