'Scandal' in Colfax as film team wraps project

Concluding a grueling 48-hour race to finish, the Perpetual F film team turned in their 6-minute short film ‘Grand Forks’ Sunday night.
The project is one of more than a dozen shot and edited in between Friday and Sunday evenings as part of the Sacramento International Film Festival’s 48-hour film challenge.
The projects will screen at the festival on April 23.
‘Grand Forks’ is a creative adaptation of real event from the early 1970s. In the film, downtown Colfax stands in for the North Dakota town of Grand Forks.
“Pulling off a period-piece in a 48-hour challenge was super ambitious,” said Ed Fletcher, the writer and one of the producers on the project. ”The contest does allow teams to do some pre-production so we had a lot done before the clock started ticking.”
Directing the project was Damen Quincy Hayes, who is also teaming with Fletcher on a related documentary “Do the Dance.”
It all started with “Pink,” Fletcher’s true story script about the Sacramento 1969 battle of over nude dancing at Orangevale’s Pink Pussy Kat club. The recent death of key figures prompted the Perpetual F team to accelerate plans to tell the real story through the documentary.
“When the 48 came along we already had plenty on our plate,” said Hayes, who performed under the name DQ Hayes during his career as a musician. “But the idea was so good we decided to do it anyway.”
‘Grand Forks’ explores a chapter of Sacramento-born exotic dancer Susanne Haines life that isn’t covered by ‘Pink.’ When the club manager wants to cut her appearance fee, exotic dancer Susanne Haines cooks up a scandalous plan to scare up a full house.
“I kept telling people in the local film community we weren't doing a 48, but the theme for the slate of 48-hour films ‘scandal’ was almost too good to pass up,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said his mind was also influenced by actress Bunny Stewart, who offered her services before seeing a script. Stewart plays Haines in the film.

Production dream has turned me into cyberstalker

Once you start talking about producing your script: people start asking “Who do you see in it?”

It’s a logical question.

I think what they’re really asking is what do these characters look and sound like.

What I always hear though is: “Are you crazy or bat shit crazy?”

Until quite recently I didn’t have a ready response. Just a couple months ago I was still wondering whether I could finish this thing. Now I’m supposed by brash enough to suppose known Hollywood actors would want to be in my film?

Do I play is stay modest or go big and say Jennifer Lawrence?

I’ve never fixated on stars. I was always more interested in who wrote the story and how the production came together.

But now with the dream of putting my film into production, I’ve turned into a celebrity cyberstalker.
I’m making lists. And thanks to IMDBPro its easy to look up their agent.

I make lots of lists these days.

I'm now busily adding to my list of agents, producers, directors and actors who might help move my film along.

It’s already changed the way I watch movies. Suddenly actors aren’t just distant beings I never have to worry about meeting to possible creative collaborators.

The improv stage is terror, magic

Ed Fletcher at Camp Winton with Ray Ray,
the Allen brothers and Eric Chew.

On Sunday, I stepped on stage for my first improv performance.

It was like standing on the edge of a cliff, not knowing whether you'd made a smart move or stepped foolishly. Making it down from the cliff successfully means seeing something you've never experienced, with the full knowledge that next time -- no matter how thrilling it may be -- it will never offer the fear and associated reward.

It was, in my opinion, an unmitigated success. Sure, our elderly hippy cast member had a brain fart or drug-induced neural dump, but we covered it like pros and made people laugh.

There was no clear path to my decision to take a long-form improv class, which concluded with the performance. In addition to playing with words more often lately, I've been trying to say 'yes' in the real world more often. (As opposed to at Burning Man where yes is always the right answer).

It began lightly with Thursday nights at the "Playground" at Blacktop Comedy in Roseville. I had never done improv before. I'd been in a couple school plays, was a rally commissioner in high school and did some class videos, but the majority of my comedic performances came at Camp Winton, where twice a week we entertained kids at our "award-winning" camp fires. It was something between sketch and improv. We set high marks for the production and we're known as one of the best in the state.

The Playground, run by the owner Paul Burke, provided a safe fun environment for people of all levels. Finding success for this short-form games, a long-form class was the next logical step. I chose the Sacramento Comedy Spot primarily because it was closer to home. I was pleased with my chose owner/teacher Brian Crall pushed and pulled us into performers.

 It's hard to put to words the pace at which the mind has to work as the session starts. You searching for a scene to snag from a monologue as the crowd laughs blissfully unaware of the terror in your head. Sticking the landing is something magical though.

Not everyone will have financial success from living their ideal life. No matter how many kids dream of being an actor, not everyone gets to get make millions in Hollywood. But that doesn't mean you can't step onto a smaller stage, produce your own show on access television or write a film short.

 As I news writer, I'm not the star and definitely not a performer. The idea is to ask the right questions, but otherwise stay out of the way of the news. I guess that is way I liked doing Edventures so much. It was a small taste of Ed the performer. I'm happy to say I'm back on stage and I don't anticipate another decade plus performance break. There are more cliffs to stand on.