Post by macintosh on Feb 20, 2011 19:14:45 GMT -5
Thicker than blood
Frenetic filming schedule, intense story bond actors playing frat brothers
11:31 PM CST on Saturday, February 19, 2011
By Todd Jorgenson / Film Critic
Will Canon wants to make it clear: He isn’t out to criticize fraternities.
Phase 4 Films
Phase 4 Films
Jon Foster co-stars in Brotherhood.
View larger More photos Photo store
That might not be apparent upon first glance at Brotherhood, a low-budget thriller that marks Canon’s feature directorial debut.
The film takes place over several hours, following the consequences of a fraternity hazing ritual gone wrong. Specifically, it opens with a botched prank that winds up with one pledge getting shot and money missing from a convenience store, and shows the extent to which the existing fraternity brothers will disregard ethics and the law to cover it up.
“There are stories in it that are from friends of mine, or little things that happened to me, but the main idea that the movie is based around — that stuff supposedly never happened,” Canon said during a recent promotional stop in Dallas. “It’s not an anti-fraternity movie. To me, a fraternity is an institution. Fraternity guys, a lot of times, are the biggest fans of the movie.”
Production took place in Arlington, but the film is set at a fictitious, unnamed university. It is based on Roslyn, an acclaimed eight-minute short film from 2001 that was remade as the opening sequence of Brotherhood.
The filmmaker contends that the story is not an indictment of hazing or fraternity life as much as it is about the interaction and dynamics between the characters.
Still, Canon had his principal ensemble spend several days prior to filming undergoing various initiation rituals to help get them in character. Jon Foster (The Door in the Floor), who plays the ruthless fraternity leader in the film, had the actors tied to benches and covered with peanut butter and birdseed, for example.
“We knew that it would be intense and that we would really have to go along with it and commit to it,” said actor Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker). “We had pretty much our own hell week right before filming. They were experiences that we could use during the film and look back on.”
Canon is an Arlington native who attended Baylor University and eventually landed at the prestigious film school at New York University.
It wasn’t always a given that Brotherhood would be filmed in his hometown, but Canon found locations that were a natural fit only minutes from where he grew up.
The movie was shot in just 19 days during August 2009 with limited funding. However, Canon said he wanted to use his economic limitations smartly so as not to hinder his vision.
“We didn’t want it to feel like a low-budget movie,” Canon said. “We wanted to find a way to tell the story we wanted to tell, and to do it in a way that didn’t limit us creatively. We wanted the film to have a fast pace and to have this freight train movement, so we moved at that pace shooting the film.”
Since the story takes place during the course of a single night, shooting took place entirely during overnight hours, which became psychologically challenging for the actors.
“It was crazy. I started getting a little delusional after a while,” Pucci said.
Not only did filming take place at night, but it was in the middle of a hot Texas summer, when nightfall provides little relief.
“I knew Texas in the summer was going to be really hot, but it was a night shoot. I thought it would be fine,” said actor Trevor Morgan (Mean Creek). “It didn’t get colder at all. It was just that the sun was down.”
The two primary locations were a convenience store and an abandoned fraternity house at the University of Texas at Arlington that had no lights or air conditioning. An attempt to re-create a crowded party sequence under such conditions, for instance, made for a stifling experience.
“We all knew what we were getting into,” Pucci said. “We knew it was a low-budget movie. We were going to have to do it guerrilla-style and not have a big trailer. We were all really on board the whole time for anything.”
The shoot was physically and emotionally draining because of the conditions and the intensity of the material. But the actors were able to cope in part because of their friendship prior to filming.
“We were all really good friends in L.A. We have a lot of history together as buddies. You’re hanging out with your friends and making a movie you’re excited to make,” Foster said. “They didn’t have any animosity toward me, so we had to create that dynamic out here.”
Brotherhood is currently playing at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, and will open around the country in the coming weeks.
www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/entertainment/stories/DRC_brotherhood_0220.16f81721b.html
Frenetic filming schedule, intense story bond actors playing frat brothers
11:31 PM CST on Saturday, February 19, 2011
By Todd Jorgenson / Film Critic
Will Canon wants to make it clear: He isn’t out to criticize fraternities.
Phase 4 Films
Phase 4 Films
Jon Foster co-stars in Brotherhood.
View larger More photos Photo store
That might not be apparent upon first glance at Brotherhood, a low-budget thriller that marks Canon’s feature directorial debut.
The film takes place over several hours, following the consequences of a fraternity hazing ritual gone wrong. Specifically, it opens with a botched prank that winds up with one pledge getting shot and money missing from a convenience store, and shows the extent to which the existing fraternity brothers will disregard ethics and the law to cover it up.
“There are stories in it that are from friends of mine, or little things that happened to me, but the main idea that the movie is based around — that stuff supposedly never happened,” Canon said during a recent promotional stop in Dallas. “It’s not an anti-fraternity movie. To me, a fraternity is an institution. Fraternity guys, a lot of times, are the biggest fans of the movie.”
Production took place in Arlington, but the film is set at a fictitious, unnamed university. It is based on Roslyn, an acclaimed eight-minute short film from 2001 that was remade as the opening sequence of Brotherhood.
The filmmaker contends that the story is not an indictment of hazing or fraternity life as much as it is about the interaction and dynamics between the characters.
Still, Canon had his principal ensemble spend several days prior to filming undergoing various initiation rituals to help get them in character. Jon Foster (The Door in the Floor), who plays the ruthless fraternity leader in the film, had the actors tied to benches and covered with peanut butter and birdseed, for example.
“We knew that it would be intense and that we would really have to go along with it and commit to it,” said actor Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker). “We had pretty much our own hell week right before filming. They were experiences that we could use during the film and look back on.”
Canon is an Arlington native who attended Baylor University and eventually landed at the prestigious film school at New York University.
It wasn’t always a given that Brotherhood would be filmed in his hometown, but Canon found locations that were a natural fit only minutes from where he grew up.
The movie was shot in just 19 days during August 2009 with limited funding. However, Canon said he wanted to use his economic limitations smartly so as not to hinder his vision.
“We didn’t want it to feel like a low-budget movie,” Canon said. “We wanted to find a way to tell the story we wanted to tell, and to do it in a way that didn’t limit us creatively. We wanted the film to have a fast pace and to have this freight train movement, so we moved at that pace shooting the film.”
Since the story takes place during the course of a single night, shooting took place entirely during overnight hours, which became psychologically challenging for the actors.
“It was crazy. I started getting a little delusional after a while,” Pucci said.
Not only did filming take place at night, but it was in the middle of a hot Texas summer, when nightfall provides little relief.
“I knew Texas in the summer was going to be really hot, but it was a night shoot. I thought it would be fine,” said actor Trevor Morgan (Mean Creek). “It didn’t get colder at all. It was just that the sun was down.”
The two primary locations were a convenience store and an abandoned fraternity house at the University of Texas at Arlington that had no lights or air conditioning. An attempt to re-create a crowded party sequence under such conditions, for instance, made for a stifling experience.
“We all knew what we were getting into,” Pucci said. “We knew it was a low-budget movie. We were going to have to do it guerrilla-style and not have a big trailer. We were all really on board the whole time for anything.”
The shoot was physically and emotionally draining because of the conditions and the intensity of the material. But the actors were able to cope in part because of their friendship prior to filming.
“We were all really good friends in L.A. We have a lot of history together as buddies. You’re hanging out with your friends and making a movie you’re excited to make,” Foster said. “They didn’t have any animosity toward me, so we had to create that dynamic out here.”
Brotherhood is currently playing at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, and will open around the country in the coming weeks.
www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/entertainment/stories/DRC_brotherhood_0220.16f81721b.html
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