Beaver Run Cafe featured more than ten locations in San Jose, Boulder Creek, New Almaden, and San Francisco. We had a cast of fifteen people, a rotating crew of twenty-two, and much of this was shot in one hundred degree heat.

Rose Hawayek, who graduated spring of 2003 from the Academy of Art College, produced the feature film Beaver Run Cafe. She talks about the experience… “I had read several scripts that were either too commercial or too artsy for my taste so when I came across Beaver Run Cafe, originally titled Beaver, Utah I was pleasantly surprised. The balance of artistic quality and commercial value, were exactly what I wanted. I acquired a 3-year option for the script with writer Ellen George.

As a Producer I try to secure the best filmmakers for whatever challenge I am undertaking. So for Beaver Run Cafe I gathered the expertise of Academy students Anita Gouloomian as the films Director and Donna Mathewson as Co-producer and Editor. Together we began our plan of attack. Our first major obstacle was securing a crew who would be willing to give up one month of their lives without pay to work on our project. But through past working relationships I was able to gather a small crew willing to do just that.

Ellen George is primarily a play write by trade so our second obstacle was adapting play into a more cinematic form. Anita and Donna did the rewrite with help from Sarah Macaulay, and plot contributions from me.

I cannot even begin to count the sleepless nights I spent scheduling the production, obtaining permits, ordering equipment, securing insurance and SAG waivers. All the while my writers tried to meet their revision deadlines and not allow their schoolwork and finals to suffer.

Together we spent time scouting locations that might work for the story. One major location was an air-stream trailer (silver bullet) the script called for. Donna had mentioned New Almaden would be a good place to find the outside look of the motel. While driving in this quaint country feel sort of town Anita calls out… oh I just saw a bullet, somehow I knew, she had meant the Silver Bullet Trailer we needed for a major part of the film.

I immediately turned the car around and headed for what she had seen. Anita had somehow seen an old Air-stream silver trailer in an overly wooded yard. We got out of the car and saw a woman standing on the other side of the street. I asked her if she knew who owned that particular property and as luck would have it, she said she did.

We found out later the property owner was none other than Kathy Wolfe of Wolfe Video, a major distributor of gay and lesbian programming on video and DVD. Kathy was very generous in allowing us the use of her property in exchange for some help around her business.

After finally securing all the locations, assembling a talented and dedicated cast and crew, scheduling production, our pre-production stage was finished and we were ready for our scheduled production date.

Anita Gouloomian and Director of Photography Frédéric Chaignat worked endless hours in transforming written word to a visual format.

I was overwhelmed by the support of everyone involved, and those that supported us. From Donna’s friends who opened up their homes for cast and crew, and feeding us too many times to mention. Sarah’s extended family for providing food and a place for cast and crew to relax when they were not required to be on set. The actor’s sense of professionalism being on time and knowing their lines, and a crew, which after numerous hours of work were ready for the next task at hand.

In production things do not always run smoothly but through the commitment and determination of everyone involved we succeeded. We all put our personal differences aside and worked on one common goal, and that goal is reflected in Beaver Run Cafe. I am very proud of this film and everyone involved in its creation."

Anita Gouloomian

Having grown up in Los Angeles, Anita Gouloomian felt she needed to go outside the box to pursue an education in filmmaking. This brought her to Academy of Art College as one of the most driven woman directors in the program. Although still juggling school commitments during the making of Beaver Run Cafe, she eagerly pursued the chance to direct her first feature film. Here she talks about her process…

“The first read through I held for the actors was an interesting experience. I had 10 cast members crammed into my little San Francisco apartment. As we got midway through the script, I realized that one of the actors had not read the latest version of the script. Surprise! His character had changed from a blustery used car salesman to a gay truck driver with a boyfriend. Thank goodness for professional actors who can take on any role. I knew he was perfect for the part.

From the initial ... ‘Hey do you want to help us make a movie? You’ll be working for free and you have to move to San Jose for a month and sleep on some floor of a stranger’s house. Did I mention the others who are going to be sleeping next to you?’… The crew came through for us.

If I hadn’t witnessed our amazing and dedicated team for myself, I would never have believed a group of volunteers would work so hard. They seldom complained and were always ready for more. That is one of the most beautiful things about filmmaking. People get together and make it happen for the pure love of creativity. Thanks to all of you out there who help in the creation of art. You are all very special people.

Our first day of shooting involved 4 locations, a minor, a dog, and temperatures over one hundred degrees. The heat was sweltering and the crew, though eager to please, was exhausted. Looking back at it now, I realize this was one of our easier days. I’d had some sleep, we had a shot list, and I’d eaten a decent meal. By the end of production many setups and scenes could not be accomplished at our shooting pace. This lead to a lengthy period of post-production involving creative problem solving, and discovering a new flow to the story.

Sound design was one of the most exciting aspects of filmmaking for me. We worked with Berke Sound, professionals who truly love what they are doing and want to help Independent films flourish.

I think of it as the best work I've done so far. I can honestly say I've never worked so hard before.”

We typically shot one DV tape per day, which left our editor Donna Mathewson lots of footage to log on her home edit system. For the project Donna purchased a dual 1.42 GHz Mac G4 with 2 GB of memory. Although she has learned many editing packages Donna chose to edit using Apple’s Final Cut Pro version 3.0.4. She talks about her experience of the production…

“Rose Hawayek approached me with the script for Beaver, Utah in January of 2003 and asked me to join as co-producer and editor. We had met the previous year when I was part of the editing team for the Pioneer 48 hour project Clay Ashtrays, which she produced. Although I still had a year of school in front of me, I found the project exciting and signed on.

I organized our first fundraiser among my Silicon Valley friends. It became obvious that we could not raise the funds for a location shoot during the technology downturn. Yet my friends did sign up to help locally. And I knew bay area locations that could be used to create the small mountain community needed for the film. With the addition of Director Anita Gouloomian, we began a rewrite to move the script out of a small desert town and into the locations we had secured.

During production, my friends housed and fed the cast and crew. I have a fantastic group of friends for whom I am very grateful. I also housed some crew in my home - which also plays the interior of the hotel in the film. Having an extra six people living in the house while half of it was a hot set lead to some creative juggling of space.

On the final day of filming my friends came through in a crisis. We found we did not have the location for the important nighttime accident. After a flurry of phone calls, they got access to the Guadalupe Landfill access road for an overnight shoot.

After production wrapped I began cutting the feature film on my Apple G4. It proved to be a monumental task consuming all my time for the rest of the year. Anita and I spent several months juggling scenes to cover the gaps in coverage. I’d especially like to thank her for the weeks she spent sitting on the floor of my office helping me sync the DAT sound.

I still managed to graduate from the Academy of Art College in December of 2003. I was surprised to find I had also been selected as the film department valedictorian. And I completed the final match back to the audio mix on December 31st. It proved an eventful year.”