Silhouetted against a picturesque Nebraska sky during the “magic hour,” a cast and crew finishes production on the set of their forthcoming film “Seven Down.”
Co-written and produced by a brother-and-sister team, Tyler and Shadlee Schmid, it is a slasher film that ironically wrapped production on Halloween weekend.
Lots of local talent has been working on the project, including a few film students from Omaha Metro: Ben Leahy, Connor McClellan and Josh Brooks. Other crew members are John George and Drake Tucker.
These Nebraskans multi-tasked and put on many hats in order to get the project completed.
“An amazing amount of local talent showed up to make this thing happen, and they were willing to work for food, basically,” said director Tyler Schmid.
“Finishing this movie has been a longtime coming,” said Shadlee Schmid, co-writer/producer. They’ve been working on the film for the past two to three years.
The film takes place in a remote area just outside of Denton at their brother Derek’s 23-acre farm, making it truly a family affair, though not entirely.
The siblings would get together every Tuesday, sometimes with friends, working on their script until it was completed. This usually took place at Granite City in Lincoln. Sometimes libations were involved. Tyler and Shadlee acknowledged it felt good to have the writing phase over with, even though it was fun.
Recently, their project got an unexpected boost in professionalism from award-winning producer and filmmaker Ron Silver, of Prairie Entertainment, who contributed his knowledge, experience and even equipment at times.
“He was definitely a mentor, and his input helped out a lot… Ron actually called us after reading our flyer at The Mill and said that he would be willing to help out in any way that he could,” said Tyler.
Ron Silver, along with his wife Heather, have produced two major films in recent years: “Shooting Henry Hill” (2007) and “New Orleans Animal Rescue” (2008).
The Schmid siblings’ film, “Seven Down,” is now complete.
Both Tyler and Shadlee expressed interest in having a local premiere in the next year, perhaps at the Bourbon Theatre.
williammccracken@dailynebraskan.com
