A CONVERSATION WITH LOCAL FILMMAKER VERNON MORTENSEN

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The Kid: Chamaco, which he produced, opens Friday for a one-week engagement

 

By Brian Lafferty

 

August 26, 2010 (El Cajon)--“The quality of writing will get you through the door,” says East County film producer Vernon Mortensen. His newest film, The Kid: Chamaco, opens Friday for a one-week showing at the Reading Gaslamp.  “To get to the door, half the time you need to know somebody," he told me over lunch in El Cajon.

 

“I know the writer (Kirk Harris, who also served as the star and producer) really, really well. I had just gotten off active duty and I was trying to get back into the movie business and he sent me the script and it was fantastic.  It was a very enjoyable read and I said, ‘Hey, if you want me to be involved in any way, just let me know.’”

 

Martin Sheen and Michael Madsen co-star in Chamaco.  Getting these top stars required connections and contacts.  “Kirk had done a project with Martin in the past and Martin said he’d always wanted to work with him again so Kirk sent him the script and he kind of fell in love with it…Michael Madsen, almost the exact same story.  We had a friend of a friend who knew him, so we got him the script, he read it, and he goes, ‘Yes I’ll do this project.’”

 

Mortensen described the movie as a coming-of-age story.  “If I had to pick a theme, it would have to follow Abner, the young kid who wants to become a boxer.”  But Abner faces huge challenges.  “He’s asthmatic…he comes from a bad part of Mexico City, and his father is a drunk and a gambler,” Mortensen notes.  “His whole life is a wreck and his sister gets killed. Even with all that, he can rise above it and become a great champion.”

 

The movie was shot entirely in Mexico City but to Mortensen, it’s a truly international project.   Kirk Harris wrote the first few drafts.  For the next draft, Canadian filmmaker Carl Bessai was brought on and co-wrote it with Harris, then Mexican director Miguel Necoechea, upon being hired as the director, co-wrote the next draft. “It’s like three different countries involved.”

 

Mortensen said the development process took six months.  “You’re always re-writing all the way up until they say roll camera,” he told me.

 

Chamaco was shot digitally.  When asked about shooting digitally compared to shooting on film, Mortensen was quick to point out the benefits.

 

“If you look at the big studio pictures who are still shooting on film, they’re going to go from film to a digital intermediate, which is where they start playing with the picture and everything,then on the other side, they’re going back out to film,” he explains.  “Now, I just go from video, do all my work, all my post, all the special effects and everything and then print to film.  So it’s like skipping a step, makes it easier on us.”

 

Since it is shot on a digital videotape instead of on film, which then has to be developed, it also is cheaper.  “You don’t worry about the number of takes, you just keep rolling tape because videotape is cheap compared to film.  It has created a tendency to overshoot but I think that’s a good thing because then you get into the editing room and you have more choices.”  


 

“It’s wonderful when you have nine different takes to look at and go, ‘OK, I want a piece of that one, a piece of that one, a piece of that one.”

 

According to him, digital will be around forever  “It’s not going away.  From a purely business and economical standpoint, digital is here to stay because it’s cheaper.”

 

Despite the 125 mile distance from Los Angeles, the heart of the entertainment industry, there are still benefits to being a filmmaker in San Diego.

 

“The fact that I’m two hours away from L.A. means that I can drive to L.A., take meetings all day long, then I can jump in my car.  And then in two hours I can be as far away from L.A. as possible.” 

 

“One of the great things about L.A. is that they have the infrastructure.  There’s not a lot of equipment rental houses here in San Diego, although there are a few.  But if I need something, I can get it from L.A..  It’s not that far away.” 

 

“It’s almost the perfect distance.” 

 

Mortensen also points out that San Diego County contains a lot of options for shooting locations.  “Here in the East County, we’ve got mountains, we’ve got desert, we’ve got beaches on the west side of San Diego, we’ve got the metropolis of the city,” he says.  “So I’ve got lots of choices for locations if I want to shoot in San Diego.”

 

However, he says the big studios are hesitant to shoot here for financial reasons.  “The big studios, they really don’t want to make movies here in San Diego,” he explains.  “The other states are offering them much better deals, movie credits, tax credits, and stuff.”  

 

In addition to being a producer, he is also a screenwriter.  "In our company, we have two writers that are partners so the two of us, we write a lot.  So we’re not usually short on ideas.”

 

He explained his writing process.  “I’m the kind of writer who lets the story go round and round in his head until it all works out and I sit down and I can write a script in a couple of days.”

 

He offered very good advice for those interested in the craft of screenwriting. “Write as much as you can,” he advises.  “I try to write at least two feature scripts a year.  If you can write two feature scripts a year, each time you write one they get better and better.”

 

He also has a very simple writing exercise.  “On the internet you can find random word generators.  You push a button and it gives you a word.  Get yourself five words and write yourself a short story incorporating all five words.  See if you can write a 200 word short story using all five words from a random word generator.”

 

He also says that those interested in being a filmmaker make as many short films as possible.  “I made eight short films before I made the leap to features.  Learning how to make mistakes on eight short films saved me when I got to the big leagues.”

 

Despite being an established filmmaker here, he is not originally from America’s Finest City. He got his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Los Angeles and later joined the Navy. “Like so many other San Diegans, I came here because of the military.”

 

He remembers the first time he wanted to be a filmmaker. “When I was in High School, my father’s cousin was a Teamster at Universal Studios and he took me to work with him on the set of Back to the Future for two weeks,” he recalls. “The Navy career came first, but I always knew I would make movies for a living sooner or later.”

 

“We (Kelly Parks, Neil Trusso and myself) have all lived on and off in San Diego for the last 20 years and our movie company (Unconventional Films, LLC) operates out of Descanso, up in the mountains in East County.”

 

Over the coming months, Mortensen will be a very busy man.  He will be working on a western called Sorrow, the majority of which will be shot in Oregon with a couple of scenes shot in San Diego.  “It takes place in the 1850s and it’s about a father and son who are prospecting and they’ve got Indians, bad guys all over the place.”

 

“Then we have this zombie movie,” referring to Universal Dead, an upcoming adaptation of Unconventional Film’s successful web series, which was shot entirely in East County. “We recently signed a contract with a Paramount Studio lot producer to make Universal Dead into a 3D action/horror movie. It’s going to be our big break.”
 

 

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