Imagine Magazine - May 2003 [view pdf]    Requires the acrobat plugin Boston Globe - Dec 2001 Brookline Tab - Dec 2001 Boston Sunday Globe December 9, 2001 A little film wanting to tear generational barriers down By Joel Warner GLOBE CORRESPONDENT "How many times do I have to tell you? Focus focus is the key to Hocus Pocus!" Last Sunday, in the cramped basement of Temple Sinai, surrounded by parents filling out release forms or reading over scripts, 10-year-old Yonit Friedman sat with her mother and recited the lines she had spent two weeeks memorizing. She was preparing, along with 60 other children, for one of the 16 pricipal roles in "Stop Thief!", a short children's film being shot in Brookline about seniors and children magically transforming into one another. Director Peter Rhodes, a film editor who worked for the BBC in his native England and then progressed to PBS documentaries when he moved to the states in 1986, became interested in shooting local films in 1999, a year after moving to Brookline. A father of two whose day job is with PBS, Rohodes did not have to look far from home for the cast for his films. Right in his Brookline Village neighborhood he found loads of children eager to be in the movies. "Working in documentaries all day, I thought it would be fun to do something totally different," said Rhodes. With a Cast of pint-size actors, his Brook Street Productions spent a year maiking "An Alien Sneezed on Brook Street," but its ditribution consisted mainly of one sold-out showing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre - the seats filled with family and friends of the cast and crew. Rhodes has grander aspirations for "Act Your Age!" "It's like Harry Potter meets 'Cocoon' and 'Freaky Friday,' said Marcy Goldberg, a graphic designer for the WGBH kids show "Between the Lions," who is writing the script. The film which is expected to cost around $80,000 will involve months of rehearsals and eight to 10 days of shooting in the spring. While the film and a documentary about it might be sent to elementary schools, senior homes, and television channels, Rhodes says the main point is the interaction between local seniors and the children in the film. "There's no connection between the community of families and the community of seniors that live in my neighborhood, " said Rhodes. " It would be greatto create more linkages between the generations." Back to Top --- Brookline Tab December 6, 2001 Everyone wants to be in pictures Children Audition for local filmmaker's latest project By Michael Reisman STAFF WRITER For local grade school children who want to be in pictures, opportunity knocked last weekend when auditions were held for "Act Your Age," a new film to be shot in Brookline over the upcoming year. Local filmmaker Peter Rhodes is producing the film which will be shot around town and star Brookline children and senior citizens. Last Sunday, about 60 elementary and middle school children from various Brookline schools flooded into Temple Sinai to audition for parts in the film. Among the parents and children present were Chestnut street residents Lloyd Gellineau and his 8-year old daughter Leah. Lloyd said his daughter loves theatre and is a part of the PALS program through the Lincoln school, where she is a student. Both were happy to participate in the auditions. "It's rather unique. It's kind of nice," Gellineau said. "The idea of trying to get the community into the picture gives the kids a hands-on experience of the movie and audition process- and the parents, too." According to Leah, who has been in a few plays before - including a production of "Wizard of Oz" where she played five roles- the best part of auditioning is to learn what to do better next time. "I like auditioning because the more and more I do it," she said, "the better I get." Auditions for the film ran for most of Sunday afternoon and involved a two-step process. The auditions for the senior actors were held separately. Initially, groups of potential lead actors and actresses broke into groups of 14-16 for a workshop led by Rhodes and Assistant Director Jeremy Solomons. The children were put through some improvisation pieces that included participating within several role-playing games, which Rhodes said would help him gauge the children's innate acting ability. The children performed tasks like picking imaginary presents up off the floor and giving them to a fellow auditioner, or mirroring the actions of a person standing directly across from them. Following this large "group" tryout, smaller auditions were held with just two children reading a prepared snippet of dialogue adapted from the film's script, which children had been sent prior to last Sunday. The dialogue pits two children talking to each other about magic on a park bench. Rhodes said in total there are about 16 roles for children to play in the film, but all the children who auditioned will be offered a chance to end up in the movie in some way. Tracy Clark, a Coolidge Corner resident and parent of Sam Clark one young actor, said this film was the kind of thing that could happen in Brookline. Her son, who at 6-years-old was one of the younger auditioners, attend the Lawrence school, and is a veteran of the Art Barn theatre group, who donated the space to hold the auditions. "He wants to be an actor when he grows up," said Clark, "so we've been working on his part all week." Another excited parent was James Cummins, who lives on Cypress Street in Brookline. His ten year old daughter Hannah is no stranger to auditioning for different parts, including a try out for "Zoom" on PBS, and has been in plays in school as well as for local PALS chorus. "This is the first time there is an opportunity outside of school," he said. "It's a great experience for all of us to be involved. " Rhodes, who says he is acting as producer, director and editor for the film said "Act Your Age: is primarily a children's film, a fantasy story pitting an evil wizard against seniors and children in a Brookline neighborhood. A key component of the plot is that through the use of magic, the wizard turns the children in senior citizens, and in the meantime the seniors, located at a nearby senior center, turn into children. For this reason, Rhodes said the idea behind "Act Your Age" is that it's really a community project. "The goal is to bring these two groups together," he said "and build a fairly close relationship." Rhodes works through his Brook Street Productions, which has been making films since 1999. In addition to his own filmmaking, Rhodes works as an editor for PBS, and has done work on films for Frontline, the American Experience, and other projects for WGBH. Rhodes last film was called "An Alien Sneezed on Brook Street." which was filmed exclusively in Brookline - actually it was filmed solely on Brook Street. The film, he said, was inspired by the name of the brook street neighborhood which he said was a community of people. Rhodes, who is originally from England, moved to Brookline in 1986, and has lived in Brookline village for about 10 years. The new film, he said, is bolder since it does not limit itself to one locale. "Act Your Age" will be filmed throughout the town. It will utilize kids from all the local elementary schools, up to the age of 12, and Rhodes anticipates using about 16 seniors recruited for the film through the Brookline senior center. However, Rhodes said the figure may grow, and many of the characters will utilize the traits of the children or adults that are playing the roles. The script for the film, Rhodes said, is "organic to the people. The roles will develop out of who they are." Back to Top --- Imagine Magazine May 2003 Brook Street Productions ACT YOUR AGE: Cinematic Storytelling for the Young & the Young at Heart By Rebecca Richards This article originally appeared in the May 2003 issue of IMAGINE Magazine, and is reprinted here in its entirety with the permission of IMAGINE Publishing, Inc., and its Publisher. This article may not be re-published, re-printed, or re-broadcasted, in whole or in part, without the expressed written consent of IMAGINE Publishing, Inc., (www.imaginenews.com). While most New Englanders were lazily sunning themselves on the beach one particularly steamy summer weekend last July, there was a flurry of activity and excitement just outside of Boston, in Brookline's Grigg Park as director/producer Peter Rhodes led his ACT YOUR AGE feature cast of close to one hundred kids and sixteen senior citizens ranging in age from 70 to 90 through a pivotal scene in the film. It was an amazing and largely unknown event in moviemaking - two generations, set apart by many years, interacting and having fun together on a film set. This unusual intergenerational film collaboration based on Rhodes' earlier ambition to bring together young children and elderly adults in some kind of creative project had finally become a reality in a movie which features among other things; a giant magic show, an evil nurse, a book of ancient spells, and a group Charleston dance. If Peter Rhodes' name seems familiar, it's undoubtedly because you've seen it listed in the credits of any number of notable television documentaries produced in the last seventeen years. As one of the area's most respected film editors, British expatriate Rhodes has been working steadily since first arriving in Boston with his American born wife, artist Shelley Reed, back in 1986. With a resume that included assistant editing at the BBC, Rhodes was soon hired by WGBH and thus begun a long ongoing career that includes working on such acclaimed PBS series as FRONTLINE, NOVA, and THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. While Rhodes clearly loves his documentary work, he also says that regularly working with such serious subject matter moved him to find an idea altogether different when looking to develop his own creative project several years ago. "Editing had become somewhat of a second nature and I was feeling like some of my creativity was being drained,"he says. "I was looking for something new, something maybe more lighthearted for my own project."With his ready smile and engaging sense of humor, it's no surprise that Rhodes' was looking for something less somber to satisfy his personal, creative needs. He soon found the inspiration he was looking for right in his own home. By 1999, as the parent of two young children, Rhodes would sit on their beds every night and make up stories to tell them before they went to sleep. He recalls the experience as being quite wonderful in developing his ability as a storyteller. Around this same time, Rhodes and his family moved into a new neighborhood, which had lots of friendly families and a strong sense of community. It was during this time that Rhodes started thinking seriously about making a children's film. "Initially, it wasn't going to be very ambitious, just a little film shot on video,"he says. But when noted local cinematographer Boyd Estus expressed interest and offered his services, it suddenly became a "real film.""I realized then that I wanted to take it further...beyond what I had originally come up with,"says Rhodes. That first film, the short whimsical, fantasy sci-fi inspired, AN ALIEN SNEEZED ON BROOK STREET, consisted of a four-day shoot, a tiny crew, a few props, and a group of non-professional child actors that Rhodes says he literally found on the street when he walked out his front door. Although somewhat limited by its miniscule budget, the ALIEN film was an important breakthrough for Rhodes in a number of ways; it established his Brook Street Productions in the community and it forged important creative partnerships with individuals Marcy Goldberg and Jeremy Solomons, who together with Boyd Estus, would each play a vital role in the much more ambitious ACT YOUR AGE. With the positive buzz that surrounded ALIEN, Rhodes screened the film for Denise DiIanni, head of local programming at WGBH, who discussed with Rhodes the possibility of a series of similar kids' themed films to be shot in and around Boston. While nothing actually came of that plan, the series concept had given Rhodes ideas for several more story ideas, one of which he just couldn't get out of his head. "I had this idea stuck in my head about kids turning into seniors and seniors turning into kids, the two groups switching roles,"he says. "I lived by this park, and I would observe large groups of children and elderly people in the park together, but they'd be having no interaction with each other. It made me sad, thinking about the seniors looking wistfully out at the kids having fun, while they sat apart and had no contact with them. I started thinking, wouldn't it be great to put together a film project that would include both age groups? I wanted to create something that would move beyond the "Grandpa and Grandma"relationships, which is basically the only relationship most kids know regarding elderly people. I wanted the seniors to be seen as interesting, viable individuals in their own right, who also want to have fun."says Rhodes. With no script yet written, but clearly energized by his idea, Rhodes went ahead with his plan to recruit a group of seniors to take part in the project. After a presentation at the Brookline Senior Center, a group of seniors enthusiastically signed on to be a part of the project. While Rhodes worked on developing the script for the film, he turned to his ALIEN cohort, Jeremy Solomons, to conduct a series of acting workshops for the seniors. Solomons was a fellow British expatriate with a background in community theater who was teaching drama in the Brookline public schools. He had lots of experience with actors while I had very little,"says Rhodes. "The workshops were actually quite amazing,"says Rhodes. "Jeremy and I introduced people to the idea of acting, and working collaboratively with each other and the kids in the cast. You could see the relationships start to develop...it was wonderful." The workshops also proved invaluable to Marcy Goldberg, Rhodes' co-director and the writer of ACT YOUR AGE. Goldberg had first met Rhodes when they were both working at Ben Loeterman Productions. "I was working as a researcher on a documentary about apocalyptic thinking,"says the ever-gregarious Goldberg. "It was very difficult material to work with,"she says. "I remember thinking, how did I end up here? I just want to work with kids, puppets, and the letter E,"she says ruefully. After realizing they shared similar interests and humorous sensibilities, Rhodes asked Goldberg to help with AN ALIEN SNEEZED ON BROOK STREET. After moving to New York a few years ago to work in children's television, Goldberg hadn't heard from Rhodes until he contacted her one day in 2001. "Peter e-mailed me out of the blue and asked if I was interested in helping out on his new film project,"says Goldberg. "As soon as he described the project to me working with the kids and the seniors, I signed on."Rhodes gave Goldberg lots of free rein with writing the script as long as she adhered to a handful of pre-set guidelines. "He was very firm about it,"she says. "He told me, we have three locations to use; a park, a senior center and an apartment; we have sixteen kids and fifteen seniors in the primary cast, and oh yes, we need a scene that will include one hundred kids! Now go write it." Working together Rhodes and Goldberg took a unique approach to writing the script and developing the characters. "Peter would send me videotapes of the workshops with Jeremy and the seniors,"says Goldberg. "I would then develop characters and story lines based on certain personality traits or simply strengths of the older folks as I watched them on tape."This unusual approach apparently worked, since the seniors appear so natural in their roles. In addition to working with Estus, Solomons and Goldberg, Rhodes was able to attract a number of seasoned film professionals to the production, including gaffer Guy Holt of ScreenLight and Grip and production designer Katha Seidman of WGBH. High Output was also very generous with donations of equipment to the production. Color corrector Dave Allen and soundtrack composer Peter Bufano also made important creative contributions to the film. And numerous families throughout the Brookline area supported the production with volunteering their time to appear as extras or drivers for cast members and even helping out with craft services. As Rhodes' completes the final edit of ACT YOUR AGE, he seems pleased by the result. The film not only tells an entertaining story, it also successfully accomplishes his original goal -- by working together, the kids and the older adults clearly see each other in a new, more positive way. ACT YOUR AGE was an enlightening experience that really brought the local community together. And let's not forget - everyone got to do the Charleston. ACT YOUR AGE premieres at the Coolidge Corner Theater on May 18th at 1:30pm. Additional screenings will take place in Sept. For more information on AYA, go to www.communitymovies.com. Rebecca Richards was the first Executive Director of Women in Film and Video/New England. She has served as Guest Editor of the "Women's Issue"of Imagine since 1999. She is currently the director of the Children's Film Festival for Belmont World Film. She worked as a second AD on ACT YOUR AGE. She can be reached through BelmontWorldFilm.org. Back to Top

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