West End premieres at the 2014 New Jersey International Film Festival at Rutgers University on Friday, June 6!

West End premieres at the 2014 New Jersey International Film Festival at Rutgers University on Friday, June 6! 

Here is an interview I did with West End Director Joe Basile:

Nigrin: Your film West End is an intense family drama that you have said is like “Hamlet on the Jersey Shore.” Tell us what motivated you to make this film and how there is a Shakespearean angle to it.

Basile: Shakespeare just fell into it.  West End was the first script I wrote, it was something very different then you what you see.  It was called Good Cop, Bad Cop, a big “Hollywood” movie.   A bi-costal undercover mob cop on the lam story.  As I rewrote, the movie got smaller.  Then it became about a kid that ran away from his mafia family, only to come after his father’s death.  A friend of mine read it and said, “This is Hamlet.”  I took a look at Hamlet and referenced it.

Nigrin: Tell us about the special look and feel of your film and why you decided to shoot the film this way?

Basile: West End 's story is rooted at the Jersey Shore, inspired by my experiences and life growing up their - with liberties taken of course.  I had to shoot on the Jersey Shore, there was no other option.  You can’t cheat Jersey.   Jersey is proud and tough.  The Jersey Shore has an elegance and grit all in one.  I wanted to capture that, the Jersey I know.  West End’s canvass is big. If you’re from Jersey I wanted the film to be familiar.  If you’re not, I want you feel like you’d been there. 

One of the things that lends to both the look and the feel of West End, all the locations are real.  It makes it authentic, gives the film production value.  The Jersey Shore community embraced the production.  Seaside Hieghts, residents that gave me their homes, Savoy Lounge, Rella’s Italian Tavern, Custom Tire, the Windmill in West End Long Branch, plus a bunch more.  These are real places that lend to the story, the look, to the experience of the movie.  It’s a connection a Jersey audience will have with West End it’s their neighborhood.  

I had team dedicated to the film.   Starting with my two executive producers, Shelly LoCascio and Michelle Hurley.  Two local business women that introduced me to the community and made the movie happen.  My crew was committed to my vision, I was fortunate.  There were three very talented Director of Photography’s behind the camera.  Tim Naylor who, with me, created the look.  Unfortunately Tim got sick, Clayton Combe came in strong and finished up.  Rob Newman, a Jersey Shore local, shot second unit with a skeleton crew.  My gaffer (the guy who lights the set) Jordan Bell, kept Tim’s “look" consistent.  John El Manahi, production designer, tweaked each location to perfection.  

I love the character driven crime dramas of the 70’s.  Movies that were shot wide so you could see the world in which it’s characters lived.  Movies that gave the audience a real sense of place, that didn’t rely on close ups and allow the actor’s emotion to come from a physical place.  When I first met with Tim, we discussed the style, he agreed.   It was important that I give my actors a real sense of place.  Since the locations were real places that was easy.  I believe that lent to their performances.

Ted Feldman, the editor and axe man for Bear Hands, put the movie together.  Again, Ted and I discussed the look and feel, referencing the era of the 70’s.  We decided not to do many quick cuts.  To let the story unfold through performance.  To make West End a slow burn, then starts to heat up.  After the movie was put together, Harris Charalambous, my digital colorist, and I fine tuned the look.  We shot on an Red Epic, digital 5K.  It allowed us to manipulate the image.  We created an overall look for the interior and the exterior shots, then we tweaked the color scene by scene.  It's like painting each frame.  

What most people don’t realize, sound plays a big part in a movies feel.  Charles Dayton designed the sound for West End.  He added nuance to the film.  For example, there are ticks of a clock in Mary Trevi’s home.  How the music blends into scenes.  The cocking of a gun, the waves of the ocean, that’s all sound design.  The original score by Jeff Cardoni keeps movie along.  Gives it momentum, foundation.

Every step of the production was an education for me.  From pre to post production.  Because the budget was limited, I had an intimate involvement with the whole process.  I was able to, with the help of many others, shape West End into the movie it is.  A piece of work I'm proud of.

Nigrin: The actors in your film are excellent. Tell us more about them and how they were selected.

Basile: I came into the production with majority of the cast set.  Most of the parts were written for friends of mine.  I’m lucky to have had worked and met such great talent.  It was real joy to be able to call friends and say, "I’m making a movie, you in?”.   For last four parts, including two leads, Anthony Mangano (Lou Prescotti) introduced me to Donna McKenna, a local New York Casting Director.  She lead me to Neal Bledsoe, Melissa Archer, Eric Roberts, and Paul Calderon.  They were the finishing touch to an already talented cast.

Everybody gives a strong performance.  Neal Bledsoe, brings a stoic venerability to Vic Trevi.  Melissa Archer doesn’t fall into the traps of Lauren.  Her Lauren has strength and conviction.  Peter Onorati, Jersey Native, plays the duality that is Uncle John.  He has such a strong presence and he brings a wonderful physicality to the role.   Joe Nieves gives dimension to Buddy Buccelatto.  Makes him real, doesn’t fall into the stereo type we’ve seen so many times.  Isabella Hofmann gets Mary Trevi, understands her and made her likable.  Paul Calderon, Agent Mackey, brings a calm intensity to the screen.  Eric Roberts gives Victor Trevi dignity and depth.  Wayne Duvall, Fat Patty, came to play.  Anthony and Lou Martini, Jr (Jimmy Vetrone), Joe Capozzi (Officer Pete), Neal Matarazzo (Funeral Director) down to Stephen Badalamenti (Office Clerck) have an ease and understating of their character that lends to a solid performance, whatever the size of the role.

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An excellent short film Coney Island Dreams will be screened prior to West End on Friday, June 6 at the New Jersey International Film Festival.  Here is more info about this screening:

Coney Island Dreams – Andrew Serban (New York, New York)
Maggie is a troubled young immigrant who is at the end of her rope. Desperate to return to her native Ireland, she meets with a mysterious and vaguely sinister older man named Enzo, who offers to pay her plane fare in exchange for one last job: she must lure a young man to a deserted Coney Island street. . . 2014; 24 min. With an introduction and Q+A session by Director Andrew Serban!

West End – Joe Basile (Los Angeles, California)
Returning home to the Jersey Shore, after years of absence, Vic Trevi is an undercover FBI agent positioned to go against the people he calls family. Long ashamed of their mafia ties, he now must find the killer who murdered his father. Caught between the age-old struggle of duty to the law versus duty to family, he embarks on an increasingly desperate search to find the truth before his family finds the truth about him. 2013; 86 min. With an introduction and Q+A session by Director Joe Basile!

Friday, June 6, 2014 at 7:00 p.m.

Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University,
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey
$10=General; $9=Students+Seniors; $8=Rutgers Film Co-op Friends
Information: (848) 932-8482; www.njfilmfest.com

Free Food courtesy of Jimmy Johns will be given out prior to this screening of the New Jersey International Film Festival!