story, but it can also be your worst enemy in ruining a climatic moment.” It’s a conundrum that Calciano embraces during his version of the big grand gesture in the final moments of The 10 Year Plan. “Years ago you have the movies where you have to go get the girl or the guy back at the end and it was the race to the airport, it was always the get to the train station, let me catch them before they do this. But now it’s why the hell don’t you call them on the cell-phone and say I’m sorry … you don’t have to chase anyone down to make that big romantic gesture, you could just text them a smiley face and a wink and then it’s like, okay, the movie is over.” It’s a rom-com, so think happy ending but while cookie-cutter on the outset, it’s the conscious subtleties in The 10 Year Plan that make it an enjoyable piece of LGBT cinema. That includes a scene where Myles is forced – after going sex toy shopping with Brody – to clean a spilled bottle of lube from his bedside drawer. “Everybody thinks that things happen to them that happen to no one else and I come from this: well if it happened to me, then it happened to everybody else,” Calciano laughs. “So I try to notice all the things in my day and make note of the silly things that happen that I’m sure happens to everyone but they don’t give it a second thought. Those are the things that really bring a film into your heart. It’s the things you’re like ‘no one knows that about me’ or ‘I thought that was only me.’ Those little things are really important elements in making a story very personal.” And Calciano’s filmmaking comes from a very personal point of view. In The 10 Year Plan, main character Brody plays a cop, out at work with an open, affirming, and insightful, straight partner, played expertly by Moronai Kanekoa. Neither Brody nor his partner portray character types that are often seen on the silver screen – in gay or straight cinema. But that doesn’t matter to Calciano. “Being gay is secondary to the friendships, the storyline and the relationships,” Calciano admits. “I am very blessed in the fact that I have this kind of life where me and my partner – I’ve been with my partner fifteen years now – we exist in a world, maybe because we live in West Hollywood, that none of it’s even a thought. It is my hope for the rest of the world to enjoy that one day soon and I think that’s kind of where my movies go, is that the gay thing is not a thought, it is a seamless part where nobody cares or brings attention to it. There’s no coming out, anything like that. That’s where I set my movies in the world of where either I currently live or where I want society to be in the future.” While the October 3 screening and post-film discussion is most immediate in Calciano’s future, he’s currently working on bringing together several ideas that may hopefully have him collaborating with other writers, including another rom-com, an erotic thriller and a family feature film. 26 // 10.01.2014
Getting Personal with Jack Turner He plays the overeager obsessed with love lawyer, Myles, in The 10 Year Plan but we wanted to know who Jack Turner was. Check out our revealing Q&A with The 10 Year Plan lead and David Atlanta cover guy, Jack Turner. PS: He’s British . . . swoon, and he’s a rock star. David Atlanta: Myles is very – let’s say overeager – in his search for love, do you identify more with Myles, Brody or would you say you’re a comfortable balance between the two? Jack Turner: I’m certainly not as overeager as Myles – he’s pretty extreme. Also, I think Brody might be a bit extreme, too. I’m somewhere in the middle there and I’m okay with that. (Laughs) DA: The strip scene between you and Michael, any good outtakes we should be on the look out for when 10YP hits DVD? JT: (Laughs) There’s definitely an outtake as Michael kind of was going down on my body with the strip tease – the reaction shot was mine, the camera was on my face, he was out of frame at this point – he squeezed my balls. I obviously had a very physical reaction to that. DA: You worked for Google before making the leap to acting, would we find any surprising if we Googled Jack Turner? JT: You might get some notes that I am in a band called Cable Car and we’ve been doing quite well. We’ll have a new EP out in the next three weeks or so. That might surprise a few people. Check out Jack Turner’s music at www.wearecablecar.com