Local Film Director Chad Kushins Begins Production on His Next Film

Earlier this year, Chad Kushins had his debut film, Miserable Man, screened at such locations as popular annual Long Island gathering I-CON, the same place where some scenes were shot the year prior. Although promotion and screenings are still ongoing, Kushins and his cast and crew are about to start production on the director's next feature, excitable boy [sic]. Perhaps identifying with the title, Kushins, 27, is thrilled to be able to take advantage of modern digital technology, which has made it enormously less expensive to complete a 90-minute movie.

"My goals as a filmmaker are to prove that anyone in today's digital world can make a film that's personal to them, right now," Kushins said.  "Many people have assumed that the concept of making a movie is extremely expensive and therefore out of reach, but it isn't true."

Fortunately, he's also had ample help from friends and associates, some of whom belong to the same art collective, FRESH Art Long Island. Coordinating times to shoot a scene, however, is another story.

"Both myself and all the cast and crew have day jobs, so working around the schedules of everyone is tricky," Kushins said. "The secret is to make sure everyone involved shares your enthusiasm and vision and knows that they are as important as you in making it happen. Only a team can make a movie. One person alone cannot."

With his team, Kushins is ready to begin filming the dramatic comedy excitable boy, which stars co-screenwriter Tom Rizzuto. The story follows a young man who gets divorced, moves back in with his parents and digresses into an immature kid again. He falls in love with a girl who is married with children, causing him to grow up. Scenes for excitable boy will be shot in the local area that the director has been familiar with for years. 

"When I come up with a story, the pictures in my head are always of places, streets, faces that I know," Kushins said. "It only makes sense to film in the areas that I envisioned, that way the final film is as close to the way I imagined it as possible."

This has been made possible thanks to as little as free editing software, consumer-level cameras and people with whom he has networked.

"You don't need special effects, you don't need famous actors," said Kushins. "You need your own honesty, diligence and a story that you want to share.  It's more art than entertainment, which is the right direction for cinema."