The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Filmmaker brings ‘Conners’ to life
Online series filmed in city last summer
Lorain, Ohio, stands in for Lorain, Anywhere, in a new online comedy series filmed in the city last summer.
John Baumgartner, a 1989 alumnus of Lorain High School, now is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who has worked on movies and television shows, including “The Real O’Neals” on ABC.
Baumgartner returned to his hometown in July 2016 to direct “The Conners,” a series of four shorts he wrote about a sister and brother trying to make some fast cash.
“The Conners” came to life this month as a YouTube series that already is gaining interest in the
film industry for Baumgartner and actor Matthew Taylor, who co-stars with Erin K. Moran.
“It’s exciting,” Baumgartner said. “It turned out quite well. I’m very happy with it. I was really happy with just the whole experience in Lorain.”
The four episodes show the misadventures of siblings Jessica and Tad, played by Moran and Taylor.
Trying to raise $200 fast to avoid trouble with their parents, the pair bicker with each other and run into several unique residents. They get involved with ice cream, a lost cat, a sports mascot and a police officer in an afternoon captured in about eight minutes.
Baumgartner credited the cast, crew, neighbors and the city for making the episodes short but polished.
Before filming started, Baumgartner wrote the script and brainstormed with Moran and Taylor, whom he met while teaching an acting class at Lorain County Community College.
“We then treated it like a workshop because it was so much about their chemistry, it was so much about them being comfortable with each other as siblings,” Baumgartner said. “And they were so good that first read.
“The script wasn’t quite perfect yet, but I thought, don’t look at the script, don’t think about the script. Because when they did that first reading, I thought, Oh, they’re going to make me look so good. I don’t want to mess this up.”
Moran and Taylor were hardly the only Ohio talent in the cast and crew.
Assistant director/coordinator Troy Dill is an Elyria native who has moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in the film industry.
Boom operator Rick Matos is a Lorain videographer.
Baumgartner recruited actor Gabriella Sagnes after seeing her in a local production of “South Pacific.”
Actor Ellen Pill also served as script supervisor; Lorain actor Kenny Santiago Marrero is a friend of actor Tommie L. Perry, who works as a government security guard and looked the part of a Lorain police officer.
Home from Los Angeles, Baumgartner reunited with police Capt. Roger Watkins, a fellow Lorain High School alumnus who offered the services of the Officer Rick “Doc” Broz.
In Lorain Broz is known for his work on loose dog and animal cruelty reports. He also was precise in driving the car for the film, a task that sounds simple but gets technical due the placement of the cruiser, camera, trees and actors, Baumgartner said.
“The Conners” end credits gave Baumgartner’s special thanks to the neighbors who made the location shoot possible. They include Vince and Karen Rodriguez, Cindy Davis, Stan and Chris Morgan, Carna Czatt and the Rob Leitner family of Lorain.
Gary “Herr” Nemes was Baumgartner’s German teacher in high school. Now a longtime friend, Nemes served as caterer on the film shoot.
Also credited are the director’s mother, Joan Baumgartner, and Dee and Richard Wyer, her best friends.
Everyone was excited to see him back — but not necessarily surprised.
Baumgartner said he’s been wielding a camera since age 8. So when he was young, it was a standing joke in the neighborhood to ask if he was outside filming again.
“To come back now as an adult with a real crew and project, they were all just so thrilled and so happy to have me,” Baumgartner said. “Unlike in Los Angeles, there everyone on my street was like, please, film at my house too.
“It was like having my own backlot at a studio.”
“The Conners” is a comedy series. So is it funny?
“Reaction has been really, really positive,” Baumgartner said.