A new article came out in the Princeton Packet in anticipation of our New Jersey Film Festival screening next Friday. I pasted it below, but there is also a link to the article in the "Press" section of my blog.
DIY Cinema
‘Running Funny,’ about two friends just out of college, presents the same state of confusion its maker faced when he first read the play by his uncle Charles Evered.
By Elise Nakhnikian
On first impression, Anthony Grippa strikes you as a likeable, somewhat diffident guy, as much a watcher as a doer. But he obviously knows how to get things done: His first feature is one of the homegrown movies being shown at this year’s New Jersey Film Festival in New Brunswick.
The film is Running Funny, and it’s part of the crop of extremely low-budget, do-it-yourself features by young filmmakers with a prosumer (professional consumer) video camera and a story to tell. “I decided two or three years ago that I’d get a day job and make my life about getting this film made,” says Mr. Grippa, 25. “I watched as more and more of my friends started making more money and getting cool cars and apartments. But I have this film, which to me is a lot more valuable.”
Based on a play by Princeton-based playwright Charles Evered — who’s also Mr. Grippa’s uncle — Running Funny tells the story of Ed (Gene Gallerano) and Mike (Maximilian Osinski), friends just out of college who rent a garage together for a few weeks from a wise elderly landlord (Louis Zorich) while trying to figure out what to do with their lives.
Grippa read the play after graduating from Rutgers, when he was living in the same state of confusion as Mike and Ed. He contacted the man he calls “Uncle Chuck,” who has written movies as well as theatrical plays, and proposed that they turn his 1988 play into a screenplay.
The two agreed not to stray far from the play’s script. “We didn’t want to open it up too much to become something completely different, because the heart of the story is these two guys living in this small apartment-garage,” explains Mr. Grippa. “Also, we knew we couldn’t afford to open it up too much, since we’d need to shoot most of it in that one location.”
Mr. Grippa grew up in Upper Saddle River with his psychotherapist mother and two younger sisters. (His father, who runs a business in the Fulton Fish Market, lives with a second wife and their two children.) For the last couple of years, he’s been living in Hoboken, working a day job at the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, and making and marketing this film on his time off.
”I didn’t want to write a script and wait for somebody to give me $5 million to make a movie, because it just wasn’t going to happen,” says Mr. Grippa, who started making short movies in high school. “I wanted to just grab a camera and go do it. I think when you have less resources available, you really learn how creative you can be.”
Making his first feature was a much bigger production than making those high school shorts — but it was essentially the same process on steroids. The most important thing, Mr. Grippa says, was “just committing to it, saying ‘This is what I want to do with my life.’
”I’m the co-writer, I’m the co-producer, I’m the director, I’m the marketing guy, I’m the caterer, I’m the sales guy. It’s basically the best film school I could ask for.”
Making the movie was “definitely a grassroots process,” he says. The key to success was telling everyone he came across about what he was doing, since “you never know who might want to help you out.”
The whole thing cost only $10,000, which he raised from “friends and family, and friends of friends and family. No amount was too small. Some people gave 20 bucks; some people gave 1,000 bucks.”
Other things were donated too. He found the garage where they shot in Upper Saddle River after his hometown paper ran a story on the movie and a reader called to offer his garage, free of charge. “It was the first one we looked at, and it was perfect,” Mr. Grippa marvels.
An indie filmmaker operating on a shoestring has to be “a great communicator,” he adds. “You have to be able to get people as passionate as you are about what you’re trying to do.”
For his cast and crew, he rounded up a group of people, most of them also starting out their movie careers, who volunteered their time in exchange for adding a feature to their resumes. Mr. Grippa was hardly the only one who did more than one job. “The gaffer was also the sound guy; the grip was also helping out with wardrobe,” he says. “Everyone was wearing many different hats. I think everyone was working on it for two reasons: because they really cared about the story and to gain experience.”
For the actors who play Mike and Ed, there was a third reason: “the chance to work with Louis Zorich. They couldn’t turn that down,” says Mr. Grippa.
Mr. Zorich, who plays the landlord, is best known for his role as Paul Reiser’s character’s father on TV’s Mad About You and for co-founding the Whole Theater in Montclair with his wife, actress Olympia Dukakis. “Louis became involved because he was in my uncle’s play ‘The Size of the World’ about 10 years ago when it ran off-Broadway,” says Mr. Grippa.
”In a way, making the movie was the easy part,” continues Mr. Grippa. “The hard part is getting people to care about it. How do you get them to see it?”
Hoping to interest a distributor in putting the movie into theaters or on DVD, Mr. Grippa submitted it to film festivals. So far, it’s been accepted by three, including the Woods Hole Film Festival, where he won the emerging filmmaker award. He does advance publicity for festivals, plastering area coffee shops with flyers, contacting the media for stories like this one, and “telling everyone I see about the movie.”
And he doesn’t stop with film festivals. “I’ve done all this work for two years, so why do I want to put the life of this movie in the hands of these festival programmers?” he asks. So he’s also screening it at colleges that accept his offer to show the movie and answer questions afterward.
”I think you become a filmmaker by making films,” says Mr. Grippa. “I made my feature film for a third of the cost of one year of tuition at NYU film school. The technology is so accessible — it’s all digital now. You just need a desire to do it and a camera.
”The bad thing is, since more and more people are making films it becomes more difficult to break through the pack.”
Running Funny will be screened as part of the Jersey Fresh film and video program at the New Jersey Film Festival, Scott Hall #123, 43 College Ave. (near the corner of College Avenue and Hamilton Street), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Nov. 16, 7 p.m. Director Anthony Grippa will speak at the screening. Admission costs $10, $9 seniors/students; (732) 932-8482; www.njfilmfest.com
Friday, November 9, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Back from Williamstown!
I got back from the Williamstown Film Festival on Sunday, and we had a great time! We woke up early on Saturday morning to participate in the "Theater Into Film" breakfast seminar. It was cool to hear everyone's experience making the film and it definately brought back a lot of memories from the shoot.
Louis was absolutely hilarious! Apparently he turned down a major role in Steven Spielberg's next movie in order to do Running Funny. I think he was kidding. Louis is the greatest guy and I feel really lucky that I got a chance to work with him.
Our screening went really well and we did a Q&A afterwards and everyone had nice things to say. I was really happy that the cast was there with me. There was a feeling of comraderie among us that was really nice.
On Saturday night we all went to the "Grace is Gone" screening. What a powerful film. I really appreciated the spareness of it. It was refreshing to see such a subtle and moving film. I got a chance to speak to the director, James Strouse, afterwards and told him how much I enjoyed his work. He actually heard about Running Funny and said he was interested in seeing it!
So anyway, back to the real world. We're screening at the New Jersey Film Festival on November 16th and hopefully many other festivals after that.
Stay tuned...
-Anthony
Louis was absolutely hilarious! Apparently he turned down a major role in Steven Spielberg's next movie in order to do Running Funny. I think he was kidding. Louis is the greatest guy and I feel really lucky that I got a chance to work with him.
Our screening went really well and we did a Q&A afterwards and everyone had nice things to say. I was really happy that the cast was there with me. There was a feeling of comraderie among us that was really nice.
On Saturday night we all went to the "Grace is Gone" screening. What a powerful film. I really appreciated the spareness of it. It was refreshing to see such a subtle and moving film. I got a chance to speak to the director, James Strouse, afterwards and told him how much I enjoyed his work. He actually heard about Running Funny and said he was interested in seeing it!
So anyway, back to the real world. We're screening at the New Jersey Film Festival on November 16th and hopefully many other festivals after that.
Stay tuned...
-Anthony
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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
Advertisement
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?
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
Advertisement
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?
Friday, October 19, 2007
Running in California
I just got back from Riverside, California where I screened Running Funny for a group of students at UC-Riverside. The screening went really well and all of the students responed positively. My Uncle Chuck and I did a Q&A after the screening and everyone asked some really good questions. It's a lot fun to screen the film for college kids because they really identify with the characters. And if we help inspire a few student filmmakers, well then, it makes it all worth it.
Sounds cheesy, but it's the truth.
-Anthony
PS: I'm heading to the Williamstown Film Festival next weekend! Can't wait!
Sounds cheesy, but it's the truth.
-Anthony
PS: I'm heading to the Williamstown Film Festival next weekend! Can't wait!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Upcoming Screenings
Hello fans of Running Funny! I will be departing for the west coast on October 16th to attend a screening of Running Funny at the University of California at Riverside. The screening is sponsored by a student run group called the Filmmakers Association. I am extrememly excited about my second stop on the Running Funny College Tour and stay tuned for more RFCT screening dates.
The following week, the cast and my Uncle Chuck are heading up to the Williamstown Film Festival (www.williamstownfilmfest.com) for our screening on October 27th. Prior to the screening we are all going to be on a panel called "Theater Into Film." Among other things, we will be discussing the process of adapting the play to the screen and our experience shooting the film. I'm psyched! So if you know anyone in Riverside, CA or in Williamstown, MA please tell them about the film!
Thanks!
Anthony
The following week, the cast and my Uncle Chuck are heading up to the Williamstown Film Festival (www.williamstownfilmfest.com) for our screening on October 27th. Prior to the screening we are all going to be on a panel called "Theater Into Film." Among other things, we will be discussing the process of adapting the play to the screen and our experience shooting the film. I'm psyched! So if you know anyone in Riverside, CA or in Williamstown, MA please tell them about the film!
Thanks!
Anthony
Friday, September 21, 2007
Screening at FDU
I screened the movie for a group of freshmen at Fairleigh Dickinson University yesterday and it was a lot of fun! I was really excited to screen it for them because this movie is for their generation, so I was curious how they would react to it.
The students really seemed to enjoy it and they were genuinely interested in learning more about the filmmaking process. They asked some great questions! It was actually a very rewarding experience -- to hear how they identified with Michael and Eddie, what they thought was funny and sad about the story. It was great. I'm really looking forward to screening at more colleges, so stay tuned for more screening announcements!
-Anthony
The students really seemed to enjoy it and they were genuinely interested in learning more about the filmmaking process. They asked some great questions! It was actually a very rewarding experience -- to hear how they identified with Michael and Eddie, what they thought was funny and sad about the story. It was great. I'm really looking forward to screening at more colleges, so stay tuned for more screening announcements!
-Anthony
Sunday, September 9, 2007
First College Screening
Running Funny will be screening at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ on Thursday September 20th at 2:10pm.
FDU-Madison
285 Madison Avenue
Madison, NJ
Dreyfus Building, Room 125
The film will be screening as part of a film class, so it should be pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to meeting and talking to students about it.
FDU-Madison
285 Madison Avenue
Madison, NJ
Dreyfus Building, Room 125
The film will be screening as part of a film class, so it should be pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to meeting and talking to students about it.
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