By the time the director called for Take 19, volunteer actor Glen Johnson must have thought he’d stumbled into some cruel parody of a Stanley Kubrick shoot.
It wasn’t that the film crew from Chicago’s Gallery 37 was playing the role of persnickety perfectionist, as it taped an introduction to Dynasty Finley’s documentary at poolside at the Sportsman’s Lodge.
The stumbling block came as Finley, the amateur narrator, struggled to spit out a mouthful of dialogue that might have tied the tongue of any seasoned Hollywood actor.
Johnson, a guest at the lodge, had agreed to add texture to the scene by nodding when the narrator asked him a simple question. By Take 19, however, he must have been wondering how to contact the Valley chapter of the Screen Actors Guild to demand overtime.
Fortunately for everyone involved, there was no need for a Take 20. And after Johnson signed his appearance waiver, the gang from Gallery 37 packed up their gear and headed for the nearby hills for another location shoot.
Hooray for Hollywood.
The young men and women from Chicago were in town last weekend to put the finishing touches on a compilation of videos they’d produced for their summer apprenticeship at Gallery 37.
Hollywood Video had invited them out over the long holiday weekend and was picking up the tab for post-production, editing, video equipment, a studio tour, sightseeing, food, lodging and plane fares.
It was the first time any of the inner-city teens had been in Los Angeles, and they were making the most of it.
Gallery 37, chaired by Maggie C. Daley, is a City of Chicago program that offers education and job training in the visual, literary, culinary and performing arts for youth 14-21.
With the assistance of professionals in the field, the apprentice artists produce works on commission, as well as for public installation, performance, publication and sale at the organization’s Center for the Arts, across the street from the Cultural Center on Randolph Avenue.
The program, conceived in 1991 as a way to utilize the Loop’s vacant Block 37, on State Street across from Marshall Field’s, reaches out to dozens of public schools and community centers.
It has produced more than 25,000 jobs for young people, and 2,500 more for professional artists.
Six of the participants in the program and three of their teachers made the trek from the Windy City to Tinseltown over the Columbus Day holiday.
The compilation video they were able to finish on the trip will be given a gala premiere next month at Gallery 37, and it will be made available for sale at the downtown center and in Chicago-area Hollywood Video stores.
The videos offer personal statements on such topics as drug abuse, violence, AIDS and stereotypes about life in the projects.
So, what will everyone take back from L.A., besides some souvenir caps and postcards?
“If you want to make a good film, it’s time-consuming,” observed Christopher Bickhem, 20, a student at the American Academy of Art. “Out here, everyone wants things to be almost perfect, down to the last detail. They don’t want to slack off on anything.
“Time is money, also, so you don’t want to be late.”
“Observing the whole process was interesting to me,” said Ben Wydra, 17, of Marist High School. “Some of it seemed simple enough for anyone to do. But, these people have to do it day after day, for the entire course of the movie. Everyone seemed devoted to their work.”
“We wanted the experience to be fun, but it was important for them to visit professional facilities and see how things are done,” said Carrie Friedman, senior program coordinator for Gallery 37. “Experiences like this expose kids to the larger world. The more they see, the more likely it is they’ll come forward and take control of their own future.”
It took a while for these Midwesterners to burn off their predisposition to good manners. Come Monday, though, during a tour of Edmonds Entertainment, the multimedia production and management group owned by Kenneth “BabyFace” Edmonds and his wife, Tracey, it became clear how much self-confidence the students had gained.
Indeed, a couple of the kids had even mastered “the schmooze.”
Narrator Finley, who isn’t tongue-tied when it comes to laying down hip-hop lyrics, gathered a fistful of business cards from the Edmonds’ team of A&R, management and production personnel. Other students were able to shed their shyness long enough to pose for pictures with and answer questions from Tracey, one of the most influential African-American entertainment executives in the country.
The thing that seemed to impress the students most — besides all of the framed platinum albums on the walls of Edmonds Tower — was the advice they received from several of the executives whose job it is to turn emerging artists into superstars. Finley, especially, was surprised that it can take up to three years to shape a band into the kind of act big labels will support and distribute.
This was one of the lessons Hollywood Video executive Al Geiser hoped the kids would learn when he set out last winter to persuade his company to invest in Gallery 37’s fledgling video program.
“We were already involved in the Community Spotlight program, but I thought this was the type of program we should be involved in, as well,” said the company’s director of real estate, by cell phone, as he was on his way to dinner last week with the Daleys. “I asked Gallery 37 for a wish list of things they needed for the program, and, through a Michigan company called BTV, we were able to get $150,000 worth of video equipment for $35,000. Now, any Chicago kid with an interest in making movies has access to the proper equipment.”
In addition to being placed on the shelves of Hollywood Video outlets, the compilation video will be streamed as part of a film festival on the company’s Reel.com Web site. Hollywood Video also intends to continue its relationship with Gallery 37, and possibly extend the program to other cities in which it has stores.
