CHRISTOPHER WOOD: RANDY SPARKS' NEW FILM SEES LIGHT OF DAY >>>
The weather just hasn't cooperated with Randy Sparks. Not surprising. When you call your film It Don't Rain on Sunny Days, meteorological uncertainty seems destined to torment your production schedule.
Let's rewind: My last meeting with Sparks involved watching his film's hero, Jason Feldman (Joe Rosati), demolish a Honey Bucket one frigid morning in November. (In the story, Feldman has just won the lottery.) At the time, the crew looked well on their way to having a polished film by early 2009.
Then weather happened - or rather, the right weather didn't happen. The film's completion date crept further away. Finding a decent day to shoot outdoors seemed as unlikely as, well, correctly picking this week's Lotto numbers.
Yet Sparks managed to see the silver lining throughout a drizzly springtime. The halt in production gave the writer-producer time to punch up his comedic script, and set up a Web site complete with teaser trailer and blog. Then something extraordinary happened: the rains reversed, the clouds cleared, and the sun began to shine. Seizing the opportunity, Sparks gathered several dozen crew members (all volunteers) and together they trouped to Steilacoom for one final day of filming. The town's quaint, quiet streets provided an ideal backdrop for a chase sequence between a Corvette and two bumbling bike cops.
The shoot went smoothly that mid-June day - until sparks flew. Not sparks from a clash of actors' egos, or even Randy Sparks, but true electric fire. During a staged scuffle, the safety on a Taser unlocked, and Rosati received roughly 25,000 watts of juice, courtesy of the prong fired into his back.
"He gave an electrifying performance," noted Tacomedian Colin Dillon (who accidentally administered the shock).
Rosati recovered quickly, and the film wrapped that evening. "Getting this last scene done was a huge relief," recalls Sparks.
Rosati agrees. "Now we have a film."
With deadlines for festivals in Tacoma and Gig Harbor rapidly approaching, Sparks has recruited a committed post-production team that includes local musicians and audio wizards. Editors Brian Spicer and Justin Peterson, who both worked on All About Haggarty, studied action scenes from about fifty movies to enhance the excitement in their own.
Sparks can't wait to premiering his work. "I think [the community] will be proud of us," he says.
Local comedian and co-writer Lee Fleming has similarly high hopes: "This is probably going to be the best movie since Cool as Ice - and if we can get Vanilla Ice in "It Don't Rain, Part 2."
"Vanilla Rain," Rosati offers, and laughs.
Tay Zonday could compose the theme song.
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