FILMMAKER MAGAZINE | Spring 1996: PRODUCTION UPDATE

PRODUCTION UPDATE

Twenty-five years after Richie Vetter watched the exploding hippie movement rock New York's East Village, his son Shane introduced him to '90s post Gen-X culture. Vetter went on to document that scene in his first feature, Sam. Calling Sam a music-driven coming-of-age journey, Vetter says he woke up with a key shot in his head one day and had the script on paper - with the collaboration of Shane, a musician in his twenties - less than two weeks later.

Sam's a 17-year-old small town girl who arrives in New York to study architecture with nothing but the pack on her back. Sam's entranced by the East Village, but soon finds herself out on the street with no cash or resources. She can't call her parents - they didn't want her to leave - and the grandmother who prepaid her first semester's tuition has died, so Sam's forced to fend for herself as best she can.

Vetter started as a studio musician and moved into record production in 1975 when he opened Blank Tapes Recording Studios - for ten years one of the country's top studios and the source of breakthrough albums for Madonna, the Talking Heads and the B-52s. He sold Blank Tapes in 1987 to concentrate on film and has since produced or line produced several indie features, including current fest circuit entry Sweet Nothing, starring Michael Imperioli, and concert films like Stolen Moments and Red Hot + Country, both for the Red Hot Organization.

Vetter called in a lot of chips to get experienced crew for a price he could afford (read defer) and hired editor Amanda Pollack after calling seasoned editors and quizzing them about assistants ready to cut a feature solo. Vetter picked the debuting actress who plays Sam out of 500 hopefuls and used local band members and club kids in small roles for authenticity.

Sam was shot on Super-16mm this December for minimal hard cash. ("We paid for film, processing and lunch," says Vetter.) Sam's soundtrack, which Eddie and Shane Vetter are producing along with Bobby Heller, will be released by a new independent music label, featuring cuts from staple East Village acts Shift, Orange 9mm, Home 33, Sweet Diesel, Killing Time, Moses, Loaded, VOD (Vision of Disorder), The Stitches, and Samsara, in which Shane Vetter plays guitar. At press time Vetter was editing on a rented Steenbeck in his office and planning two days of pickups; all rights remained available.

Cast: Victoria Spiro, Shane Vetter, Karen Stanion, Jay Ecker, Alethea Allen, Doug Gorenstein. Crew: Producers, Richie Vetter, Mark DeAngelis; Executive Producer, Bobby Heller; Screenwriters, Richie Vetter, Shane Vetter; Director, Richie Vetter; Director of Photography, Robert Lechterman; Locations, Peter Foley; Costumes, Leah Levine; Casting, Meredith Jacobson; Editor, Amanda Pollack. Contact: Richie Vetter, Last Resort Films, 101 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011. Tel/Fax: (212) 627-9020.

Lewis & Clark & George