Local filmmaker premieres feature film

  • Dale Burrows<br>For the Enterprise
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:42am

A bright guy with a big dream will have butterflies in his stomach next Thursday night.

The event is the premiere of “The Falling” at Alderwood 7 in Lynnwood. The guy is Nick Gyeney; a 20-year-old Mill Creek resident, graduate from Jackson High School and current junior on full scholarship at USC’s prestigious School of Filmmaking.

So why the butterflies in Gyeney’s stomach?

Because “The Falling” is Gyeney’s first feature film. He wrote it, directed it, has high hopes for it and knows he is bucking the odds. A dreamer with his head all the way in the clouds, Gyeney is not.

“I’m a believer in the real world,” the young, independent filmmaker was saying when he interrupted study for his finals so we could talk by phone recently. “The world is messed up. If we don’t do something, we’re all in trouble.”

Yet, in his heart of hearts, Gyeney still holds to the optimistic, but unlikely possibility that just maybe: “‘Falling’s’ trailers at my website might attract studio execs and distributors the way they have public interest.”

Fear of flopping versus passion to succeed, it is an inner war of the worlds that Gyeyney has been waging since pre-adolescence.

“I had to take over as the man of the house,” Gyeney says of the responsibility he assumed for his mother and sister following the death of his father when he was 12. “Dad inspired me to make movies and to believe in myself,” he adds. The loss was not only a son’s loss of his father but also a protégé’s loss of his mentor.

Also, there was the nightmare of making a film for his senior project at Jackson. “It was an insane undertaking,” as Gyeney describes it, “because I had an A average to keep up.”

The film, titled “Dark Dreams,” was shot with a home video camera and the help of friends and teachers; Dave Friedel, in particular. “Mr. Friedel knew I would make it. He told me so,” said Gyeney.

“Dark Dreams” drew a standing ovation from an audience of 350 at Jackson High School and also, according to Gyeney, cinched his admission to USC’s School of Filmmaking and his scholarship.

“The Falling” is a much more sophisticated project. But it is also the product of the same kind of can-do attitude, ability to inspire others to pitch in and willingness to do the work.

“We made it for $80,000 and shot it in 35 days,” Gyeney boasts and rightly so: Hollywood adores moviemakers who come in at, or under budget.

“But there is nothing cheesy about ‘Falling,’” Gyeney said, heading off even the possibility of being grouped with terrible filmmakers like Ed Wood, who was notorious for see-through special effects; passing off paper plates as flying saucers in his sci-fi movie “Plan Nine From Outer Space,” for example.

The film was shot live and on locations around Seattle but free of charge without the inconvenience of anything like permits, although “the cops saw us and left us alone,” according to Gyeney.

Also, the film’s company worked for nothing. “They are just an amazing cast and crew,” Gyeney makes sure to credit those who devoted themselves, body and soul.

However, “We took four hours to shoot a 35 minute scene when an actor blanked on his lines,” says the big “G.”

Then, too, CNN was shooting a news story when Gyeney and company showed up to shoot their scene at the same location. Also, the month was June, the weatherman predicted sun and it was raining cats and dogs. The clock was ticking. Time was money.

But “Talk about God at work,” Gyeney says, “it was amazing.”

All at once, CNN packed up and left. The clouds parted. The sun shone forth. The scene got shot.

The anecdote is Gyeney’s. How much is fact, how much fiction, you decide. But one thing is for sure. It’s got color, suspense, a message and just plain fun to be an audience for.

So what are Gyeney’s chances with “The Falling?”

Well, it is an action-packed, adventure story that thrusts you into the middle of a war between heaven and hell with only an ordinary cop to keep you company and the future of mankind at stake.

Also, “The Falling” picks up on the styles of the big G’s favorite directors, Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas, and his favorite movie of all time, “The Terminator.”

That said, I’ve got the same problem Gyeney’s got. My head says it is a long shot. My heart says somehow, someway, doors will open, contracts will be signed, “The Falling” will rise.

Then again, maybe Gyeney is like the flu, contagious.

Anyway, I will see “The Falling” and let you know what I think the week after.

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