Working to bring a fairy tale to life

by Terri Hogan

Nestled within a rolling Brookeville farm is a quaint village — not the remnants from a bygone civilization, but rather a movie set created by a young filmmaker.

Brian Pennington, 21, is determined to prove he can make a quality movie without a Hollywood budget.

He and colleagues from his production company, Starwipe Films, recently shot a short film that they plan to enter in the Palm Beach Film Festival.

Pennington has lived in the Brookeville⁄Sunshine area with his family for about 15 years and started shooting home videos at the age of 10. At about age 16, the digital revolution kicked in, and Pennington’s video interest intensified, leading him to attend Fullsail film school in Florida, which offered an intensive 13-month program.

About two years ago, he and his former Fullsail classmates, William Howard and Karen Gill, formed Starwipe Films, named after what Pennington described as ‘‘a cheesy video transition technique.”

‘‘I used to like the technique when I was a kid, so the name reminds me of where I came from and simpler times,” he said.

The Starwipe Films Web site describes the company as a small group of talented filmmakers dedicated to making independent films that aren’t swayed by Hollywood’s influence. It is a self-sufficient production team with state-of-the-art gear specializing in every aspect of film production from script writing to DVD authoring.

Pennington says that when not shooting their own short films, the company produces music and wedding videos.

‘‘If someone offers us a script and a budget, we will make a film,” he said.

The production team entered a short film, ‘‘Silent Amy,” in last year’s Palm Beach Film Festival and came away with the honor of Audience Favorite Short Film.

From there, his team worked on odd jobs, including a feature that is expected to premier next year in Hollywood.

Pennington said he and his colleagues soon realized there were plenty of thrillers, horror and crime films being made, but very few fairy tales.

They decided to recreate ‘‘Godfather Death” — the working title — one of the lesser-known Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

‘‘We were all familiar with the story and thought it would make a neat film,” he said. ‘‘Because it was written in the narrative, we had to assign names to the characters and embellish them, but the core of the story is still there.”

When asked to describe the film, Pennington said, ‘‘Once upon a time a man must decide how he will handle the gift of becoming the world’s greatest physician.”

Pennington and his colleagues began pre-production meetings on the film about a year ago and completed the script about eight months ago.

They recently completed construction of a two-acre village, located at nearby Rolling Acres Farm, in 21 days. The village includes a church, six homes of varying sizes, gardens, a cemetery and lanterns.

Pennington says it looks similar to the village in M. Night Shyamalan’s recent film, ‘‘The Village,” and he also describes it as having a ‘‘dark, Tim Burton-kind of look to it.”

So far, the film has cost nearly $8,000 and has been primarily funded by his friends and family.

He sent out letters asking friends and family members to consider contributing by ‘‘adopting” a structure to be built in the village. Not only did he get the financial support he needed, but many of his contributors offered to come out and help build.

‘‘It cost about the price of a used car, but we had lots of friends and family come out to help,” he said.

Family members included his dad James, who served as a producer, and mother Bonnie, who served as the film’s seamstress.

The film was shot Sept. 1-4 at the manmade village with the help of additional crewmembers recruited from the Internet and professional actors found through casting calls in Maryland and Florida.

‘‘The shoot went really smoothly,” Pennington said. ‘‘We have one more scene to film, and then it will be in the can.”

He expects editing to be completed in time to meet the December deadline for entering the film in the Palm Beach Film Festival, which will take place next April.

‘‘Because we’ve been in before and we won, we’re kind of guaranteed to get in,” he said.

Despite how the film does, Pennington says his ultimate goal is that those in the industry will recognize his company’s potential as young filmmakers, and offer funding assistance to create more fairy tales.

‘‘Yes, we can make movies without the million-dollar budgets,” he said. ‘‘We were told to stay away from period pieces, but we’ve pulled it off. There are no boundaries.”