A return to the creative world of Trail Dance

Since his days as a freckle-faced charmer in one TV series and an affable, strait-laced teenager in another, Duncan native Ron Howard has gone on to enjoy tremendous success in the film industry—as an actor, director and producer.
Three of his directorial successes include Cocoon, Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, the last of which secured for him an Academy Award for Best Director.
Howard is also co-chairman of Imagine Entertainment, a major movie and television production company.
Following in his footsteps, on not quite as grand a scale, is another native of Duncan, a young man named Ben Hlavaty.
After volunteering at the Trail Dance Film Festival in its first four seasons, Ben was inspired to venture into the creative waters of film production himself. After relocating from Duncan to Oklahoma City, he first stuck a toe into that challenging stream by enrolling in a film and video production program at OCCC.
With the knowledge he acquired and a determination to put it to good use, Ben established his own company, Czeckered Past Productions, and, with neither the experience nor the financial resources of major producers—men like Ron Howard, for example—he produced a film titled Moving On and entered it in the fourth annual Trail Dance Film Festival last year.
Moving On received multiple nominations and won a Drover for best artwork. Adam Smith was art director, Ben pointed out.
This year, Ben has barged into those swirling waters with both feet. Expanding his efforts, he is submitting two films for Trail Dance. And once again, Andrew and Adam Smith of Smith Pixels in Duncan have been a major part of the production team, just as they were for Moving On.
Sweet Dreams is billed as a comedy/thriller, and Sucker as a dramatic comedy. Both were originally filmed for submission into contests and are nominated for Trail Dance’s Best Contest Film award. Each will be shown on both Friday and Saturday.
The films are short—slightly less than five minutes for Sweet Dreams, and five minutes, 39 seconds for Sucker—but considering the fact that the rules under which they were created allowed for only 24 hours and 48 hours of production time, respectively, the fact that they materialized at all is pretty remarkable!
Sweet Dreams was filmed for the Living Arts 24-hour film contest. The competition started at midnight with the release of the rules concerning lines of dialogue, props and theme.
“We had to write, film, edit and hand in the finished product within 24 hours,” Ben recalled.
“We filmed until the wee hours of the morning, then slept about four hours and worked on editing all day,” he said. Then, “after all that hard work, we had a major computer malfunction. . .the DVD burner died!
“We were unable to turn it in,” he continued. “It was heartbreaking, but we knew we had a good film, so we decided to submit it to Trail Dance and a few other festivals.”
Thus far, he noted, Sweet Dreams has garnered two honors. It was rated among the Ten Best of 2011 by the American Motion Picture Society as part of its North American Movie Makers Awards, and received accolades for Best Story at last year’s American International Film and Video Festival.
The film features only two characters, both female, and Ben tapped the talents of a couple of the actresses from Moving On to fill those roles. Lacey Pierson, who was originally chosen through a casting call in Oklahoma City, portrays a stubborn teenager; and Marlow resident Laura McCormick is her unconventional nanny.
A standoff between the two leads to unnerving results.
“Working with Laura again was a great experience,” Ben observed. “She is a talented actress and very easy to direct. She does whatever she is asked to do, and does it well, bringing her own quirky personality into the roles.
“Laura did a great job of tapping into her sweet, nurturing side, as well as her dark side, for Sweet Dreams,” he continued. “She bridged the gap well.”
Sucker was originally produced for the 48-Hour Film Project, a national/international competition. The contest was introduced in Oklahoma only last year, “and we wanted to be a part of it,” Ben said.
The teams were required to follow basic guidelines, one of which was to incorporate an Oklahoma City landmark in the filming, and each team was assigned a specific theme through a random drawing.
“We were given ‘detective/cop,’” he said.
In the film, arms dealer and international fugitive Rupert Edmonds is in town to conduct a discreet business transaction, but his plans are dramatically altered after befriending aspiring rapper Gil Sargent.
The only preparations the contest allowed prior to the 48-hour time frame were nailing down locations and securing cast and crew members.
“We felt the competition would be tough, so we recruited more of our film colleagues, including Dustin Tate and Jason Smith from Holy Clap! Productions in Clinton,” Ben said, adding that the two men not only recorded and edited the sound, but also recorded an original score for the film.
Paul Lister of Round House Film Productions in Newcastle was also drawn into the project. Round House supplied much of the equipment for the shoot, Ben noted, and Lister himself assumed one of the lead roles.
The other lead is Mark Randall of Vici, an actor Ben met last year at Trail Dance after viewing a film in which he appeared.
“For his performance in Sucker, Mark has been nominated for Best Actor in a Short Film,” Ben observed.
In just about any endeavor, timing is important. But in the case of Sucker, it was not only salient—it was perfect!
“We were trying to lock down locations when out of the blue, Carrie Hoge from Marriott’s Springhill Suites in Moore walked into my office, wanting to talk about corporate rates,” Ben said.
“I sent her to the appropriate contact, but first bent her ear about filming in the hotel. She agreed and pretty much gave us free rein of the hotel. It was amazing.”
He went on to say that the Springhill staff informed guests, both verbally and with signs, that a movie was being filmed onsite; however, a few were nevertheless surprised—and probably somewhat disconcerted—when “armed” members of a “SWAT team” surged up and down the stairs and through the halls.
But remember, this was Moore, America, not New York or LA. Okies aren’t accustomed to such filmmaking disruptions.
“The hospitality the hotel staff showed us was unbelievable!” Ben said.
Sucker was written, filmed, edited, scored and submitted for judging within 48 hours.
“This time,” Ben said, “we actually were successful in handing in the film on time.”
In the competition, the movie was honored for Best Use of Character, Best Costumes, Best Special Effects, Best Graphics and Best Editing, and received honorable mention for Best Screenplay.
Sweet Dreams will be screened on Friday at 12:45 p.m., and on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both showings will be staged at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center.
Sucker is scheduled for a 1:45 p.m. screening on Friday, and another at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center.
“It’s always fun to see how people react to your work,” Ben observed. “Good or bad, feedback is what we live for. It’s how we know what works and what doesn’t, which helps when creating our next project.
“To be able to take home a Drover would be great,” he said, “but if not, we will just work harder to get one next year.”
“I’m currently working on three different feature-length screenplays,” Ben confided. “I’m taking my time. I want them to be good.”
He indicated he planned to continue working with Adam and Andrew at Smith Pixels.
“They are amazing filmmakers,” he attested. “We are planning to shoot a couple of shorts this year and hopefully move toward shooting a feature next year.”