Arts & Entertainment
Middletown Native Maggie Drayton to Produce El Empantanado, a Feature Film
Maggie Drayton, a Middletown native and a Masters student at the University of Miami, is realizing her dream to produce a feature film.
After extensive planning and writing workshops, Maggie Drayton, a Middletown native is realizing her dream to create a full feature film and would like her hometown to get involved.
After researching microfeatures, which she classified as having budgets of under $1 million, Drayton and production partner, Felipe Echavarria, realized with a meticulous plan, passion, a powerful story and help from their communities, they could produce the film, a feat that few film students as well as working professionals are able to accomplish.
In order to produce the film, so far they have received in-kind donations, tax exemptions, grants and contributions from family, friends and community members.
Drayton was first inspired to pursue filmmaking when she sat on the student jury for the Newport Film Festival. After she graduated in 2005, she went to the University of Miami to study business, but did not find it inspirational. An elective course in film studies convinced her to add film studies to her major.
She went on to enroll in the Masters of Fine Arts Program at the university to continue her studies in film, where she currently is a student.
She met Echavarria, originally from Colombia, and was drawn to the partnership because they had a similar vision and attitude.
“We both wanted a chance to implement something on a higher level,” she said. The film, "El Empantando," is a bilingual Colombo-American film, which will be shot in South Florida as well as in Colombia.
The story centers around a convicted journalist, Juan Gaviria, who escapes captivity in Columbia. Back in Bogota, he struggles with news of his wife’s infidelity with his best friend. During a SCUBA diving weekend with his wife and his friend, the realities of their relationship surface, which the threesome are forced to confront.
Drayton said she and Echavarria found the critical component of their micro-budget film would be to attract a well known cast and the key to that would be a good script.
“We knew with a good enough story we could intrigue them,” Drayton said. “We knew what we had was good.”
The critical component to a micro-budget movie is to have a few, but talented actors, which is one reason they opted for the love triangle plot, she said. Eschavarria had particular actors in mind when they wrote the script.
After what seemed like endless hours of writing sessions - they proved themselves right, and were able to attract some of the best talent.
The male lead actor, Diego Cadavid, is considered one of the most highly sought out actors in Colombia. His counter-part, Paola Mendoza, is a well known Colombian face in the film festival circuit. Jeanine Mason, winner of So You Think You Can Dance? is returning to her home-town, Miami to play a role and Mark Schardan will travel from Spain.
How can you help?
Drayton said every dollar helps. Production starts on Monday and she needs to meet her goal of a $10,000 kickstarter so you may donate directly to the production until Friday.
Keep updated on the project