by Breena Siegel

Earlham will be receiving a cinematic stomp this coming spring season as native Zack Parker will be shooting part of his third feature film “Scalene” here. Certain scenes will require the backdrop of Earlham as one of the lead roles is a female, college-aged sociology major. “Scalene” is the third feature film Parker has written and will soon direct. 

Production coordinator Kate Chaplin said that three of the leads have been cast. Although the names could not be disclosed it is understood that they are “recognizable name actors that have been in films that have shown in Sundance and with academy award winners,” as Chaplin said. 

Parker and Chaplin set out this past Saturday to find actors for the remaining cast members. Auditions were held at the Richmond Civic Theater and drew a gamut of local actors as well as those traveling from the capital. 

The assortment ranged from Paula Werle, who has been active at the RCT for 16 years and has yet to be in a film, to more film-oriented actors like Dustin Helton, who is currently working on commercials.

Allie Miller, an actress based in Indianapolis, said of the film, “The story is close to my heart with experiences I’ve been through.”

Other actors present shared their reasons for coming to the auditions.

Rick Philips said he was there for “the possibility of being the next George Clooney.” Part-time actor Andrew Robert Dudas said, “You never know what could come of something like this. Look at ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ or ‘Paranormal Activity.’ You just get the right person in a particular place in Hollywood who likes what Zach Parker has done.”

Parker’s most recent feature “Quench” (2007), a gothic horror film, focused on the sanguinarian vampire culture.

In speaking of “Quench,” Parker said, “we came out at a very good time when the vampire culture started to get popular.” The film was released soon after Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” reached bookstores and before the highly acclaimed vampire drama “Let The Right One In” (2008) appeared on screen. 

Parker, who grew up merely three blocks away from Earlham and spent many of his childhood days on the campus, biking around the heart, has high aspirations for “Scalene.” Parker discussed his choice to stray from the norms of storytelling.

“Almost every film is linear, although you have stuff that is non-linear like ‘Pulp Fiction’ or ‘Reservoir Dogs,’” he said. “Then there is the reverse like ‘Memento’ or this great French film ‘Irreversible,’ but I have never seen a film that took all three of those and put them into one movie.” 

In “Scalene,” there are three perspectives of the story told: the first is told in reverse, the second is told linearly and the third is non-linear. The format of the movie is the inspiration behind the title, “Scalene,” which refers to a type of geometric triangle with unequal sides. The three lead characters are a woman in her mid-fifties, her son with an agnostic brain injury (who is subsequently mute) and the college-aged student who has been hired by the older woman as a part time caregiver. The college student alleges that the young man has sexually assaulted her, at which the young man is incarcerated.

Miller said she likes “the idea of trying to tell the story through different perspectives and tell it through the perspective of a person who doesn’t know right from wrong because he doesn’t think he’s raping her, he thinks he loves her.”

Parker said of the style of films he makes, “I like a movie that is going to challenge the audience, really ask questions and make an audience think. I feel insulted by a movie if it is force-feeding me information. I want to get involved in the world and I’m not going to the movies just for escapism.”

In choosing to make independent films Parker understands the slowness yet necessity that results from not appealing to a mass-audience. Parker spends years independently funding his films, but early on in his career he trailed to Los Angeles to create a name for himself.

As Zack Parker has decided to reconnect with his roots he is much more focused on creating a connection between the Richmond arts community and his film work. He can be reached at zparker@alongthetracks.com for questions or commentary regarding his film experience or the film business at large.