From college student to filmmaker

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A successful fundraiser in Madison supplemented by donations from friends and family helped Greenway and Collie-Hartmann quickly meet their $1,000 budget. Then it was time to focus on the real meat of pre-production: casting. When Craigslist ads and fliers in the “artsier” parts of Menomonie didn’t do the trick, the team (largely with help from Greenway’s mother) resorted to networking and reaching out to places like UW-Stout and community arts organizations for actors. Finally, with one week left until production, the cast was finalized and shooting in Menomonie began Aug. 4.

Co-director Alli Collie-Hartmann on the set. Photo courtesy Jordy Liebowitz

The shoot suffered a minor setback — the location was changed due to noise pollution, but overall, Heraly says, it was an, “Incredibly smooth shoot, especially for first-time directors.” What was supposed to take a full week ended up taking six days.

The $1,000-budget left little for lavish props and costumes. Unable to afford the high price of strawberries, which had just gone out of season, Greenway and Collie-Hartmann scrambled to find enough berries to fill the baskets needed for both Anna and her rival strawberry seller (played by Greenway’s grandfather). To the rescue came Wal-Mart, which sells overripe produce in bulk for 79 cents a pint.

“We had all of these almost-rotting strawberries that progressed to actually rotting strawberries,” Greenway laughs. “And people would come up to us in the middle of shooting and say, ‘Where’d you get these strawberries?!’ and we had to say, ‘….Wal-Mart’ and they were so confused.”

It’s A Wrap

Between Heraly’s day job filming artists for True Endeavors and other projects, finding time to edit “Strawberry Stand” has been difficult. But he says the film is “right on schedule” for the Dec. 1 Wisconsin Film Festival submission deadline. Heraly’s roommate, Madison singer-songwriter Jeremiah Nelson, is composing and recording an original score. In the meantime, Greenway is working on another original screenplay (a female buddy movie based on her friendship with Collie-Hartmann), and preparing to relocate to Los Angeles. Collie-Hartmann is living with her husband in Eau Claire, waitressing until he finishes his education degree so they can also move to Los Angeles or New York City..

“I don’t want to say it’s been hard on the friendship, but it’s definitely changed the friendship itself,” Greenway says. “All I can really say is that after our husbands die, we’ll definitely be sitting on the front porch playing cribbage together. We’ll always be friends, but who knows what’ll happen with the film industry — it’s such a gamble anyway. At least we can say that we made one movie together.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNLsxhjuXW4[/youtube]