Those Crazy Ogelmyers, Premiering May 11

The movie Those Crazy Ogelmyers premieres Saturday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m. in Hyde 220 and a second showing will take place on Sunday, May 12 at 5:00 p.m., same place. There is a potential third showing at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday as well depending on the popularity of the film. Directed by Bethany W. Gates and written by Otto Kinzel IV, this dark comedy tells the story of eighteen year old Scotty Ogelmyer. Said Gates, “The script is based around the Ogelmyers and the oldest son Scotty, who’s got a crush on this girl, Patty. He has to fight for her, and there’s a subplot of how he deals with his messed up family.” After finishing with her last film, The Reborn Film Segment, Gates wanted to shoot another project. This time around, she decided to do a dark comedy instead of a serious tragedy. Gates remembered a script that fellow student Kinzel wrote several scenes of in a Paul Rogalus scriptwriting class over two years ago. She approached Kinzel about finishing the script and turning it into a movie. His answer: “Most definitely.” Once Kinzel completed the script, the next task became casting the movie. Gates already knew most of the people she wanted to audition, which is why auditions were not publicized extensively. According to Gates, “I had certain people I wanted to audition. It was pretty much Otto and I-we discussed all of them (the casting decisions).” Clark Soulia stars as Scotty Ogelmyer. Gates envisioned Scotty as skinny, nerdy, and lovable. “Clark really fit the part,” she said. As part of his character, Soulia plays around with his voice extensively. “It’s so funny the way he does it,” laughed Gates. Finding the right person to cast as Scott’s younger brother Chip was not as easy. “I had to go through several people to find the right Chip,” Gates said. She and Kinzel finally choose Mike Longo. Caitlin Waltzer and Steve Lee take on the roles of the two boys’ parents, Judy and Harry Ogelmyer. Besides the bizarre Ogelmyer family, the rest of the characters are high school students. Crystal J. Mackey plays Patty, the pretty girl Scotty likes. Her meathead bully of a boyfriend, Eddie, is played by Tim Warren. The Clock’s own Pat McGowan plays Scotty’s best friend Klaus, a German exchange student and wheelchair bound polio victim. Gates herself makes several appearances as the voluptuous Chesty, the high school hussy. “I wanted to have a role somewhere, and that turned into me. It’s really funny how a lot of this has just come to be.” Once Gates and Kinzel finished making casting decisions, the next step was moving into production. The movie has six scenes, and all of the action occurs either at the high school or the Ogelmyers’ house. “I shot [the high school scenes] in Hyde, in the hallways on the third and fourth floor. We also shot at the Field House.” said Gates. She turned her apartment into the Ogelmyers’ house, “after I talked my roomate into it.” Each scene was shot on a separate day, and broken down into sections. While going into detail about the scenes would give too much away, some fun highlights are in order. For instance, the third scene was shot in the girls’ bathroom. “This scene was fun to shoot because I had to work with a mirror.” Gates went on to say that she had to shoot each girl in the mirror, doing their make-up and other primping. She felt this scene added to the dimension of the high school female characters. Scene two presented the biggest challenge to Gates. “This scene was the worst one out of all to shoot,” said Gates. Involving approximately twenty people, the scene had to be broken down into two days of shooting due to its complexity. Gates shared one final note about the film, saying “The scenes in the Ogelmyers’ house are shot in black and white to make it look like they’re stuck in the 50’s.” The rest of the scenes are in color. After the shooting ended, Gates’ work was far from over. She began editing the footage using Apple’s iMovie, a process that involved so much work, an ITS worker joked, “We’re going to put up a sign saying ‘Bethany’s Room’.” Gates further commented, “I can’t even begin to calculate the time involved-the hours are endless.” It’s clear that everyone involved in the production of Those Crazy Ogelmyers has sacrificed a large amount of their time. Mike Longo stated, “It was so worth it though. I had a lot of fun and got to know a lot of great people. I believe TCO is going places, and if people don’t see this movie, I’m gonna start a midget colony in Micronesia.”All those interested in seeing the finished product should attend the premiere on Saturday, May 11 or Sunday, May 12.