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‘Her Minor Thing'
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| Tim Meyers, left, speaks with Her Minor Thing director Charles Matthau on set in Sacramento. Meyers, a Parkview High School and University of Wisconsin - Madison graduate, was born and raised in Beloit. The filming of Her Minor Thing took roughly four weeks of the six years it took to produce the film. It took producer Jim Meyers four years to just to fund the film. “(The fun part) is over in a blink,” he said. |
By Erika Hoefer
Daily News Contributor
quite a major thing for Beloit-born producer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - When Beloit-born Jim Meyers moved to California some decade-plus years ago, he had a plan. The steps in that plan were a little shaky, maybe some were missing, but Meyers knew if he wanted to become a successful screenplay writer, the journey from Madison, where he had lived since his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin, was crucial. Mandatory, really, because who breaks into Hollywood without being in Hollywood?
Now that's something even Matt Damon couldn't do.
On January 17, the 1978 Parkview grad's plan finally came to fruition. His first full-length feature film hit the shelves of hundreds of video rental stores nationwide. Her Minor Thing had already caught on in Europe, where it has sold as many copies in the month or so since it's release there.
The film, a romantic comedy written by Meyers and his wife Debra and directed by Charles Matthau (son of Walter Matthau), was born of true stories of relationships gone awry. The back story is that Meyers had a friend - a female friend (who will forever remain unidentified). This friend had a not-so-nice boyfriend. And because she was so wonderful and he was so not, no one could understand why they were together. So the Meyers team decided to do some investigation into relationships and the things that happen when love goes sour.
“It was scary what people who ‘love each other' do to each other after they breakup,” Debra said. And she isn't kidding. Through their research, they found stories of people destroying cars, ruining entire wardrobes (not the clothes!) and other even more hideous things.
They also found there are always friends on either side of the scuffle, usually prolonging it and making it worse.
And suddenly a plot evolved, one that delved into these relationships and friendships and explored what crazed love fools will do to each other and how they will finally heal and move on.
“The movie is about how people relate to one another,” Debra said.
Oh, and one other minor thing: a 25-year-old woman's virginity.
The hook
“Guys want to sleep with girls, but want to marry virgins,” Debra said.
In the movie, KECA Channel 8 anchorman Tom Lindeman (Michael Weatherly of Dark Angel and NCIS) outs his 25-year-old girlfriend Jeana's (the fresh-faced Estella Warren of Planet of the Apes) virginity on the evening news. Sure it was an accident, born out of frustration and a big mouth, and at first Jeana forgives him. But after her face is splashed across the newspapers and reporters start banging on her door, what's a girl to do?
And then, also quite by accident, a new man (the aw-shucks Paul, played by Close to Home's Christian Kane) enters Jeana's life. What she doesn't know is this character works with Tom and is the one he blabbed her biggest secret to in the first place.
A battle of the sexes ensues as Jeana, Tom and Paul chase and tumble after each other (sometimes literally) in search for peace, and one set of highly contended cruise tickets.
In addition to the up-and-coming headliners, the film features cameos by Life on the D-List's Kathy Griffen, Flex Alexander (She's All That), Ivana Milicevic (Just Like Heaven) and Victoria Jackson (Saturday Night Live). Another SNL queen, Rachel Dratch, portrays Jeana's best friend, the man-hating Caroline.
Hitting the big screen
Since its venture of out of post-production, Her Minor Thing has played to sold-out audiences at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Sacramento Film and Music Festival, the Sonoma Valley Film Festival and the Phoenix Film Festival, where Kane picked up a special jury prize for acting achievement.
The film's MySpace page is filled with acclamations from across the world, urging the Meyers team to get back to work and produce another fan favorite.
But another question that appears again and again on the site is: Why isn't this movie in theaters?
It's a question Meyers can't answer.
“We got all these great comments from people in the film business that are looking for scripts,” Meyers said, of the beginning of Her Minor Thing's journey. In the end, though, no one would commit. Fed up with the runaround, Meyers and Debra decided to shoot the film on their own and to shoot it in their own neighborhood.
Shooting the film in Sacramento, Calif. turned out to be one of the film's biggest assets, Meyers said. By shooting in the central city, away from the worn-out attitudes of Los Angeles and Hollywood, the film crew was able to really turn to the community for help and enthusiasm.
“So many movies are made in L.A., it's not really exciting there,” Meyers said. On the other hand, people outside of the megalopolis get excited when a film crew rolls into town. “For a lot of people it's the only chance for them to get involved in making a film,” he added.
“We had a lot of great community support,” Meyers said. Neighbors opened their houses for on-scene shooting, donated vehicles, fed the crew and more.
Meyers attests it is because of this community outreach that the production value is so very high in the otherwise low-budget film.
“It's just a lot of fun making a film outside of L.A. where it's a big event and doesn't usually happen,” he said.
The story continues
So now that he has his movie out, is the master plan complete? Not by a long shot, says Meyers. He still hopes to work with Gwyneth Paltrow, (which could be more difficult than producing that first film now that she's given up the day job to be a mom) and he also hopes he'll get to work with writer/director/producer extraordinaire Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, and oddly enough, Fast Times at Ridgemont High).
“He doesn't get enough credit,” Meyers said. “If people compared my work to Cameron Crowe's, I would be thrilled.”
And perhaps that day will come. Meyers has a couple projects up his sleeve: one a low-budget film he's writing himself, and another romantic comedy with wife Debra that they plan to shop around Tinsel Town.
For now, he's content to flip the phones off, work from home and raise his 6-year-old son Jackson. And really, it doesn't get much better than that.
For more on Her Minor Thing, check out: www.myspace.com/herminorthing
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - When Beloit-born Jim Meyers moved to California some decade-plus years ago, he had a plan. The steps in that plan were a little shaky, maybe some were missing, but Meyers knew if he wanted to become a successful screenplay writer, the journey from Madison, where he had lived since his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin, was crucial. Mandatory, really, because who breaks into Hollywood without being in Hollywood?
Now that's something even Matt Damon couldn't do.
On January 17, the 1978 Parkview grad's plan finally came to fruition. His first full-length feature film hit the shelves of hundreds of video rental stores nationwide. Her Minor Thing had already caught on in Europe, where it has sold as many copies in the month or so since it's release there.
The film, a romantic comedy written by Meyers and his wife Debra and directed by Charles Matthau (son of Walter Matthau), was born of true stories of relationships gone awry. The back story is that Meyers had a friend - a female friend (who will forever remain unidentified). This friend had a not-so-nice boyfriend. And because she was so wonderful and he was so not, no one could understand why they were together. So the Meyers team decided to do some investigation into relationships and the things that happen when love goes sour.
“It was scary what people who ‘love each other' do to each other after they breakup,” Debra said. And she isn't kidding. Through their research, they found stories of people destroying cars, ruining entire wardrobes (not the clothes!) and other even more hideous things.
They also found there are always friends on either side of the scuffle, usually prolonging it and making it worse.
And suddenly a plot evolved, one that delved into these relationships and friendships and explored what crazed love fools will do to each other and how they will finally heal and move on.
“The movie is about how people relate to one another,” Debra said.
Oh, and one other minor thing: a 25-year-old woman's virginity.
The hook
“Guys want to sleep with girls, but want to marry virgins,” Debra said.
In the movie, KECA Channel 8 anchorman Tom Lindeman (Michael Weatherly of Dark Angel and NCIS) outs his 25-year-old girlfriend Jeana's (the fresh-faced Estella Warren of Planet of the Apes) virginity on the evening news. Sure it was an accident, born out of frustration and a big mouth, and at first Jeana forgives him. But after her face is splashed across the newspapers and reporters start banging on her door, what's a girl to do?
And then, also quite by accident, a new man (the aw-shucks Paul, played by Close to Home's Christian Kane) enters Jeana's life. What she doesn't know is this character works with Tom and is the one he blabbed her biggest secret to in the first place.
A battle of the sexes ensues as Jeana, Tom and Paul chase and tumble after each other (sometimes literally) in search for peace, and one set of highly contended cruise tickets.
In addition to the up-and-coming headliners, the film features cameos by Life on the D-List's Kathy Griffen, Flex Alexander (She's All That), Ivana Milicevic (Just Like Heaven) and Victoria Jackson (Saturday Night Live). Another SNL queen, Rachel Dratch, portrays Jeana's best friend, the man-hating Caroline.
Hitting the big screen
Since its venture of out of post-production, Her Minor Thing has played to sold-out audiences at the Seattle International Film Festival, the Sacramento Film and Music Festival, the Sonoma Valley Film Festival and the Phoenix Film Festival, where Kane picked up a special jury prize for acting achievement.
The film's MySpace page is filled with acclamations from across the world, urging the Meyers team to get back to work and produce another fan favorite.
But another question that appears again and again on the site is: Why isn't this movie in theaters?
It's a question Meyers can't answer.
“We got all these great comments from people in the film business that are looking for scripts,” Meyers said, of the beginning of Her Minor Thing's journey. In the end, though, no one would commit. Fed up with the runaround, Meyers and Debra decided to shoot the film on their own and to shoot it in their own neighborhood.
Shooting the film in Sacramento, Calif. turned out to be one of the film's biggest assets, Meyers said. By shooting in the central city, away from the worn-out attitudes of Los Angeles and Hollywood, the film crew was able to really turn to the community for help and enthusiasm.
“So many movies are made in L.A., it's not really exciting there,” Meyers said. On the other hand, people outside of the megalopolis get excited when a film crew rolls into town. “For a lot of people it's the only chance for them to get involved in making a film,” he added.
“We had a lot of great community support,” Meyers said. Neighbors opened their houses for on-scene shooting, donated vehicles, fed the crew and more.
Meyers attests it is because of this community outreach that the production value is so very high in the otherwise low-budget film.
“It's just a lot of fun making a film outside of L.A. where it's a big event and doesn't usually happen,” he said.
The story continues
So now that he has his movie out, is the master plan complete? Not by a long shot, says Meyers. He still hopes to work with Gwyneth Paltrow, (which could be more difficult than producing that first film now that she's given up the day job to be a mom) and he also hopes he'll get to work with writer/director/producer extraordinaire Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, and oddly enough, Fast Times at Ridgemont High).
“He doesn't get enough credit,” Meyers said. “If people compared my work to Cameron Crowe's, I would be thrilled.”
And perhaps that day will come. Meyers has a couple projects up his sleeve: one a low-budget film he's writing himself, and another romantic comedy with wife Debra that they plan to shop around Tinsel Town.
For now, he's content to flip the phones off, work from home and raise his 6-year-old son Jackson. And really, it doesn't get much better than that.
For more on Her Minor Thing, check out: www.myspace.com/herminorthing
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