Patrick Brown to release short film

Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter

After a successful staging more than two years ago, Patrick Brown will be turning part of his play Love Games into a short film called The Final Game.

The comedy revue started playing in 2007 but had to make room for River Bottom, which was scheduled to start on Boxing Day, the same year. Due to popular demand, it returned to Centerstage Theatre in September 2008.

Brown explained that the play has six skits and the last one, Final Game, was turned into the short film. In that section, John (Glen Campbell) picks up a sexy female (Jane, played by Camille Davis) at his aunt's funeral at the Dovecot Memorial Park. They immediately hit it off and head off for a tryst at a nearby hotel. The evening is going pretty much to script for John until he receives the surprise of his life, and learns that picking up strange women has its consequences.

"We did a film directing seminar a couple months ago at CPTC (Creative Production and Training Centre) and out of that we wanted to produce something tangible. We had the script already, CPTC provided the equipment and we put together the rest of it," Brown told The Gleaner, noting that it is an experimental film.

However, he said no date is set for its release.

zero-budget film

"We are working on it. It is freeness, so we are not working with a set release date. It was kinda done on a zero budget, no one got paid," he said.

Nonetheless, he hopes the film, which will be between 15 and 20 minutes long, will be good enough to be entered in a film festival.

Brown said the film will be different from the play in many ways. In the skit, there were only two characters in one location on stage. But in the film, there are numerous characters and extras, with it being shot in different locations incl a cemetery, hotel and nightclub.

"A movie is quite different. The script had to be rewritten in a movie form. It is much smaller, lifelike, realistic kind of experience. It was a learning experience for everybody," Brown said, noting that this is his first time doing an actual film.

exciting

It was also a new experience for Campbell, who is a lead actor in both the play and the short film.

"Having been part of the success of the play, it was a challenge to create the same kind of intensity for film, but also exciting to be crossing over to film," he told The Gleaner.

In a play, he said, "you have the advantage of being immediate. You are getting an instant reaction from the audience. For the film, it is left up to the editor and the final mixing to get the final result."

But this is not the first major movie project in which Campbell has participated. He has been in Third World Cop, Entry Denied and Small Island.

Having been with Love Games from the beginning, The Final Game has a special place in his heart.

"It is like my baby. I was there from when it was written to when it was taken to the stage. I have grown with it. It is very dear to me, it is like mine," said Campbell, who was the lead actor in the popular 1980s series Titus In Town.

While she was not in the play, Sharee McDonald-Russell said the film was much different from being on stage.

"It wasn't too bad. It was a very short role. It was a different and good experience," she told The Gleaner.