MCI seniors’ feature film to debut Movie project set in ’40s Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD – When he was in seventh grade, Ryan Bennett picked up a video camera and began filming his world. He filmed homemade commercials, interviewed people leaving the local theater about whether they liked the movie or not, and created a puppet show.

By the eighth grade he was talking about making movies.

After four years of work – the last year the most intensive – Bennett will premiere “A Detective Story” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 28, at the Pittsfield Community Theater.

The high school senior is heading off to Vancouver Film School in the fall and said Saturday, “I just can’t wait to see how people respond to the movie.”

The comedy-drama is set in the “city” of Pittsfield in the 1940s and features a bank robbery at the local Merrill Merchants Bank, scenes shot at the Isaac Farrar Mansion in Bangor, and footage from downtown Dexter and the Bangor Public Library.

Bennett said he was shocked at the generosity of people who helped support his film by providing props or locations. “Almost everyone we asked quickly said yes,” he said.

The local Pennywise Thrift Store donated more than 30 suits for the movie, and Ken Clark of Pittsfield and Tom Cianchette of Hartland allowed the crew to use two 1940s-vintage cars for realism.

Each senior student at Maine Central Institute must present a senior project before graduation that reflects a sampling of the knowledge gained over their four years in high school while reflecting where they want to go in the future.

Bennett’s movie became that project for seven seniors. “It was my senior project to form a production team,” said Bennett. “I knew I couldn’t do this by myself.”

He courted students with interests he could use.

“For example, Mike Adams is going to engineering school. I needed an engineer. That’s how I played it,” he said. “That way they had to do it for their grade and I could count on a reliable crew.”

Bennett quickly learned that pre-production takes up the most time – scouting locations, securing permission from landowners and building tenants, finding just the right chairs, lighting, wardrobe.

“Believe it or not, finding enough fedoras was the most difficult part,” he said.

Bennett was never seen around town without his 2-inch-thick notebook, which organized rehearsals, days and locations of shooting and other details.

He said it was really tricky working around everyone’s schedules. The star of the film, Matt Nichols, goes to college in Bangor and works two jobs. “And then there was the weather. The 1940s cars can’t go out in the rain. That held everything up,” he said.

The movie was shot over the last three months. With more than 15 hours of actual film, Bennett is still editing the last few minutes.

He said the movie tells the story that “everybody’s involved in crime, directly or indirectly.” More than 50 actors are participating.

The movie begins with the murder of a nightclub owner and proceeds in the “film noir genre,” said Bennett.

Film noir, he said, is the style of many Humphrey Bogart films and many films of the 1940s. “You are not supposed to know the camera is there. Compare that to, say, Tim Burton’s camera work where the camera itself becomes a character with big swooping motions.”

Bennett said he prefers Burton’s style but kept to film noir because of the setting of “The Detective Story.”

“All those ’40s movies have a totally different feel. You want to get right into the movie,” he said.

He admitted, however, that in several places in the film, he got a little fancy with camera work. “I did it how I wanted to do it,” Bennett said. “It’s based on the Bogart film style but I didn’t 100 percent stay in that genre.”

The entire movie was shot with a Sony mini-DV camera using standard and wide-angle lenses and was edited with Adobe 6.5 on Bennett’s home computer.

When asked whether Hollywood is in his future, Bennett quickly answered, “Sure. Isn’t that everyone’s goal?”

Tickets for the movie are $3 at the door and will offset the cost of production.