Film

Sawdust City

indie filmmakers shoot new movie in EC

Trevor Kupfer |

 
BRAVING THE BARREN TUNDRA WITH A BOOM AND A TRIPOD. Former local David Nordstrom and his LA film crew shot Sawdust City here this winter.

Back in January we spotted this group of guys filming around town. Curious as to what the heck they were up to, I chased them down in Boyd Park and briefly chatted with the producer before they ran off to their next location. It turns out Eau Claire native David Nordstrom is working out in LA for a small film production company, and he convinced his crew to shoot their latest project here (for which he is credited as writer and director). This is an e-mail Q & A I had with him once they wrapped up shooting.

Volu
me One: First of all, what’s the title/plot/genre of the film?
David Nordstrom: The film is called Sawdust City. It’s a story about two estranged brothers who go looking through the taverns of Eau Claire for their barfly father on Thanksgiving Day. I don’t know if it fits squarely into any genre. It’s a coming home film, a family drama, but it’s also a party-all-night movie like American Graffiti or Dazed and Confused. During its development we talked about it as a Hallmark Family Movie directed by John Cassavetes.

V1: Why choose Eau Claire as a shooting location?
DN: Well, I’m from Eau Claire, and I’ve always wanted to make a movie there. The New Year’s before last I went on a walking tour of EC bars with my brother Carl and our friend Simon Wallace. We talked a lot along the way, and met a lot of fascinating characters; it was this whole journey. So I started toying with the idea of a film about these guys walking from bar to bar on a holiday, and the story grew out of that. Beyond that, though, Eau Claire is an ideal place to make a low-budget movie like ours. I brought out a cast and crew of six guys from LA and they were all floored by the reception. We’re all used to working on the margins of Hollywood where naturally you encounter a lot cynicism. If we tried to make a film like this out there, it would have been a cost-prohibitive, joyless ordeal. But everybody in Eau Claire was incredibly positive, helpful, and absolutely gracious. We couldn’t have done it without them.

V1: How much of it was shot here?

DN: I’d say a good 90 percent of it was shot in the Chippewa Valley. The script called for some larger group scenes with supporting roles that were easier to cast in L.A. So, we shot three interior scenes out here.


V1: What spots did you hit around town?

DN: We were able to get a lot of the town on camera, which pleases me. I wanted to capture a whole sense of the place, and we picked the locations accordingly. As a result, we had to distort the geography a fair deal, but any EC resident will recognize most of the scenery and, also, hopefully, the distinct personality of the town. Most of the action takes place in bars. We shot at Bush’s Idlewild, Bonnie’s Labor Temple Lounge, Pat and Orv’s Amber Inn, the Mousetrap, the VFW on Starr Avenue, and also at our friends Mike and Michelle Eisold’s Irvine Bar up in Chippewa. A few local businesses, such as Ron’s Castle Foods and Midwest Tattoo, were also especially friendly to us.

V1: What types of things has your company done in the past?

DN: Our production company Small Form Films has been busy over the past couple years making short and feature films, as well as music videos. You can see a list of our past and present productions on our website. There you can find links to some of our music videos and movie trailers (including  Sawdust City).

V1: Had much success?
DN: We’re working on it. Our last feature, Mike Ott’s Littlerock, has been invited to premiere at San Francisco International Film Festival, and hopefully that will be the beginning of a good festival run. We’ve just started post-production on Sawdust City. With any luck, it should be completed sometime in early June.