Running Funny in the news!!

Running Funny is screening at the Williamstown Film Festival this weekend and a newspaper up there wrote an article about it. Check it out! I'll let you all know how the festival goes!

Facing adulthood on both sides of the camera
By John E. Mitchell, North Adams Transcript

Thursday, October 25
WILLIAMSTOWN — A new film based on a play by a Williams College graduate echos the real life of the director who made it.

"Running Funny" is the story of two recent college grads who, in that nether space between college and real life, find themselves renting out a garage as an apartment as they prepare for rapid fire job interviews and figuring out what they really want to do with their lives. All through this, their landlord, a mysterious elderly man, lurks around, providing frustration and perspective.

The film is adapted from a play of the same name by the director of the film, Anthony Grippa, and the playwright, Charles Evered — who also happen to be uncle and nephew. Evered wrote the play in 1987 — it premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival — but it wasn't until recently that Grippa discovered it by accident. Grippa picked up a published collection of plays Evered had put out and "Running Funny" just happened to be included in it.

"I just read it not really thinking I'd be making any of it into a movie," said Grippa. "I just read it to read it, but I was so drawn to the play. I fell in love with it and I couldn't get it out of
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my head."

Grippa — at the time, a recent grad of Rutgers University — had been looking for avenues to pursue in a film career and adapting the play not only provided an opportunity, but one that followed a path he admired. Grippa admired do-it-yourself filmmakers like Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez and was seeking the inspiration that would lead him to do the same.

"Ultimately I realized that this was the movie I had to make," said Grippa. "It was perfect because I knew it was a movie I could make inexpensively, because the cast is very small and it takes place in mostly one location. I also really loved the story and loved the characters."

Grippa approached Evered, who was enthusiastic about the prospect and they began collaborating on the adaptation in a new kind of family togetherness.

"I wrote a first draft and we would pass it back and forth to each other," said Grippa. "We wrote it on and off for over a year, passing it back and forth and ultimately coming up with a script that we both really liked and it stayed really close to the play."

That was one thing we decided early on, we didn't want to open it up too much and make it a bigger movie than it had to be. The root of the story is these two guys in the garage and we didn't want to stray too far from that. Also, economically, we couldn't afford to, we knew we weren't going to have a lot of money to shoot the movie. We had to keep it mostly in one location just like the play was, because we didn't have the budget for it.

The adaptation required very little tinkering — any small liberties were for the sake of the medium of film, where backgrounds can and probably should change with more ease than a stage production. The root of the story was the two guys in the garage and the uncle/nephew team kept it that way — a fine economic decision, as well as an artistic one, since it was exactly what the budget would support.

"Mostly I just wanted to try and make it a little more cinematic," said Grippa, "and by that I mean writing it in a way that we did open it up a little bit. Some of the stuff takes place outside the garage, we had to add some new scenes. It's a little bit longer than the play."

Making the movie was an experience that was close to home in more ways that one. Grippa shot it in his hometown of Upper Saddle River, N.J. — more importantly, he shared an emotional space with the characters, which had attracted him to the piece in the first place.

"I really identified with the characters," said Grippa, "so, in a way, it felt like I was telling my story even though it was Chuck's play."

The circumstances weren't the same, but Grippa could identify with the root of what the characters were going through.

"I've never lived in a garage or anything like that," said Grippa, "but I do remember when I finished school, I moved around a lot, I spent a lot of time living out of my suitcase and crashing on people's couches, so I can definitely relate to the idea of not really having a home and trying to figure out what that home is after you finish college."

In fact, making the movie was, itself, a bit like that situation — and having a director who was still in the thick of it in his own way gives the movie an urgency that could not be duplicated by a director in his 30s looking back on that period of his life.

"When I made the movie, by no means did I have my life figured out," said Grippa. "The path I chose was that I would get a job to pay rent and I would make this movie. The path I chose was to follow my heart and say that I really love film and I want to be a filmmaker and I really love this story, so I'm just going to invest the next couple years of my life and just do this — and I don't regret it at all."

Grippa recognizes that there are plenty of others out there who have gone through the same thing following college and is working to bring it directly to those who are about to live through it themselves through a tour of college screenings. He and Evered have shown the film and done question and answer sessions at several schools around the country and they plan to continue.

"The college age kids are our target audience so I figured why not take it to universities?" said Grippa.

Those kids are preparing for the scenario presented in the film, but Grippa realizes that it speaks to more than just young people — everyone goes through change.

"If they aren't in it already, they will be when they graduate," said Grippa. "I think everybody goes through that at one point or another, maybe not when they're 22 and right out of school, maybe it's sometime later in life, when they're trying to deal with some kind of transition in life. In a way, I feel like it's not completely geared towards 22 year olds, I think everyone can relate to this."

"Running Funny" will screen at the Williamstown Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 27, at noon.

-Anthony

PS: Does anyone know how I can post video clips on this blog?