For the full story on the Woodland raised filmmaker, Scott Wegener, turn inside to
“The Spider's Web Trilogy” will play at the Woodland Opera House on Sunday
For his birthday in 1969, 15-year-old Scott Wegener received an 8mm film camera at Corner Drug Co. on Main Street, which he used to make his first film. Over 50 years later, Wegener is returning to Woodland to showcase his films at the Woodland Opera House and discuss how he makes films with no budget.
Wegener will host a viewing of three of his films known as “The Spider's Web Trilogy.” The movies follow two teen geniuses who unlock the secrets of the universe during a high school science project.
Wegener was born in Woodland and lived in the city up until his junior year in high school when he moved to Davis. He said that making movies was his way out of being bullied.
“I was one of those kids who was always bullied in school and didn't have the respect of anybody, wasn't in any of the cool crowds, and it was really depressing,” Wegener recalled. “I got beat up a lot, all that kind of classic stuff. And then when I started making films, and suddenly people wanted to be my friend, and show me some respect, and my self-esteem improved, my grades improved, everything got better.”
Wegener went on to attend both Chico State — where he studied mass communications — and San Francisco State — where he studied cinema — in order to form a special “theatrical film production major.”
Originally, Wegener headed to Los Angeles to take a shot at filmmaking. He described the city at the time as a “shark tank.”
“And it dawned on me that if I stick it out in Hollywood, I'm going to have to start at the bottom and
gamble that somebody is going to recognize my talent and that I am the kind of person they want to work with,” he said. “What I saw when I was there was networking parties… I went to one networking party, and there were drugs everywhere. I mean, it was the classic fishbowl full of pills, and everybody was wasted.”
Wegener said he wasn't into partying like that, and that he “started stammering and stuttering” at that moment, and left Los Angeles after that experience.
Instead, he decided to do it on his own. Wegener got a job as a TV news photographer in order to pay his bills and started making movies in his free time. He described being a TV news photographer as an extremely helpful path for his passion.
“I have to tell a story, a visual story, efficiently in 90 seconds or less, and get all the salient points down,” he explained. “I'm going to meet everybody from the President of the United States to people living in cardboard boxes, and get to know them intimately because we've got to understand their story. And oh my gosh, what a goldmine for a filmmaker. I mean, what a treasure trove of knowledge and information and background
and networking.”
In 1984, Wegener's film, “Hide From the Night,” was cablecast in Eugene, Oregon. It was shot and edited using equipment from the TV station he worked for.
Wegener continued to make movies that way, including with the three “Spider's Web” films. The first one, “The Spider's Web,” premiered in 1995. He made it using volunteer actors and donated props. The 1995 film includes a flying car, which Wegener made out of a wrecked Chevy Camaro that had been given to him by an old stock car racer.
Wegener had the vehicle towed to a high school with an auto shop class.
“(I) made a deal with the instructor there, saying, ‘we're making this movie. This is what I'm doing, I need to make a flying car out of this with airlines on the side and working wings and all that kind of stuff.,'” Wegener said. “And the teacher said, ‘our kids would love this, this would be amazing.' So he took the car, and he contacted paint companies and sheet metal manufacturers and Delco Auto Parts and all these things. And he took this rusted Hulk of a car and made a brand new flying Chevy Camaro out of it.”
Wegener has used this method for all five of his feature films that he's made through his Cincinnati-based company, Nobleman Square Productions — which used to be known as David Garrison Productions. His film, “The Golum,” a remake of an early 20th-century silent horror film, won three Emmy awards, according to a statement from the Woodland Opera House.
Of all his films, Wegener notes that the “Spider's Web” films are his favorites, because they highlight young people who are passionate and curious. He stated that he was excited to return to his hometown to hopefully inspire people in Woodland.
“The system works, because most people in the industry will say, ‘there's no such thing as a zero budget production, you can't do it, it's impossible,' Wegener said. “And they're very cynical about the idea of being able to succeed without money being the major part of the equation, and I think that's a very cynical view of life, of society, and a very limiting thing of people being able to express themselves, making it really hard for people to tell their stories, because not everybody has the resources to get that kind of money. And to be able to sort of share that message in my hometown, that, ‘hey, you can succeed in something as wild and crazy as filmmaking.' And if you can do that, you can do it with anything.”
“The Spider's Web Trilogy” will be showing at the Woodland Opera House at 340 Second St. on Sunday. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., and there will be an introduction at noon before the first showing at 12:10. The second film will show at 2:05 p.m., and the third will show at 3:30 p.m. Wegener will discuss his films in between the showings.
Tickets can be purchased for $10 online at woodlandoperahouse.org, or will be available at the door Sunday.