Haley Reed will direct and produce a movie set in Wrangell using Wrangellites as actors. Reed is majoring in screenwriting at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles.
If you've ever looked in the mirror and idly thought you could be a star, this summer will give you an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is.
Haley Reed, studying screenwriting at the University of Loyola-Marymount in Los Angeles, will use Wrangellites and Wrangell for the characters and setting of a short film shooting this summer. Prospective Clooneys or Blanchetts will need to commit to a four-day shooting schedule in late July, with between four and six hours spent on set each day, though that may be an optimistic schedule, Reed said.
"My experience with being on set is that everything starts late and runs late," she said.
The film came about as way to keep Reed's screenwriting and producing skills sharp over the summer.
"Towards the end of the school year, I decided that I wouldn't really be able to survive summer without being on set, and because there's really nowhere in Wrangell to be on set, I decided if it was gonna happen, it was gonna be because of my efforts," she said.
The film's subject matter is somewhat somber. It deals with a young girl caught between an absent mother and abusive, alcoholic boyfriend. While the narrative is aimed at confronting domestic violence and alcoholism – prominent social issues in Alaska and the nation – the story is ultimately about love, Reed said.
"It is very much a story of love between the mother and the daughter, despite the mother's absence and what happens when she's not around that she doesn't realize what's going on," she said.
The film attempts to deal with the issues with a notable handicap in the absence of spoken dialog, Reed said.
"The style I'm doing this in is a 200-level film, which is a sophomore thesis," she said. "It is very much using visuals to convey the message. If you think about it, all cinema began as silent, so you had to be able to do that. That's really what they try to teach you in production classes there. I've seen this vision come alive for other people, and knew that I would be able to do the same."
Despite the controversy which sometimes surrounds issues like domestic violence and alcoholism, the film isn't intended to portray Wrangell or Alaska in a negative light, Reed said.
"It's not just an issue that Wrangell is facing, or Alaska is facing," she said. "It's hopefully one that I can find a way to tell well. It started even before that as just me wanting to bring the industry that I've come to love to the place I love the most, so it is just about me trying to show the hometown that I love to the people that I have really come to respect at college, and perhaps give the world something else to talk about besides Sarah Palin when I say that I come from Alaska."
A final draft of the film's screenplay is largely completed, and will soon be transposed into a shooting summary- each scene broken down into its component shots. The shooting summary is then used to develop a shooting schedule or list of scenes to be filmed on various days, since movies (unlike stage plays) aren't acted or shot in chronological order, according to Reed.
After filming, Reed plans to take the raw footage back to her university and edit it into a final, polished film.
Reed is dedicated to making the film, which means finding actors as well as people to work behind-the-scenes.
"I've had about half a dozen people contact me showing interest in various parts of it," she said. "I am hoping to get more interest in acting roles, because that is the one thing I can't do this without, and I am determined that no matter what happens this film will be shot. Even if it's on an iPhone, it's gonna happen."
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