By Kim Hilsenbeck.
Drive around old town Buda and you see many things: families outside, people walking dogs, restaurants and shops, and film crews shooting a movie.
Wait, what?
Sunday afternoon brought out the cast and crew of a University of Texas Austin graduate school project. The short movie, “Megan and Dan,” written and directed by Nathan Efstation, has several scenes being shot in downtown Buda and its Historic Stagecoach Park.
Buda, it turns out, is film friendly. In 2009, the Texas Film Commission (TFC) designated the city as a “Film Friendly Texas City.” It is one of only 64 cities in the state to have such designation, and the only city in Hays County certified by the TFC.
| Above, the film crew of “Megan and Dan,” written and directed by UT Austin graduate student Nathan Efstation, mounts a camera on the car where actor Johnny Walter (Dan) waits to begin shooting a scene in Buda. (Photo by Kim Hilsenbeck) At top, actors Johnny Walter (left) and Eliza Jarrett rehearsing a scene for a short movie that is filming several exterior scenes in Buda last week and this week. They are starring in “Megan and Dan”, written and directed by UT Austin graduate student Nathan Efstation. (Photo courtesy of Deja Bernhardt) |
In the parking lot of Trimeric, the old post office in Buda, about 10 crew members milled around an old Jeep, setting up a car-mounted camera. The upcoming scene involves Dan and Megan driving around looking for the 10-year-old’s favorite pop singer, Elle Michelle, who is reportedly at a local radio station.
The film features original music, with lyrics written in part by Efstation for his graduate thesis, which makes this movie a little different.
Dan, a 30-something guy who likes to party, ended up in the back of Megan’s mom’s Jeep, covered in a tarp with no idea how or when.
When Megan’s mom stops to run into the bank, Dan tries to escape. But the precocious Megan blackmails him into taking her to find her pop idol at a local radio station so she can get tickets to see a concert.
Along the way, the unlikely pair is now wanted by a police officer and the girl’s mom.
Cast members Johnny Walter (Dan) and 10-year-old Eliza Jarrett (Megan) sit in the front seat rehearsing lines.
“This is so awesome, I’m finally going to meet Elle Michelle and then everyone is going to be my friend,” Megan said.
Dan sits in stoic silence.
“What was that Dan, I didn’t hear you,” Megan said. “Dan, I’m not really liking the attitude. Maybe calling the authorities might be the best option.”
Dan turns and glares at the little girl who is blackmailing him.
“Listen to me, if you want to get those tickets…” Dan fades off into the background as the conversation with Producer Déjà Bernhardt continues.
She explains who’s who in the cast and crew as she preps her own vehicle to be the lead car when the scene begins.
Bernhardt also ticks off all the pieces of a movie that have to happen before any filming takes place: scripting, casting, costuming, props, scouting for locations – the list goes on.
She should know – in June, she completed her thesis, a TV show pilot called “Return to Ananda.” In it, a young woman goes back to hometown of Fairfield, Iowa, to have the father of her little girl sign the birth certificate.
The woman has totally rejected her past and her parents, who are “old hippies.” But as she’s back in town, she gets caught up in everything once again.
“We shot in June for three weeks,” Bernhardt said. “The interiors were all in Austin, the exteriors were in Iowa.”
Bernhardt got involved with Efstation’s project through her affiliation with him in the UT film school graduate program.
Following several years of teaching and performing at the University of Denver, Efstation moved to Austin to attend the UT MFA program for film production. His work, which incorporates music and dramatic art, has screened at several film festivals including Austin Film Festival, SXSW, Slamdance.
Megan and Dan, he explains in a Kickstarter video to help fund the project, is about “our obsession with pop culture, but ultimately it’s about the relationship that forms between two unlikely partners in crime.”
To find a local singer, the production sponsored an American Idol-style competition called Austin Pop Star. Many of the finalists were UT Austin students.
The Kickstarter campaign brought in several hundred more than the $5,100 goal, but it still wasn’t enough. So, like many young directors, he financed the rest from his own pocket.
Bernhardt talks about all the things paid for by the $5,400 Kickstarter fund, such as paying the actors, feeding the crew, rentals, costumes/props and other incidentals on the film.
She said they occasionally get donations from restaurants, including “day-olds” from Einstein’s and Swedish Hill Pasteries.
As Bernhardt’s SUV pulls out of the parking lot, the Jeep and a third car follow slowly. In her car sits Patrick Smith, the director of photography and fellow UT alum.
Besides the actors, there are three other people in the Jeep’s back seat, Efstation, a young man with a lamp and the sound guy.
The crew communicates with each other via wireless radios.
The three cars drove slowly around historic downtown Buda for about 10 minutes. At one point, the director asked the convoy to head out 2770 toward Texas Lehigh Cement.
“We can only go 30-miles an hour otherwise the camera shakes too much,” Bernhardt said.
Turning around at the cement plant entrance, the trio headed back into town, pulling over to allow several cars to pass so they wouldn’t hold up traffic.
The cars headed back to Trimeric to reset the shot. They will work until sundown, then start over again in the morning.
Such is the life of a film crew.
Megan and Dan is expected to be screened in Austin this May.
