Rueben's Ramblings

Last year at this time, up-and-coming director Devon Newberry had a short film called Project: Elysium making rounds at the local film festivals. This time around, he and his crew, have a new project working the circuit called Phynes.

With this short film Newberry wanted to scale back, telling a more intimate story – “a character piece” as he calls it. In fact, this project is what he has described as a short that was never supposed to be made. He and Dominick Aznavour, who plays lead character Scott Phynes, actually tried to make this film back in 2006 and then again in 2008; but various factors got in the way and it was never made. He shared that, “the most obvious factors were budget, crew (and) time. But it wasn’t until after we finished shooting last year that the biggest factor was simple: experience”. They both needed experience because the themes and emotions explored in the film – heartbreak, depression, loss, bad jobs – they “wouldn’t have been able to tell the story truthfully years ago”.

Devon Newberry and Dominick Aznavour

It should be noted that Newberry and Aznavour have known each other since high school; but it wasn’t until after graduation that they started working together when Newberry brought a script entitled “Into the Night” to Aznavour, asking him to be the star. They quickly discovered how passionate and serious they both were about filmmaking and they have been working together since.

Aznavour also shared that he has loved entertaining people since he was very young; and as he got older he “started to build a love and curiosity for the emotional and psychological side of acting”. Being “able to fully create another person from scratch and fuel it with your own emotions” is what made him fall in with acting. And while he loves acting, more than writing, he isn’t opposed to directing in the future. He shared that he would “love to be able to actually manifest what I see in my head into reality”.

Obviously Phynes has been in production for six years, but the duo hasn’t been working on it solid for those years. They would write and rewrite the script and “where the shooting script ended compared to the very first draft from 2006 is like night and day” according to Newberry. He also shared that “a lot of the dialogue remained the same, but I think virtually everything about the movie changed”. Newberry worked with Aznavour and Vanessa Bronson, who helped with the original idea, on the script in 2008; but then he handled the script on his own when they revisited the short in 2011.

As for the casting process, Newberry usually has one or two actors in mind once his scripts are in “good shape” and from there it is “easy to fill up the roles”. Aznavour was the clear choice for the lead in Phynes and “I am crazy fortunate that everyone I approached on the first wave of casting accepted and ended up on the screen as you see them”. The only hiccup was in casting a character named Mrs. Sellick. “It was a week before (we had to start) shooting, we (were) scrambling (to fill the role). But, two days before principal photography (was to) begin, a dear family friend (Suzanne Kemp) offered to play the role. We got lucky there. She was exactly as written and played it as so”.

What drew Aznavour to the character of Scott Phynes was that “whether you are 20 or 40, you can relate to the character”. He continued that “the story covers so many bases that people can relate to”; and that he has “always found comfort in knowing that I’m not the only one going through certain things”.

When asked if there were any hard aspects in filming Phynes, Newberry shared there weren’t any. “I work with the best cast and crew…and everyone is so efficient that we roll over bumps in the road with little effort”. They prepared for about two months, shot for a little over two days and then they took a number of months on post-production, which is always the longest process.

Phynes

Now that Phynes is complete and making the film festival rounds, Newberry shared that getting into the festival is “nerve-racking and it costs so much to do a festival circuit and there (are) always rejection letters that come with it; but when you do get into festivals, you have a completely unbiased audience watching your work, and that’s the scariest thing in the world”. For Newberry, his cast and crew, they were accepted into and screened at the LA Reel Film Festival and just got accepted into the Los Angeles Short Film Festival. The short film has also been recently submitted to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the NewFilmmakers LA Festival.

The general story behind Phynes is “when Scott Phynes decides the only way to change his luck around is by ending his life, he begins to question his decision when the love of his life returns”. Needless to say, the main theme behind this short film will undoubtedly be dark, but will definitely give viewers a great deal to think about.

In an effort to stay within the guidelines of festival regulations, Phynes cannot be freely viewed, but upon request the short film can be seen in private by contacting Newberry at theveryillusive@gmail.com.

Good luck and much success are extended to Newberry, Aznavour and the entire cast and crew of Phynes.