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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 25, 2000)
UO alumnus takes a gamble on indie cinema ■ ‘Jacks,’an independent film featuring student work, will premiere at the Bijou Theater this week By Lisa Toth Oregon Daily Emerald Jesse Lawler and his college buddies starting playing poker his junior year, when he first moved out of the dorms. So, if the toilet needed to be cleaned, the loser of the round got the job. The $5 bets became $200 addictions. Massive fortunes weren’t won or lost, but an idea was sparked. “Seeing the escalation of play ing poker was something I thought would be interesting to see in a movie,” Lawler said. “Jacks,” an independent local film written, directed and pro duced by Lawler, a 23-year-old University alumnus, will screen at the Eugene Bijou Theater be ginning Friday, May 26 at 11:20 p.m. The film, featuring local talent, music and scenery, won “Best Feature” at the American Digital Arts Festival 2000, a film festival in Florida. The dark comedy revolves around four college students who learn that the less cash they have, the more every bet counts. What starts out as a low-money poker game turns into a game of high stakes, dares, stolen beers, a kid napped fraternity mascot, stolen cars, love, deceit and tangled friendships hanging in the balance. Near the corner of Coburg & Oakway roads Eugene • 484-1244 lit'.' KJ From mild to V$i / EXCL It doesn't have to be dirty to be good. EXOTIC • EROTIC TOYS • VIDEOS • LINGERIE 1166 South A • Springfield • 726-6969 • Open 24 Hours (Almost) [army camo [hair color [pipes — 100s [skateboards.— hr, [stickers — I (Kn it-shirts ■wallets hair color oipe — 00^ 10 pipes — 100s skateboards — hot I _ _ Ackers— 1000s i°/0 atets , jewelry * ^rs — 1000s’ Ibodyjcwciry °J? everything berts [posters — 1000s’ _>c - martial arts [studded belts mar jal a- _s Grateful Dead [martial arts Grateful Dead backpacks [Grateful Dea Jbackpack^j jblacklights g7 ^BROADWAY • 687 BAZAR |army camo 100s boards — *0ver $10. Excluding skateboards, snowboards, scales and tobacco products. “Anyone who has had a hard time reconciling friendships and rivalries will see a lot they are fa miliar with in this movie,” Lawler said. Lawler added that in the major poker scenes, the audience ten sion builds when the stakes be come high. “The easiest response to get out of an audience is laughter. I had never made them tense or uncom fortable. But there were scenes in ‘Jacks’ where I have succeeded in doing that,” Lawler said. The soundtrack includes local bands such as the American Girls, the Habaneros and Groove Juice Special, with location filming at the Wild Duck Brewery, Espresso Roma, Lucky’s and the 5th Street Market. Line producer Jeff Miholer, a law student at the University and the executive director of the Uni versity’s Film Club, said Lawler was looking for places that had a “really classy” or “really gritty” look. The Wild Duck Brewery was rented out for a nightclub scene. The film was produced and filmed at Chambers Media Center in Eugene. Lawler said using the sound stage at Chambers Produc tions was an in-kind investment for the film. “In a town like Eugene, you have a lot more you can do be cause people are dazzled by it, in a good way,” producer Kenneth Brady said. Brady, who has four years of film experience in Los Angeles, also served as the film’s casting director and stunt coordi nator. Hans Hlawaty stars in the lead role as Connor Briggs as well as being as the film’s composer, con ductor and soundtrack producer. Hlawaty said the bands were all chosen because they fit with the movie while providing local ap peal. “I felt they would flesh out the soundtrack,” Hlawaty said. {{it doesn’t seem com plicated to make a film, but when you have 20 people on the crew... there is a I ways something people don’t count on. Jeff Miholer executive director UO Film Club 11 As for his acting career, Hlawaty, who graduated from the University last year, said his skills and experience came from his four years in college. Hlawaty said all he needed to play the part was “a strong liver, a good poker face and questionable morals.” Miholer recommended that students interested in the motion picture industry should get in volved and learn specific skills in college. Michael Govier, Scott Vo gel and Chris Wooten were in volved with the production of Nicholas Nickelby, and along with other students in “Jacks,” were key assets to the team. “The three of them built our set, which was extremely valu able because we wouldn’t have been able to film without that set,” Miholer said. Lawler said that everyone’s ef forts - students, community members and volunteers — all put countless hours of time and effort into completing the final production. “It doesn’t seem complicated to make a film, but when you have 20 people on the crew that have to be at different places and dif ferent times, there is always something people don’t count on,” Miholer said. Miholer said that the demand ing and crazy hours caused per sonal relationships to go on hold. “There was this one time, for this car crash, and we had a $4,000 camera. We tied the cam era to a tree and crashed the car into that tree on purpose,” Mi holer said. “We spent three hours arguing about how we were going to do it without breaking any thing.” Miholer said that Lawler, as an artist, cared only about getting the shot. Despite the pressure on the set, the crew socially developed their own poker addiction offstage. As for their future plans, the crew will continue to push the flick to attract exposure through film festivals, direct-to-video dis tributors and showings on The In dependent Film Channel. Sonic Youth continued from page 4B and continue to be, a bouquet of colorful moods and sounds. The album’s centerpiece and ti tle track, “nyc ghosts & flowers,” is the only song from guitarist Lee Ranaldo. It shows the band at its creative best, methodically build ing a sonic storm from the simple scene of a phone ringing in the middle of the night where Ranal do answers to find “nuthin’ on the line.” On this record, the band truly embraces its beat-poetry side. Starting with cover art from the late William S. Burroughs called “X-Ray Man,” and continuing through the many spoken pieces, the band again seems more con centrated on its lyrics. Sure, they have always been more talkers than singers. But here they go another step further. From Thurston Moore’s spoken-word with-ambient-noise “small flowers crack concrete” about a shake down, to Kim Gordon’s talking blues-meets-trumpet-playing on the closer “lightnin,”’ it is clear that the band has been spending time thinking about poetry in relation ship to its music. When there is singing, Gordon and Moore sing together. This is a surprisingly rare occurrence in Sonic Youth’s past records. But here it works well to thicken up the texture of the early songs on the record. Cover art has always been a real treat when it comes to Sonic Youth records, and it would be negligent to disregard it here. Indeed, it is what separates the band’s Geffen Records from the handfuls of most ly instrumental records released on its very own SYR record label. “A Thousand Leaves” cover art was so good that it competed with the songs themselves. This time the art has little if any conti nuity, other than it is all very Son ic Youth. The back cover is a mo saic of flowers. Inside are color street photos snapped by a wan dering Lee Ranaldo, presumably trying to capture pictures of ghosts in the city. The back of the jacket is an untitled painting by Robert Mooney showing the pope, beaming with celestial light while dancing to a DJ. Sonic Youth has rebuilt itself. So it appears that you can take the instruments from the musicians, but in the case of Sonic Youth, you can’t take the musicians out of the instruments.
