Post by BIGFANBOY on Feb 12, 2009 3:30:58 GMT -5
KARMA POLICE hits DVD February 10th
Review by Gary Dean Murray
These days, Dallas productions are few and far between. With every film project that has been made in the Metroplex there are dozens of rumored productions. Dallas is a place of hopeful filmmakers and few hope fulfilled filmmakers. The deck is stacked against making a movie in the Metroplex.
Which is why it is such a joy to have a movie like Karma Police developed and shot in the greater Dallas area. The film is a mystery thriller. Charles West (Chamblee Ferguson) is a normal guy who is recruited by a secret organization called the Karma Police. They are arbitrators of karma, rewarding the good and punishing the bad. As a new agent Charles begins to go into the rabbit hole of being a judge of mankind.
On hand to discuss their film in their first round table interview are three of the people on both sides of the camera. Creator/director John Venable is a local actor and movie critic who crafted Karma Police. Brandon Jones is the producer who is in charge of the promotion and distribution of Karma Police .. The third person is Nichole Leigh, the stunning young actress who plays one of the Karma Police, Shelly.
A SAG ultra low budget production, Karma Police was never intended as a theatrical film but a DVD planned feature, Though it has had a very successful screening life. The film was the first to sell-out at the Dallas AFI Festival last year. A subsequent screening at the Studio Movie Grill was also a SRO success. At the Lone Star Film Festival, the film was highly lauded with another sell out crowd.
There is a major buzz on the Internet about this modest little movie, due in part to the advertising campaign of business cards with the phrase “You are being recognized for your good karma” which leads the recipient to a web site for both the movie and a contest to win a flat screen TV. The goal was a million impressions to the public before the release on February 10th. “We have been distributing these everywhere,” said Brandon.
“I came up with the concept of the movie in 1999/2000,” said John. The basic seed of the idea came from a Pollyanna statement from his mother about how people should all just get along. This little idea worked itself into idea of a group of people who would reward the just and punish the unjust.
“We were working on another film and it stalled out,” John said of the Karma Police beginnings. “So I asked my film making partner if he wanted to do Karma Police. I knew we could get it done for very little money. We asked the guy who had given us money on this other project if he would take that money and put it in Karma Police and he agreed to. From that point on, we got Brandon involved and everything just moved forward. That was a very short process.” The film was a 21½ shoot in and around D/FW.
Brandon read the script and loved it. He said, “I believe in karma anyway and think is a real force in the world. Just from the name I knew that I would like it and want to be involved in it.”
All the talent is Dallas area actors except for two Hollywood leads. The casting process began in 2006 and lit cameras in Feb. 2007. “Two years from date of production to DVD,” said Brandon.
John, who knows all the people involved in the regional theater community, kept praising the local Dallas talent. He said, “I had to get as many great actors in it as possible.”
Added Brandon, “There is an abundance of talent in Dallas. We felt that these guys were doing us a favor.”
John admitted that, after seeing Nichole, he rewrote the role. In the script the original actress was to be Indian or of an Eastern descent.. “In the casting process, Nichole was the best one we saw,” said John. “She was the only actress who didn't fit the breakdown but was the best one out of all of them.”
Nichole Leigh identified with her character of Shelly from the first read. “When I read the character,” she said, “I saw her as being extremely confident and that could go good or bad. I loved that character. John is such an actor's director, very encouraging and so calm and collected. He gave us our freedom to do our thing.”
But the schedule was difficult for this young mom. “I was filming a film in Austin working during the week and filming Karma Police on the weekends,” she said.
The film is made in the Metroplex and both John and Brandon wanted certain shots that were iconic of Dallas without being overt. “We did it without a single pair of cowboy boot or a cowboy hat,” John said with a certain amount of glee.
“We want to build an audience for this film and we feel that it deserves an audience,” said Brandon. “We feel that it is a solid portrayal of what you can do with a film of this caliber. It is a good story that is unique, but it is going to take a lot of work from this point forward. We are only in phase one of distribution. We have all the new alternative download distribution streams. We just have to manufacture sales deals from here on out. Our goal is to build as big an audience as we can.”
Karma Police is available on DVD on February 10th. Add Karma Police to your online queue or reserve your copy today. Available from Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, and DVDEmpire.com
Look for the cameo by BIGFANBOY.com founder Mark Walters!
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