Money ills in ‘ Where We Live’ a theme for filmmakers, too

In 2014, some bad news left central Ohio filmmakers John Whitney and Dino Tripodis despondent.

A financial backer for their next movie had pulled out of the project, leaving them with only the $9,000 generated by a Kickstarter campaign to make “Star and the Snowman” — not nearly enough money.

About four months later, while sipping bourbon on the porch of Tripodis’ home in the Clintonville neighborhood, they underwent an attitude adjustment.

“Whatever angst remained from the disappointment shifted into ‘ What the hell? Let’s get our friends together and make a movie,’” said Tripodis, a co- writer, producer and actor in “The Street Where We Live,” screening Friday as part of the 2017 Columbus International Film + Video Festival.

Directed by Whitney, the film follows Mary, a single mother ( Kristina Kopf) with teenage children Jamie and Thomas ( Katie Stottlemire and Dylan Koski), who loses her blue- collar job when the factory where she works closes. Slowly, the family sinks into financial desperation; with Mary struggling to pay the rent, the utilities are turned off.

“I think the film is relevant,” said Jeremy Henthorn, executive director of the film festival. “It tackles what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, and then that paycheck goes away. That is a worthy topic.

“I think John did a great job bringing that to life.”

Originally, Tripodis said, the movie was envisioned as a “Grapes of Wrath”style story, in which a single father leaves his home to find work in another town .

But the tiny budget compelled the filmmakers to stay in Columbus, with most of the shooting taking place in Clintonville.

Whitney, a Grove City resident who co-wrote the script with Tripodis and Upper Arlington resident William Farmer, contacted actors with whom he’d worked and persuaded them to “donate” one weekend a month for eight months to shoot the movie.

“God bless cast and crew on that one,” Tripodis said. “Everybody was of like mind. Everybody was on the same page. Everybody who was involved in it made a commitment to stay involved with it and knew it was going to be one weekend a month for eight or nine months. It was a bear to try to keep a schedule.”

Whitney compensated the actors with respect.

“I promised them that I wouldn’t go over 12 hours (during a shooting),” he said. “If you keep them fed and tell them the truth when it comes to scheduling, the attitude is great. If you’re pushing 16 to 18 hours, that’s when you start losing people.”

Whitney and Tripodis, along with co-producers Philip R. Garrett and Gil Whitney, John’s brother, ended up making the movie for about $15,000.

“The approach was as natural as possible as far as light and sets,” John Whitney said. “We kept the number of locations down to a minimum. We tried to keep most days to a minimum. If

we needed something extra, we would rent it. We tried to keep it as simple as possible with what we did.”

Both Whitney, a video-production specialist for AEP, and Tripodis, a morning on-air personality for WSNY (94.7 FM), enjoy the challenge of telling a story through film.

“I like it when people say I can’t do something, and I go ahead and do it,” Whitney said. “Independent filmmaking is like that — you have to prove yourself every time out.”

Tripodis agreed.

“Scent,” with director Will Klein, and “We Are Mary,” with director Julie Wiles

short films sponsored by the

“There’s something about the creative process that’s rewarding,” he said. “It’s not financial, that’s for sure. I never have any illusions about it being a payday. But emotionally, it’s a huge payday.”