Fauquier Student Follows Film Dreams
By Catherine Amos, Culpeper Star-Exponent, Va.
Jul. 11–Steven Spielberg. Quentin Tarantino. Judd Apatow. Billy Carmichael?
While most high schoolers spend their summers working for the weekend, Fauquier rising senior Billy Carmichael is plotting his career, one bag of groceries at a time. After working as a supermarket bagger, Carmichael is now spending his hard-earned cash on boom mikes, digital video cameras and editing equipment.
Carmichael, 17, began writing his screenplay in January. This summer, he’s directing his first feature-length movie, “Love Letters to Losers,” loosely based on his and his friends’ high school experiences. Two of his three best friends, Seth Marshall and Alex Towers, are co-starring in the coming-of-age romance comedy with Carmichael, and fellow friend Dillon Jenkins is the independent film’s executive producer.
“The motivation for the script just came from my life, our life,” Carmichael said. “We’ve been friends since second grade. It’s not an autobiography, but it’s stuff that happens to us all the time.”
The movie follows three high school guys who start out as losers. A cliche setup, Carmichael admitted, but he said he made a point to stray from the stereotypical and give the film meaning and heart. In his words, it’s a mashup of the superficial comedy in “Superbad” and the soulfulness of “Juno.”
A coming of age story, the plot follows Carmichael’s character as he explores staying true to himself, while Marshall’s character is on a quest for true love and has to decide if he can get over his lover’s faults. Towers’ character is learning to deal with newfound popularity and the dilemmas of morality that come with it.
“I didn’t want a lot of cliches,” Carmichael said. “It’s a comedy, but at the same time, I wanted everybody to be human. I didn’t want everyone to be a caricature; I wanted them to have their good points along with their bad points.”
At this point, the filming has not yet commenced but Carmichael has his cast of about 20 actors and a crew to do the filming. He said he had a hard time getting people to take him seriously, but Jenkins and Marshall seemed enthusiastic about the venture and had high hopes for its success.
“For years we’ve been saying this and I’ve had more doubt,” Jenkins said, “but now it’s coming and whatever we’re doing, it’s happening. To see what he’s been dreaming of, it’s cool. We actually have something solid for once.”
Marshall agreed.
“I think (the script) is great,” he said. “If it weren’t an independent film, it might be super amazing. If everything goes according to plan, this should be a really good movie.”
Carmichael’s goal for the project is to enter it in film festivals like Sundance and hope for the best. The minimum he hopes for is a $20,000 distribution deal so he can pay back his parents and the money he’s been loaned. But his dream? To be an acclaimed director.
“At some point in time, everyone has to make the leap of their dreams,” he said, noting that George Lucas had a D-average in high school, Quentin Tarantino worked in a video store and Steven Spielberg didn’t get into UCLA. “I want to go for my dream. I don’t want to look back and think, I could have done this. I just had to go for it.”
Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .
Have film experience will work
Billy Carmichael is looking for additional crew members to help shoot his movie, “Love Letters to Losers.” If you have any audio/visual experience and are willing to volunteer, contact Billy at 878-7324 or zerogravityx9102@aol.com.
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