HippoPress -- The Hippo -- Guide to Manchester NH

Visitors to the log home of filmmaker Bill Millios are greeted not once but twice-first by Molly, described by Millios as an "out-of-shape Australian cattle dog," and then by Jake, a laid-back German Shepard of indeterminate age.

Millios, a Manchester native who now lives atop a steep hill in the woods of New Boston, is preparing his latest project-the first independent feature film he's made since producing Old Man Dogs in 1997.

Titled Dangerous Crosswinds, it's the story of a newspaper reporter who assists in the mercy killing of a friend. Like Old Man Dogs, the film will be shot entirely in New Hampshire and most roles will be played by local actors.

The new film is scheduled for shooting for two weeks in May. But the calendar is already crammed with all manner of chores and planning tasks-script revisions and production meetings in February, auditions in March, rehearsals in April.

Auditions will take place in Manchester, and a significant portion of the film will be shot in the city at several locations. Millios is proud of his hometown, and is eager to showcase it as a setting for his work.

In the time since Old Man Dogs, Millios has earned a reputation as one of the state's leading documentary and commercial filmmakers. He's worked on a great variety of projects, most recently a documentary about amateur hockey hosted by John Clayton.

But Dangerous Crosswinds promises to bring him back to what he enjoys most-collaborating with a crew and cast to bring a feature-length dramatic story to cinematic life.

Without giving away the story, what is "Dangerous Crosswinds" about?

It's a drama about a Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper writer who assists in the mercy killing of a friend. It's fiction, but someone at the last production meeting said it nicely - it's the kind of story where we've got to make it seem like it could happen. When we did Old Man Dogs, we did like an atmospheric ghost kind of thing, and you can leave a lot to interpretation. But in Dangerous Crosswinds, having all the backdrops right will make it seem like it really happened.

When are auditions?

They'll be during two weekends in March, in Manchester. I want to hold them there because Manchester is my hometown, and it's also where the center of the film is. What we're doing right now is collecting as many headshots as possible. Actors interested in appearing in the film can send their headshots to Back Lot Films, Inc., P.O. Box 306, New Boston, NH 03070. If people want more information, they can reach us by e-mail at dangerouscrosswinds@yahoo.com.

What parts are you casting?

There are six principle roles. The main character, Harry Toland, is by far the biggest role-it's his story. There are five other big roles, and over 30 speaking parts. As far as independent films go, I think we're really trying to be ambitious here and really taking on a big feel to it. It's not going to be a couple of college graduates in a room talking about relationships.

Is that unusual?

Yes. I wrote this script 10 years ago, before Old Man Dogs, and the reason we never filmed it then was I never thought we could-there's no way we cold have that many locations and people. It's pretty crazy, but we're still planning on two six-day shoots in May. That's why preproduction is so essential. We can't fall off-we have to stay the course.

What kind of people are you looking for?

Basically, non-union experienced people-people that aren't in the union because SAG (the Screen Actors Guild) gets all upset and it gets tricky. With Old Man Dogs, we cast that through the Massachusetts film office, where they used to have an actor's hotline. Most of our cast came from that. But for Dangerous Crosswinds, I'm just trying to get good actors who want to do something creative. So they can have experience or they don't need experience.

What are auditions like?

It's not open auditions, which I hate-cattle calls, which Hollywood only does for extras. It destroys reputations, it's not productive, and it's disrespectful for the actors. We we'll do is try to get a couple hundred head shots, which I think we will, and then we'll do auditions on two consecutive weekends, Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We'll give each actor 15 minutes. They get the sides of dialogue in advance-that way you can tell a lot because some of them will come in with the lines already memorized, they're prepared, they know about the characters. For the first five minutes, I just give them a general overview of the film project, the business end of it as much as the creative. Then for the remaining ten minutes, we just read back and forth, and I'll get their input.

Why spend so much time on auditions?

It's important to do the auditions right because the actors are so essential. A film like ours-without any special effects, you know, we need the script to be excellent, the actors to be excellent, for everything to work. So that's why we'll delay production in May if we don't have the right cast.

Do cast members get paid?

Most of the roles aren't paid. There may be stipends for those six major parts, maybe more. It's hard to say. Some of the parts might be slightly bigger than I'm thinking. But it'll be a stipend that could be, you know, enough to cover if they stay in a hotel.

Where is the film being shot?

We're going to definitely have some scenes in Bedford along the Merrimack River near the railroad trestle. In Manchester, we'll do some city shots right downtown. It almost goes without saying that I always use Manchester in some way, but the film as a whole encompasses all of New Hampshire. It's based in Hampton, so it'll have a small-town Seacoast look to it, but our main character travels everywhere. So we've got UNH written in now, really New Hampshire-ized the story.

For actors, what's the time commitment?

If they land the part, I take rehearsals real seriously. So in April, we'll do that, and we'll keep rehearsing all the way up until the shoot. That would be in Manchester, at least once a week for a couple of hours, depending on the size of the part.

What shape is the script in?

Right now it's a messy draft because I'm changing a lot. There are plot holes, but everyone's reading it. The next couple of weeks I'm trying to get it so we're pretty set on it. But so many actors have different rhythms in the way they speak, so there's no point in knocking ourselves out now over the dialogue in terms of every little detail. I like to get actors' input. I'm not one of these guys that everything has to be exactly like in the script. You want people to feel part of it. And a lot of times, the best idea will come out if you work with people. I can still say, "No, it's gotta go this way." But it's foolish to put a halt to it. You want to be as creative as possible and let people have a chance to really be creative.

What are your aims for the film?

Everyone's in it for the right reasons. There's none of this nonsense about film festivals, or distribution or Sundance or Hollywood. Anyone mentioning those words, they're gone. I'm getting local people to make an independent film, and in doing so what's more important than the film itself is sort of creating a model for future independent films. I don't want to wait another seven years like we did with Old Man Dogs. I want to make another one next year. I want to create a model as to how you can get locally interested people who are creative into a way where you can do a modestly inexpensive yet quality film, recoup your monies, learn from it, and then move on and get a track record. That's the whole thing, and that's what everyone understands - people who are trying to make something. Delusions of grandeur just bog the whole thing down. Let's concentrate on telling our story in New Hampshire. Let's tell our stories that no one else can tell as well as us. I mean, that Poland, N.H. show proved that. That wasn't New Hampshire.

What are the trends in independent films?

In probably the early 1990s or so, there used to be about 800 independent films made in the country that were finished. These were mostly 16mm, some 35mm if they could afford it. Right now, they estimated it's between 4,000 and 5,000 films. Why? Because in the digital age, people can just do it. It kind of brings filmmaking to the other arts. Before, it was so expensive, that it was nuts. With music or painting or sculpture, you can be one at relatively low cost. Now with digital filmmaking, you have access to the tools, but you still have to do all the work.

Are you shooting "Dangerous Crosswinds" digitally?

We shot Old Man Dogs on 16mm film, but we'll shoot Dangerous Crosswinds on 24p digital video, which is kind of a breakthough because a lot of feature films are using this now. Video used to have that harsher look and was left for documentaries because you couldn't get the softness that film offered. With 24p, it's supposed to be a cross - better than 16mm, not as good as 35mm, but still have its own distinct look. If we do our job right, it'll just look gorgeous. But the real beauty of video is that it's far cheaper. That's the unbelievable part. With film, the cost of film stock and processing and lab work as unreal. With Dangerous Crosswinds, we're going to shoot it on digital and hopefully it looks awesome. And then we'll go upstairs on that big monster computer I just got - that's where it's all going to be done. We'll do color corrections, sound mixing. Once we're satisfied with it, we'll release it.

With digital editing, won't you be tempted to keep tweaking the film?

I think it's dangerous to go back and keep recutting. With Old Man Dogs, certainly today there are things I would do differently. But that's what the film was at the time, it was what it was, it's its own little time capsule. I've always been proud of it, and now it's time to move on. If you keep trying to go back and tweak it, you're telling people who paid to see it that it's not done to begin with, and that's nonsense.

Where do you see independent filmmaking in New Hampshire going?

I would love for all the people to be involved in this film to be working on their own scripts and following a model that we all jointly create to make their own films. So in six or seven years you could go to local video store and it has 10 titles from local filmmakers and they're all on good quality DVDs. That would be cool, and with digital video there's no reason that shouldn't happen.

What's the biggest challenge of filmmaking?

There are so many guys that have films that are incomplete. They hit that procrastination at the end and it winds up just sitting in their basement or they finish it and get it into a couple of video stores. The thing is, it's incredibly difficult just to finish and get a film distributed so people can see it. That's my promise. All my stuff gets done. And then I do my best to get it out afterwards.

-Jeff Rapsis