Wizard World St. Louis Local Artist Spotlight

 

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Indie films have been a big part of my generation.  Films like Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Kevin Smith’s Clerks, and Richard Linklater’s Slacker showed us all that success can be had in the movie industry without the backing of the big budget studios.  Whether you like these films or not, you must respect what they have done for the industry.  With the technology we have at our fingertips today, everyone who wants to be a filmmaker can be one.  However, without the aforementioned creators, or people like Robert Rodriguez and Wes Anderson, would today’s generation even be inspired to pick up that camera and try to make a film without MGM telling them to do so?

After last year’s Wizard World St. Louis, I told everyone about the gentlemen at Archlight Comics and their original comic books Legacies End and Supercat.  Well my friends from Archlight were back at Wizard World St. Louis again this year with an even bigger project to promote.  This year they are making a movie and 8daysageek is fully supporting their endeavor.  At this year’s con, our humble editor-in-chief and I had multiple meetings with these fellas (and lady-we don’t want to forget about Gayle) and discussed their plans to film an indie movie right here in our hometown of St. Louis.  They are teaming up with another great hometown company named Pirate Pictures to bring us Four Color Eulogy.  Here is a synopsis of the upcoming movie directly from the hands of the writers themselves…

FCE 11x17 PosterGrowing up the only child of a single mother, aspiring comic book creator Chris escaped St. Louis 10 years ago and moved to Portland with his girlfriend Anne, forging a new life for himself. But when Chris learns that his mother is ill, he and Anne have no choice but to pack up their lives and move back home. Uprooted, his life completely disrupted, Chris is forced to face his mother’s mortality …and that nagging old childhood question: Who was his father, and why wasn’t he around?

With the help of his childhood buddy Brian, a pop culture geek, and family friend/mentor Rich, a bartender with a creative secret, Chris will have to determine what is more important: The hero’s origin, or his ongoing journey?

Four Color Eulogy is a dramatic comedy about family, finding your place and comic books and shows that it’s never too late to let go of the past and it’s never a good time to laugh at death…even when it’s funny.

 

The film stars local actor and Archlight comics artist Jason Contini as Chris-a thirty-something aspiring comic book creator who, ten years ago, headshotmoved from the mid-west to Portland Oregon to forge a new life for himself.  Chris, somewhat adrift in this world, wants desperately to find his place and build a world for himself.

Jason is an actor, writer, and artist who recently relocated from Los Angeles back to his home town of St. Louis, MO.  He began acting at the age of three in a production of The King and I playing The Littlest Prince.  In the years since, Jason has performed in over 70 theatrical stage productions including Godspell (as Jesus), Macbeth (as Macbeth), All My Sons (as Chris), Working! (as The Migrant Worker) and  Hamlet (as Laertes) to name a few.  He has worked with such prestigious theatres as The Muny, The St. Louis Rep, Stages St. Louis, Avalon Theatre Company, St. Louis Opera Company, and The Imaginary Theatre Company.  In 1999 Jason got his first taste of filmmaking while working on the indie anti-drug film April Is My Religion with director Bill Boll.  Subsequently, Jason has been seen in a dozen feature films including the acclaimed indie vampire film Shadowland as vampire hunter Julian and the romantic comedy The Anniversary as commitment-phobic Cid Draper.

 

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The film is directed by Wyatt Weed an accomplished artist in his own right who has worked both behind the camera and in front of it on a variety of television shows and feature films including;  Flight of the Intruder, Star Trek: The Next GenerationPredator 2, Star Trek Voyager, Red Planet, and Mission Impossible 2.  He made his directorial debut in the indie vampire film, Shadowland.

I will personally attest to Wyatt’s skills as an artist.  I spent three days at Wizard World St. Louis, stopping by the Four Color Eulogy booth on regular occasions.  The entire weekend, Wyatt worked tirelessly on a sculpture that would bring to life Jason’s artistic rendering of Laura from Shadowland.

 

What began as this… Shadowland1    became this..Shadowland2

 

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Four Color Eulogy’s Producer is Gayle Gallagher.  She has produced the music video Recap, two award-winning feature films in the form of Shadowland and  23 Minutes to Sunrise, as well as the television show Streetscape.  Gayle started in radio and audio production, eventually moving into the world of film.  She spent years producing corporate videos before taking on the Producer role at Pirate Pictures.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the main cast is rounded out by an impressive group of local actors/actresses who’s credentials are too lengthy to list entirely.  However, here is a brief description of the cast and their accomplishments.

FCE cast

Taylor Pietz has worked with numerous theatre companies in St. Louis including New Line Theatre, Insight Theatre Company, The New Jewish Theatre, Dramatic License, and four seasons with Stages St. Louis.  Taylor starred in the world premiere of Love Kills (as Caril Ann Fugate) with New Line Theatre, for which she was named Best Actress in a Musical by the River Front Times in 2010.  Most recently Taylor received a 2013 Broadway World award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for her performance as Emily Webb in Our Town and was nominated for a 2013 St. Louis Theatre Circle Award for the same role.  She has also starred in films such as Fireproof Gloves, Glass Turns Cloudy and Have a Nice Day. Nicholas J. Hearne has acted in such plays as You Can’t take it With You (as Grandpa), Turmoils in Tucson (as Tom Trueheart), An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe (Actor #1), and Long Live Rock n Roll (as King Kenny Kool).   He has appeared in a production of Godspell (as Nick the Apostle) as well as such films as Killers by Nature, and Fallen Skyes. John Contini has been seen at The St. Louis Rep, The Black Rep, Stages St. Louis, Pittsburgh CLO, The August Wilson Theatre, The Fox in Atlanta, Hotcity, New Jewish Theatre, St. Louis Shakespeare, The Starlight in Kansas City, Insight Theatre Company, St. Louis Actor’s Studio, Okoboji Summer Theatre, Arrow Rock and over 50 productions at The Muny.  For the last five years John was Artistic Associate Director for the Avalon Theatre Company where he won a Kevin Kline Award for Best Actor  in the one man show Baryymore and nominations for A Walk in the Woods (for Best Actor) and Molly Sweeny (for Best Director).  He also picked up two 2013 Broadway World awards, one for directing Time Stands Still and one for playing the title role in William Shakespeare’s King Lear.  Most recently John earned a nomination for Best Actor in a Drama with the St. Louis Theatre Circle Awards for King Lear.

Fundraising is well on it’s way to make this film a reality.  You can go to the Four Color Eulogy website to donate.  There are numerous donation packages that include some pretty amazing thank you gifts.  You can even earn a walk-on role in the movie depending on your level of commitment!  You can also show your support by purchasing a copy of the Show Me Doctrine literary magazine, that even includes a short story written by yours truly.  All proceeds from the sale of this magazine are being donated directly to Four Color Eulogy.  If you’d like to learn more about the film…from the mouths of those making it…watch this five minute video below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2U9xwo8kPrs&w=600]

 

Without the support of everyone who visits 8daysageek.com and follow us on Twitter, we wouldn’t be able to provide press coverage of Wizard World St. Louis and the many other live events we are allowed access to.  We here at the site would like to thank you all for your continuing support and ask that you lend that support to our friends at Archlight Studios and Pirate Pictures.  Everyone who browses our website or attends the local comic con does so because they either love to create…or enjoy sharing in what others have created.  I can’t even begin to stress how important it is that we all support one another in these kinds of creative endeavors.  Donations are great.  However, merely sharing this article with a friend via Facebook or Twitter helps get the word out and could assist in getting the next great indie film made.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter @SeanMLScott.  You can also like Four Color Eulogy on Facebook here.

Until next time, my fellow geeks…Allons-y!

 

 

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