There has been a recent invasion, of sorts, of San Benito County by a new generation of young, independent filmmakers. While one production company was working nights at Bolado Park filming a horror-western, another was scurrying along Airline Highway looking for rolling hills topped with waves of brown grass and old barns in order to tell their story of a dystopian society in the not-too-distant future.
Emphasis is placed on “independent” because these were mainly low-budget operations that, while they don’t have tons of cash, brought a very positive economic impact to the community at large and specific businesses, in particular, such as restaurants, hotels, local trades (carpenters, plumbers, etc.), and part-time work as movie extras. Between the two productions nearly 200 locals were employed at various times.
The county film commission is up and running and trying to attract more productions to the area. The last time a movie of significance was shot here was in 1987 with “La Bamba.” Before that, it was a long stretch, going back to 1958, when the rotund Alfred Hitchcok rolled into San Juan Bautista to film “Vertigo.”
The latest film production to call, “action!” in the county was “Desolate,” from Left for Dead Entertainment LLC, out of Los Angeles, a vaguely futuristic tale of survival during a drought gone really wrong. Jordan Foley, one of the producers, described the movie’s premise as a crime thriller during a pro-longed drought that has caused people to abandon the land.
The storyline unfolds around the Stone family, farmers living in a desolate future where drought has forced people off the land. A criminal element has moved into the area where they live to take advantage of the minimal remaining resources, kidnapping women and killing anyone who stands in their way. When one of the brothers is murdered, the family seeks revenge.
The idea for the story came to Fred Cipoletti one day while driving along I-5 through the San Joaquin Valley and seeing signs about conserving water. He was also listening to doom-and-gloom news reports about the four-year drought and people losing their farms. He began to let his mind play with the idea of what might happen if the world were caught up in a global drought and wondered how people would react. Cipoletti had been involved in a couple small films before and was looking for a bigger project, so he and his friend, Jonathan Rosenthal, began writing a script and looking for inspiration. Cipoletti apparently found it driving along California State Route 25 with his wife, who is from the Bay Area.
Rolling brown hills and old barns were the ticket, and once the money was rounded up, Cipoletti took on the role of director, as well as producer, along with Foley and Rosenthal, as location scouts began roaming through the county looking for likely spots to begin filming.
With a budget well south of $1 million, which was raised among a few friends, the production company scoured the county for movie wannabes who would basically work for free, or perhaps a small lunch thrown in to get them through the day. Probably the biggest budget item was the one bona fide actor who had the acting chops, as the saying goes. James Russo, known for his tough guy roles in more than 156 films, such as “Django Unchained,” “An American Hero,” and going all the way back to 1984, in “Once Upon a Time in America.”
Like many actors today who can carry their part of the story, but do not necessarily have the cache to bankroll a film, Russo came in for a day or so, shot his scenes as the dad of the Stone brothers, and was off to his next project. Younger, hungrier actors stayed around to carry the weight of the storyline of the film.
Philip Brook, production supervisor, said the young actors playing the brothers, as well as most of the cast, are on the verge of becoming stars in their own right. The cast of names, who may one day be more recognizable than they are at this moment in time, are: Will Brittain (who has eight films to his credit and will be in the upcoming film, “Kong, Skull Island”), Callan Mulvey (was in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Batman vs. Superman”), Tyson Ritter (“Lewis and Clark” mini-series), Bill Tangrader (TV series “Justified”), Jonathan Rosenthal (“End of a Gun”), and Natasha Bassett (“Katie Says Goodbye”).
As the production supervisor, Brook said he traveled extensively to nail down potential sites where the filming would take place.
“We like a lot of the older farms along Highway 25,” he said. “It’s really scenic country that we thought fit the look of the film. I spent a month scouting all over the Central Valley, and especially the stretch along Highway 25. As I was going down through Paicines there were a preponderance of older homes and barns I couldn’t find anywhere else.”
The production company filmed in the county and around Gilroy four weeks and wrapped up May 26—almost.
“After shooting the entire four weeks, we were going through the schedule and realized we didn’t get one small scene because we were going to go into overtime, so we didn’t shoot it then and hoped to pick it up on a later day,” Foley said. “Well, we’re at that later day, so we’ve got to pick up a couple scenes in Gilroy, and then we’re going to pop over to Hollister for one quick scene at the end of the night.”
In San Benito County, the production company shot a number of scenes in Hollister, including inside the old county jail on Fourth Street. There was supposed to be a chase scene and several streets were shut down, but Foley said there were issues with old cars, all they could afford on their meager budget. Their favorite location, though, was about 20 minutes south on Highway 25 on Bill DeRosa’s ranch. Foley said DeRosa enjoyed the movie crew being on his ranch and even ended up in it as an extra.
“He looks like the Marlboro Man (a reference to the rugged-looking cowboys in Marlboro cigarette TV commercials from 1954 to 1999); a very interesting man,” Foley said.
Foley said the making of the film was heavily dependent on local cooperation from residents, landowners and public officials.
“We met several people from the fire department who were helpful, along with the mayor, city council, and whoever helped us out in shooting at the old jail,” he said. “On one night alone we had 50 extras; overall, we probably had about 100.”
Foley said it was an incredible experience working with a great team.
“You come into this and you don’t know anybody and you come out as a family,” he said. “And a lot of it had to do with shooting on location here. If this had been in L.A.. everybody would have gone home at night. Instead, we’re staying at the Hilton Garden Inn (in Gilroy), we’re having breakfast together every morning, we’re hanging out at night, relaxing, and going out to the local restaurants and bars to get to know the people. It was a lot of fun.”
Even though the crew of 30 staying in Gilroy was a significant financial loss for Hollister because of a lack of available hotel rooms, according to Juli Vieira, president/CEO of the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce, Foley said he thinks San Benito County is a hidden treasure for filmmakers.
“I almost want to keep it a secret,” he said. ‘Everybody was so helpful. We have not had any issues. People were bending over backwards to help us.”
If bigger film productions discover San Benito County, things will change, Foley said.
“They come in with a lot of money and that would hurt the opportunity for smaller films to be able to do what we just did,” he said. “Just look at the local hotel situation.”
The goal once the film has been edited is to try to enter it into one or more film festivals.
“Hopefully, we’ll be done in September or October, and we might try for Sundance, Berlin or South by Southwest,” Foley said.
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