New Orleans Indie Feature PEOPLE Premieres in Dallas STORY BY W. H. BOURNE PHOTOS COURTESY OF PEOPLE
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n April 22, 2016, People, an ultra-low budget feature produced, written, directed, cast and crewed completely by individuals from Louisiana screened at the 46th USA Film Festival in Dallas. People is a fun film, composed of interesting and engaging character studies/vignettes, that has a unique twist at the end that ties all the characters together. The production team, which has extensive experience crewing on much bigger budgeted television and feature films, has recently returned from People’s world premiere in Texas. Louisiana Film & Video Magazine had the opportunity to speak with (the more comedic) members of their team to learn about their quirky, dark, dramedy.
“Our rough and tumble troupe recently completed its first feature film which included New Orleans resident writer/director Shane McGoey and almost all New Orleans cast and crew,” says Producer Eric Winder Sella. “We spent a long time trying and failing to get a Actor Resno Amariz (R) enjoying the different (drama) premiere of People. production off the ground. The process itself was dramatic; but, taking a step back, it was a rolling comedy of errors. And that’s People. 26 LOUISIANA FILM & VIDEO MAGAZINE
ISSUE TWO 2016
People are terrible, and the only way you can survive life is to take a step back and laugh at how awful people can be.” “Pain, suffering, frustration, and an acute sense of moral depravity,” adds writer/director Shane McGoey as he also discusses the inspiration of People. “We had a ten day schedule with just six shooting days (one for each vignette) and all of them at night,” explains Sella. “Carlos Bible, the director of photography, made sure that the schedule did not affect the quality of the film. Much to his credit, it looks like stuff Los Angeles spends months making.” “I wrote the script in nine days,” recalls McGoey, “and in real-time. Few aspects were cleverly plotted in advance. They were each begotten isolated, existing merely as curious anecdotes and dilemmas. But I did write with a general knowledge that all the characters should end up in a societal, existential hell together.” “Premiering at the USA Film Festival was an all around great experience. We had a great crowd, and the film was very well received,” says Sella’s producing partner Harrison Huffman. “Also, the Angelika Film Center has a wonderful facility. The picture and sound quality were superb. I would say this is the best People has been presented to an audience thus far. I am looking forward to saying that again in the future.” “Mostly it all felt very whirlwind,” adds actor Renso Amariz. “We got there Thursday, and from that point on I never knew what day it was again. We had an attitude going in that we were going to have all the fun that was there to be had, and I think we did, and maybe not at anyone else’s expense.” Amariz continues, “The first time I saw the film, it was with other people that were involved in the production. You expect that they’re going to be overall nice about what they saw, regardless of how they may actually feel. As someone that was in it, I just saw every opportunity where I could have made my performance better (during that screening). Watching it with a group of mostly strangers was much more frightening. You ask yourself if they’re going to see that you’re a shitty actor, are they going to get the jokes, are they going to tell you the truth when it’s done? While the movie