Having spent the past five years working for SLAMjamz, Chuck D.’s
record label/production company, Youngstown-born filmmaker David C.
Snyder has made plenty of short films and music videos. Now the
Pittsburgh-based director has made his first feature-length film. He
wrote a screenplay that, much like Fargo, involved a kidnapping
and ransom, but he gave it a twist. The narrative is told out of
sequence, so you have to piece together what happened and when.
“I thought if I tell this story from beginning to end, it’s not that
interesting to me,” says Snyder, who shot the resulting film,
The Quiet Arrangement, in Pittsburgh, Cleveland
and Youngstown. “I thought I could do it in sections, so that you see
the same events from different people’s perspectives over a certain
period of time and reveal information gradually.”
There are so many crossings and double-crossings in the film, you
almost need an outline just to keep things straight. But the movie’s
narrative is intriguing, and it’s so meticulously made it hardly looks
like an independent production.
The film shows at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, at the Cedar Lee
Theatre (2163 Lee Rd., 216.321.5411, clevelandcinemas.com). Snyder, along
with cast and crew members, will be on hand to introduce it and answer
questions afterward.
Featuring a screenplay by Scene contributor Bob Ignizio,
The Spookshow, the fourth release issued by the
local production company Old School Sinema, is now out on DVD. Director
Joe Ostrica describes the movie as a “supernatural/rock ‘n’
roll/slasher/exploitation/revenge thriller.”
“Basically, most of the movie takes place in one night at a rock
show on Halloween,” he explains. “There’s a legend that a girl had died
at the club and that her ghost is possessing the place. A group of
college-aged kids goes to the show, and one of the girls gets possessed
by the ghost and goes on a killing spree.” Shot mostly at Peabody’s
where, Ostrica says, “there’s a lot of places to stash dead bodies,”
the film was made entirely in Cleveland.
Contact Ostrica at ossfilms@yahoo.com about ordering DVDs
or visit his myspace site at myspace.com/ossprojects.
The audience favorites from this year’s Ohio Independent Film
Festival will screen during midnight shorts programs on Friday, July 17
and Saturday, July 18, at the Painesville Party in the Park.
Each program will feature different films. For more information, go to
parkpartyinfo.com.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2009.
