FILMMAKER MAGAZINE | Spring 1996: PRODUCTION UPDATE

PRODUCTION UPDATE

A girl movie with an edge, Loose Women starts out as a comic tale about a struggling actress in New York. Rachel sees her 30th birthday looming ahead like a neon sign as her fly-by-night friend Tracy blows into town and lands the guy she's been pursuing. So far, so funny. The movie takes a darker turn as Rachel's roommate's secret life emerges and Rachel and Tracy team to save her skin.

First-time director Paul Bernard snagged the likes of Corey Glover, Giancarlo Esposito and soap opera star Robin Strasser for supporting roles as well as a cameo by Charlie Sheen; Sherry Ham, Bernard's wife and Women's author, plays Rachel.

Bernard, 27, studied film at the University of South Carolina and apprenticed as a director with five years of production gigs, including first a.d. stints with John Badham, Terry Gilliam and Neil Jordan. "When you spend 90 days as right hand to these guys, you learn," he says. "And since all the films I've done have been $50 million and over, I've met a lot of big names - technicians as well as actors - who agreed to sign on when I took my shot."

Loose Women's crew is studded with names like supervising editor Mercedes Danevic, who got an Oscar nod for editing Amadeus and happens to be Bernard's sister-in-law (his brother's Sony Pictures Classics partner Tom Bernard).

Because Bernard worked rock shoots between movies, he also made musician friends like Hootie and the Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan, who'll write several songs for Women's soundtrack. "It's a $2 million film that will look like $5 million," says Bernard.

For all Bernard's connections, financing Loose Women depended on a chance introduction to indie director J.D Matonti (Cassian's Kids) and his new production company, INMotion Entertainment last fall. Matonti and partners Chris Matonti, his brother, and James Scura had secured an investment fund to produce low-budget films and agreed to send Loose Women out of the gate first. Bernard rehearsed his actors for three months before Women's three-week shoot started February 10. Locations ranged from Grand Central Station and The Hewitt School on New York's East Side to a New Jersey mansion and a "vampire" bar, Boom. Bernard's planning an '80s music soundtrack and should have a finished film this summer. All rights are available.

Cast: Sherry Ham, Melissa Errico, Marialisa Costanza, Corey Glover, Tom Verica, Amy Llyod, Keith David, Giancarlo Esposito, Stephen Lang, Robin Strasser, Mark Metcalf, Dechen Thurman, Victor Collicchio and Charlie Sheen. Crew: Producers, Chris Matonti, Paul Bernard; Executive Producers, J.D. Matonti, James Scura; Line Producer: Sylvia Caminer; Director, Bernard; Screenwriter, Sherry Ham; Director of Photography, Peter Reniers; Production Designer, Tim Sheehy; Supervising Editor, Mercedes Danevic; Editor, Marie Pierre. Contact: Chris Matonti, INMotion Entertainment, Inc., 375 Greenwich St., Suite 524, New York, NY 10013. Tel: (212) 941- 2002, Fax: (212) 941-2439.

Lewis & Clark & George