Press
Chicks 101 a cut above current crop of comedies
Thursday, May 4, 2006
By Mark Burger
Without question, Lovinder S. Gill's Chicks 101 is better than most current romantic comedies. It's a high-spirited riff on high-concept fare, as Gill puts a fresh coat of paint - and charm - on a genre that desperately needs it.
Despite the film's raucous (but catchy) title, Chicks 101 isn't some lowbrow raunch-fest. The story has its perceptive moments in its observation of the battle of the sexes, poking fun at both male and female egos in a fashion that is not insulting to either, and often easy to identify with.
R. Keith Harris (also one of the film's producers), stars as Louie King, a likable but unemployed ladies' man who decides to supplement his income by offering a night-school course on wooing women. To his surprise, the class becomes very popular - very quickly.
When he's not imparting wisdom to his attentive students, Louie spars with Marla (Kate Leahey), who teaches women's studies across the hall. Naturally, a romance develops, but the very concept of Louie's class is exactly the sort of thing that Marla despises.
There will come the inevitable moment when Marla will learn the truth about Louie, endangering the romance, but even these familiar story trappings are rendered painlessly and sometimes pleasantly.
Chicks 101 is a fine showcase for writer/director Gill and his talented, Triad cast of unknowns - some of whom, on the basis of their performances here, shouldn't remain that way much longer.
Harris, noteworthy as a good-natured minister in last year's Junebug, displays here the breadth of his talents in a completely different (but no less likable) characterization. The character of Marla is occasionally on the strident side - particularly early on - but Leahey also makes her credible and attractive.
Brandon Roberts (resident geek) and Maurice Atwood (resident big guy) have their moments, as does Geoff Thompson (also a producer) as Roland, the film's resident antagonist. The actors display an easy comedic chemistry.
Residents of Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad will also recognize many familiar landmarks, and it's nice to see the region showcased so warmly by cinematographer Kenneth Wilson II. Chicks 101 cost less than $1 million to make, but it looks as if it cost considerably more.
relish staff writer mburger@wsjournal.comDesperately seeking a distributor
Staff Writer
Hollywood is dead; it just doesn't know it yet.
At least that's what writer/ director Lovinder Gill has to say about the home of moviemaking.
For Gill, everything you need to make a movie is right here in North Carolina, and most of it can be found in the Triad.
Gill, in collaboration with friend and actor Keith Harris, put the Triad's film industry potential to the test during the production of his new romantic comedy, "Chicks 101."
The film was shot in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, with 70 of its 72 cast members Tar Heel bred.
Gill's decision to make North Carolina home base for filmmaking is one that draws on experience. Harris, who was born and raised in Reidsville, worked on the West Coast for five years, landing roles on TV shows and in movies, including 2003's "Big Fish" and can also be seen in the upcoming "Junebug."
Durham-born Gill tested the L.A. waters for three months before heading back East. He was finally able to persuade Harris to move back after a string of phone requests made over the years.
Within a year of Harris' homecoming, "Chicks" was hitting the reels.
The two 36-year-old independent filmmakers describe "Chicks" as a romantic comedy with heart.
Harris plays Louie King, a playboy who, deep down, has the best of intentions. A nerdy acquaintance persuades him to share his knowledge of the mysterious opposite sex. Louie's lessons spawn a class coined "Chicks 101" at the local community center.
In "She's All That" fashion, an ill-conceived bet lands Louie in the good graces of the beauty who teaches "Feminism in the 20th Century" across the hall.
Jokes and touching moments ensue.
Gill and Harris, who are also co-producers on the project, held a private screening of the film in June. The audience reaction -- made up mostly of cast members, family and friends -- was, of course, positive.
Next, "Chicks" will go to distributors.
"We've carried the brunt of the load for two years now, and it's finally at a point where we're heading out to distribution and hopefully going to get a paycheck for it," Harris says.
The final product didn't come easy. Gill wrote the script in 1999. He decided to make the movie in 2002.
But with no studio to back him, getting funds had to be a grass-roots effort.
"It's called show business because it's a business," Gill says. "And that's something that neither of us had really learned."
The pair hired a securities attorney to put together a package pitching their idea -- 100 pages of detailed plans on how the movie would be made.
By May 2003, Gill and Harris were ready to start working.
With what Gill called a "shoestring budget," the principal filming was done in a 19-day whirlwind.
Shooting in locations such as Reynolda Gardens and the N.C. School of the Arts, where Gill is an alumnus, the cast and crew hopped their share of roadblocks along the way.
With their money tightly budgeted, obstacles that large companies don't often encounter -- such as not having enough film -- became recurring problems.
And they did run out of film. Daily. It made multiple takes rare and expensive.
Knowing you have only one take can do wonders for performance.
"It was the most absurd thing," Gill says. "Here you are shooting a film and you run out of film, and there's nothing you can do but laugh. It actually ended up helping Keith."
Once filming was done, it was six months before Gill and Harris could raise enough money to get the film back from finishing labs. A few more months went by before a final cut was done.
How and when "Chicks" will be distributed is left to be seen, but Gill is confident that something will come of it.
He predicts a limited release and says that if the movie doesn't land in theaters, a DVD or cable TV run could be in the works.
Gill's support of a growing film industry in North Carolina is not in question.
"We feel like, with so many things leaving the area, something needs to replace that. And filmmaking, believe it or not -- it could be a few million dollars every time you shoot something," Gill says.
"We're a couple of North Carolina boys trying to do our Tar Heels proud."
Contact Margaret Hair at 373-7157 or mhair@news-record.com.
Chicks 101 abounds in familiar scenery - and faces
Thursday, May 4, 2006
- Mark Burger
As Mission: Impossible 3 bombards multiplexes throughout the nation, it may face a bit of local competition at the box office.
Chicks 101, a romantic comedy filmed in and around Winston-Salem, will have its commercial premiere this weekend at the Carolina Theatre in Greensboro - bringing full circle a nearly five-year odyssey for filmmaker Lovinder S. Gill. Gill, a graduate of the School of Filmmaking at the N.C. School of the Arts (Class of '99), is making his feature directorial debut with the film.
"It's kind of cool that it's opening against M: I 3," he said. "After all, everyone's been saying this was an impossible mission all along!"
"You don't make a low-budget indie film with 72 speaking parts," he said.
"Well, we did."
Chicks 101 stars R. Keith Harris as Louie King, a charming ladies' man who supplements his income by teaching a night class on the rudiments of picking up women. What began as a lark quickly becomes a local phenomenon, as Louie's class becomes the destination for lonely guys.
Across the hall is a women's studies course taught by Marla Mann (Kate Leahey), a young feminist whose flinty persona both rankles and intrigues Louie. Marla, being the astute judge of character she is, is immune to Louie's charms ... or is she?
And Louie, for all of his macho posturing, finds himself more and more attracted to a woman who stands for something - which isn't something he can really say about himself.
Chicks 101 was filmed for less than $1 million "in Winston-Salem, Tanglewood and Greensboro - not a shot outside the area," said Gill. Principal photography began in 2003, and almost all of the cast and crew are from the region.
The decision to shoot Chicks 101 on 35mm film instead of high-definition video proved costlier than Gill anticipated. "That's when we started mortgaging stuff," he joked at a screening for cast and crew.
Nevertheless, Gill was able to show completed footage to potential investors, and "we had more potential investors than we needed," he said.
Leading man Harris, who also appeared in Phil Morrison's critically acclaimed Junebug, was also one of the producers of Chicks 101. He, like Gill, wanted to freshen up the well-worn trappings of the genre.
"It takes something that, at first glance, is cheese," he said with a laugh, "and puts a little bit of a twist on it. We're very happy to get it to this point."
Once the film was completed, Gill and his team faced the hurdle of finding a theatrical distributor. Many liked the film but were reluctant to pick up a movie with no well-known actors in the cast.
"Everybody who's seen it likes it," he said, "and they want to be a part of it. But they were nervous because it has no stars in it."
"Almost everywhere the movie went, it got an enthusiastic response," Gill said, noting that the film won the award as best feature film at the 2005 Reel Backwoods Film Festival, which was held in October in Yanceyville.
"We played one festival and won best feature," Gill boasted. "That's one-for-one, baby!"
Chicks 101 was also an official selection in the independent narrative category at the New Bern Filmmaker's Conference. Ultimately, Gill and the production team chose to distribute the film themselves.
Although Gill never found a distributor, he finally hammered out a DVD deal with Blu Sky Media Group. He said that the DVD (due for release later this year) will include all sorts of special features, including filmmakers' commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel and behind-the-scenes footage.
"I like DVDs with tons of goodies," Gill said.
Since making Chicks 101, Gill has hardly been idle. Now an instructor in TV production at Winston-Salem State University, he received his MFA in screenwriting in December, shortly before he and his wife welcomed their first child, a daughter named Smeena.
Despite the hardships of making and then marketing the film, Gill was pleased that it would reflect his vision without interference from above.
"At the end of the day, it's our film," he said. "Like it or hate it, there's no one to blame but us."
With one feature film under his belt and a wealth of knowledge from the experience, Gill is anxious to make another ... and another.
"I'm a filmmaker," he said. "This is what I do. This is what I want to do. I'm not a distributor. I'm not a producer, although I had to be for this film. I'm not an executive."
To make it, you've got to make 'em - and to that end, Gill is already hard at work on a number of projects. Some scripts he would like to sell; others he would want to make himself. Although Chicks 101 is a romantic comedy, Gill wants to take a crack at every genre.
One project, The Strawberry Lassi, is loosely inspired by some of his own experiences and depicts the inevitable clashes of cultural assimilation.
"I think it'll be a powerful story," he said. "The concept of it is awesome. I just want to shoot it and shoot the hell out of it!"
And he'd like to shoot it right here in Winston-Salem. Like many independent filmmakers in the region, he sees filmmaking potential in the region. Chicks 101 proved that. It's a mainstream Hollywood comedy made away from the Hollywood mainstream.
"We knew what we had, we knew where we wanted to go and we knew what we were capable of," Gill said. "We didn't need Hollywood for money and we don't need Hollywood for distribution.
"Hollywood is dead," he joked. "Long live the Piedmont Triad!"
relish staff writer mburger@wsjournal.com
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