City Different to be the star in ‘Santa Fake’
Well-known actors join locals in brisk production with city in mind
a common complaint among New Mexico’s resident filmmakers: The big movie companies come in, spend a lot of money and promotional energy showcasing their made-in-New-Mexico projects, hire a lot of local behind-the-scenes crew members and maybe some actors, and then leave.
They take advantage of the state’s film-incentive program while rarely utilizing state-based writers and directors.
Santa Feans Chad and Julie Burris are looking to change that dynamic. Working with other local film artists, the producer-director-writer duo are about to start filming Santa Fake, an independent production featuring well-known actors that will shoot quickly (over 12 days) and cheaply (they won’t say how much) in the City Different starting Dec. 27.
“It’s an old-fashioned family holiday film,” said Julie Burris, who wrote the script, during a news conference Saturday at the Santa Fe Community College’s film department. “It really shows Santa Fe in the best light. … It’s a candy-colored Christmas explosion of fun.”
Delaney Marsh, another of the film’s producers, was hesitant to say much about the plot other than it involves “a person who comes to realize who he is.”
The cast includes Judd Nelson, Jeff Fahey, John Rhys-Davies and two of the young stars on the Fox television series Glee: Damian McGinty and Heather Morris.
Julie Burris said a number of local actors also are in the film, which will be shot in downtown locations, such as the Plaza, and at the DeVargas Center.
Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales, who spoke at the news conference in support of the project, said the city is helping to promote the film because “it’s a movie made by Santa Fe filmmakers in Santa Fe. It’s the best of what Santa Fe is all
about. … This can show the world that high-quality, exciting films can come out of Santa Fe.”
The city opened its own film office in 2016 to attract more large-scale film projects to the area to reap some of the $400 million spent by film companies in New Mexico that year. At the time, Gonzales said he wanted to see homegrown talent — including screenwriters, directors and producers — develop projects with a distinctive Santa Fe feel to them.
Santa Fake is not the only such project to come out of the area in the past year. Last summer, students at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design teamed up to make the zombie film Final Cutz, set on an abandoned college campus.
And a Santa Fe real estate marketer wrote and directed the comedy series Bad Broker, shot earlier this year in Santa Fe.
Many of these locally driven projects end up playing the film festival circuit and then disappearing.
Though, some have enjoyed a cult following, like 2000’s The Tao of Steve, and others have been released on DVD or on online video-streaming sites.
Chad Burris said once Santa Fake wraps, he’ll start looking into distribution possibilities.
Marsh said the film’s biggest challenge is its tight 12-day schedule. But, as an 18-year veteran of the local film technicians union, he said that’s a challenge on any film set, regardless of the budget and timeline.
Julie Burris jokingly said she saw an advantage to the shooting schedule: “We have fewer days to screw up.”
The production team is welcoming anyone who wants to help out on the film or appear as an extra. They will be setting up an office in the old Hastings retail space in the DeVargas Center and encourage anyone who is interested in the production to stop by for a visit.
The production team is welcoming anyone who wants to help out on the film or appear as an extra. They will be setting up an office in the old Hastings retail space in the DeVargas Center and encourage anyone who is interested to stop by for a visit.