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.
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“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.