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Tribune_Article.gif (162277 bytes) Article From Tribune Entertainment June 5th

Radio Interview With Film Festival Radio's Janice Malone Coming Soon

 

   

A Father and Son Project
The latest byproduct of the ongoing Extra/Ordinary Film Project was written by Jonathan Cring and directed by his son Jon.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 2:50 PM


 
ExtraOrdinaryFilmProject.com Photo
A commentary on today's celebrity culture
Shot over a period of ten days in various northern California locales, the feature film Has Been is coming home to roost this Thursday, May 1st for its world premiere at Sacramento’s Colonial Theater. Though the cast is made up of relative unknowns, the low-budget movie’s premise echoes the ones being played out all over the TV airwaves these days by the famous, semi-famous and formerly famous.

In the film, seven borderline celebrities ranging from a former porn star to an aging rock musician are brought together at Montana’s Bumblehead resort by a publisher seeking to profit from their stories. The Has Been players include former child star Kris Kjornes, Pixar Animation camera artist Craig Good, L.A. (PSA) Emmy Award winner Oto Brezina and one-time Queer as Folk recurring guest star Marcus Proctor.

Though the Extra/Ordinary Film Project fell short of its 2007 goal of producing 12 films in 12 months, Has Been is one of this year’s carry-over projecs, helping the spirit of the enterprise live on. In addition to Sacramento, shoot locations encompassed Folsom, San Francisco and portions of the Napa Valley.

Writing on the movie’s pre-premiere blog page, director Jon Cring broaches the film’s broader theme of celebrity. “Will we ever be famous—any of us?” he muses. “ Who knows about such things? But for one brief moment, we all came together as a community and did something that we can be proud of.”

 


January 9, 2008
Director Jon Russell Cring

Special film at Saguaro Theatre

The Saguaro Theatre in downtown Wickenburg will host the award-winning independent film “The $6 MAN,” on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 11 a.m.

This film was produced by the Extra/Ordinary Film Project, which is headquartered in Hendersonville, Tenn., and has set a goal to create and premier 12 feature-length films in 12 months.

“We believe in making films that are ‘a return to the great story,’” said Jon Russell Cring, director and co-founder of the film company. “The stars of our movies are the story-lines, plot twists, humorous dialogue, banter and general good fun and entertainment that tickles every part of us that once believed in all things funny and warms up all the parts of us that need warming back up.”

“$6 MAN,” a recent entry at the Sundance Film Festival, is the story of Blake Sorenson, a young father who having lost his wife and job finds himself on the streets with his young daughter Natalie, trying to survive off of a mere $6 a day, while attempting to assist other homeless individuals around him and battling the government powers-that-be.

“’$6 MAN’ is not a story about homeless people, but rather the tale of a father and daughter trying to discover how to make a path for themselves when all the poles and props that hold life up seem to be yanked away, and all that’s left is a sense of humor and whatever love you can carry,” said Cring, father and screenwriter.

The Extra/Ordinary Film Project is in Arizona filming its latest movie, “Melvyn’s Clock”—the ninth in the series of the 12 feature-length films.

Tickets, which are $5 general admission, can be purchased on-line at www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com or reserved at the door by calling 615-715-1578.

Christmas comes in October to Flint via movie shot here

Posted by Ed Bradley | The Flint Journal October 22, 2007 14:45PM

FLINT -- Jon Russell Cring gestured toward the sunny skies above the Soggy Bottom Bar and smiled.

"It's kind of weird making a Christmas movie in October," he said.

But Cring is a director on a very tight schedule -- committed to shooting one movie per month for 12 months -- so Flint's relatively balmy weather today couldn't spoil his plans.

Cring brought his cast and crew to the Soggy Bottom to shoot a Christmas-themed comedy, "Wonderful." It's the eighth of 12 proposed low-budget features that Kring's Hendersonville-Tenn.-based company is planning to make for its year-long Extra/Ordinary Film Project.

The endeavor is taking Cring around the country as he shoots scripts of various genres written by his father, award-winning novelist Jonathan Richard Cring. The younger Cring said the company, F-3 Films, plans to enter the 12 features in film festivals and sell them as a package for theatrical release.

Cring, 36, said he decided to take on the project "because it was like (Mount) Everest -- I had to climb it because it's there."

"Wonderful," a tribute of sorts to the Christmas film classic "It's a Wonderful Life," is a fable about a ne'er-do-well dreamer with a fixation on "It's a Wonderful Life" who dreams of reversing his fortunes as Christmas Eve nears.

Cring and his wife, Tracy, the project's cinematographer, shot outdoors Sunday in the Carriage Town district and some downtown locales. The film also will be shot in Orion Township -- at the Canterbury Village museum/restaurant -- and in Allegan.

The mainly regional cast was recruited through Craigslist, YouTube, and other online sources, the director said.

"It's like one filming continuous movie with different parts to it," Cring said of the year-long commitment. "You really build up your muscles. I've worked with kids and adults, old people, and young people. I've had lots of sets and no sets."

He said his production budget is $5,000 or less for each film.

An Ohio native, Cring became interested in making a holiday movie in Michigan through memories of childhood visits to the famous Bronner's Christmas store in Frankenmuth. He said the Victorian architecture of Flint buildings inspired him to shoot here.

Cring said he hopes to premiere "Wonderful" in Flint by this Christmas -- schedule allowing.

 

 

Full-house sees local premier
10-year-old local Constance Owl co-stars in "$6 Man"
DWIGHT OTWELL Cherokee Sentinel Editor

Dwight Otwell/ Sentinel Photo Constance Owl gets a big hug from her sister Patience outside the Henn Theater before the premier of the movie "$6 Man", in which Constance is the co-star.
MURPHY - Constance Owl stood on the sidewalk outside the Henn Theater giggling, smiling and receiving hugs and flowers.

She was about to enter the historic Murphy theater to sit with a full house who were there on a Saturday morning to view the premier of her new film "$6 Man".

"I am really excited and nervous," 10-year-old Constance said. Many of her friends and relatives were present to see her co-star in the movie filmed mostly in Nashville, TN.

Constance co-stars with Philip Roebuck, a veteran of 33 feature films, in the full-length independent film about a man who decides to be homeless with his daughter (Constance) rather than hold a full-time job and be absent from her. The film follows the travails and joys of Constance and her father as they move from place to place, trying to find a place to sleep at night. The father decides on a plan to work an hour a day and live on $6 daily. The budget of the self-financed movie was $1,500.

After the movie, director Jon Russell Cring and Constance fielded questions from the audience.

"It was a lot of hard work but it was fun," Constance said of the less than two weeks it took to make the movie.

Constance wasn't allowed to comb or wash her hair and she had only two outfits for the two weeks of filming. Constance said that she convinced the motel owner to open the swimming pool after hours so that she could swim after a long-day of shooting the movie.

Cring said they were outside 24-hours a day while making the film. They began to see what it was like to be homeless. Most of the time, their environment was loud and brass and there was no sense of quiet.

"It is always a great endeavor just to find a place to rest, " said Tracie Cring, cinematographer and editor of the movie.

"At times is was beautiful, seeing the sunrise, but it was also ugly," Jon Cring said.

"We met many homeless people," Tracie Cring said. "Many of the locations where we (were shooting) were places that the homeless were."

"I felt homeless playing the part," Constance said.

One of the bad parts of making the movie was the ticks, Constance said. Constance found a tick on her head and one man associated with the film found five ticks on him.

"They were gross," Constance said of the ticks. "I never want to see a tick again in my life."

One woman in the audience, after seeing the movie, said she wants to see something done for the homeless.

"It was one of the finest movies I have ever seen," a; woman said of the movie.

Jon Cring said the ending of "6 man" has been a point of contention and he likes it that way. Art should make you think, he said.

Constance is the daughter of Cliff and Janis Owl and the granddaughter of Joan Hollingsworth and Clifford and Maggie Owl, all of Murphy.

 

New local film explores themes of fatherhood and homelessness


$6 Man, the story of a father (Philip Roebuck) and his 10-year-old daughter (Constance Owl) who become homeless, will screen Thursday at Watkins College of Art and Design Theater. Directed by Jon Russell Cring, the film was shot mostly in Nashville.


Published: Sunday, 07/22/07

Hendersonville filmmaker Jon Russell Cring gives new meaning to the word prolific. Since January, he and his company, F3 Films, have completed a handful of feature-length movies. By the end of the year, they plan to have produced and premiered a total of a dozen features.

Cring calls the initiative the Extra/Ordinary Film Project, a moniker that refers to more than just the rate at which he and his team, which includes his wife, Tracy, a cinematographer, crank out movies.

"We make films about ordinary people who are put into extraordinary circumstances," Cring said, speaking by phone from Crossville, the site of Extra/Ordinary's sixth feature of 2007.

Their latest completed project, $6 Man, tells the story of a young father who, due to a conspiracy of forces, including the death of his wife, finds himself homeless and living on the streets with his 10-year-old daughter.

Cring said that the film, which is being shown at the Watkins College of Art and Design Theater at 7 p.m. on Thursday, isn't as much about being homeless as it is about the relationship between a father and a daughter.

"The man loses his wife and he's lost; he doesn't know what to do," he explained. "All that he's sure of is that he wants to be with his daughter as much as he possibly can. But they have to eat, so he comes up with this concept, this '$6 plan.' "

According to his scheme, which the father devises as an alternative to panhandling or availing himself of soup kitchens and other social services, he works an hour a day in order to earn $6. This gives him and his daughter $2 each day for breakfast, two more for dinner, one to buy a book that they can read together and another for the girl to buy something else with.

It's a quixotic notion, to say the least, and Cring pointed out that throughout the film, the father has a habit of doing "the wrong thing for all the right reasons."

And yet the goal of the movie, he added, is less to provide answers than to get his audience to think.

"People might have one opinion of the father at the start of the movie, but once they see what he has with his daughter, they look at him in a different light. They might yearn for that sort of connection with their own children."

'Not a downer film'

$6 Man stars Seattle actor Philip Roebuck in the role of the father, Blake Sorrenson, and Constance Owl, a self-possessed 10-year-old from North Carolina, in the role of his daughter Natalie. The entire movie was shot on the streets of Nashville except for those scenes filmed at the urban settlement of converted dumpsters that the Sorrenson's call "home." All of those scenes were shot in nearby Columbia.

Despite its gritty setting, the movie, Cring said, is "not a downer film. It's about what it means to be a father. It's about trying to preserve family connections."

The inspiration for the movie, he went on to explain, came from such dialog-driven '70s films as Ordinary People and Dog Day Afternoon, pictures that tell the stories of everyday people struggling to make sense of the often challenging situations in which they find themselves.

"Everybody's life is Ben Hur, they just don't know it," Cring said. "Everybody's life is an epic, but for some reason, we're not getting those stories anymore, at least not from Hollywood. All that anyone out there seems to care about are biopics and cars blowing up.

"Most people live in a world that lies somewhere between Michael Moore and NASCAR. That's where most of us live, I really believe that, and that's the world that the Extra/Ordinary Film Project is committed to exploring."

Proceeds from Thursday's screening of $6 Man will benefit the Nashville Rescue Mission.


Published: Sunday, 07/22/07

IF YOU GO
What: $6 Man
Where: Watkins College of Art and Design Theater, 2298 Metro Center Blvd.
When: Thursday at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $5 at the door
Contact: 715-1578


 
The $5,000 Anti-War Film
When your goal is to produce and premiere 12 feature films in 12 months, the budgets have to be portable.
Monday, October 8, 2007 at 12:35 PM

 
ExtraOrdinaryFilmProject.com Photo
Seven down, five to go
The Drive, the seventh feature-length product of the Extra/Ordinary Film Project, is set to premiere in Gallatin, Tennessee on October 18th. Submitted to the 2008 Sundance Film Festival for consideration, it tells the story of grieving parents mixing revenge with a trip to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to scatter the ashes of their son, a casualty of the ongoing Iraq war.

 

Completed in early September, The Drive will be followed by Wonderful, the tale of the number one fan of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life and his own attempts on Christmas Eve to find meaning in his life. Previous entries in the 12-month marathon moviemaking session have been the waitress comedy Bernee, the hit-and-run drama Ought, the high school teacher drama Budd, the coming of age drama Too, the homeless father-daughter drama The $6 Man and the all-female ensemble, escaped convict drama Summer’s Morn.

 

Begun in February of this year and continuing on through January of 2008, the Extra/Ordinary Film Project is the brainchild of wife-cinematographer-editor-co-director Tracy Nichole Cring, husband-co-director Jonathan Russell Cring and the latter's father, screenwriter-composer Jonathan Richard Cring. The Henderson, TN based trio shoot from the first to the tenth of each month, working with local actors and a budget of $5,000 or less, before quickly editing down the final product using Final Cut Pro software.

 

Film fans can purchase a DVD of each film online for $12 or sign up for all twelve entries for the package price of $99. Amazingly, much of the money for these films comes from average folks around the country who, by donating to one or more of the films, gain entrance to a group of supporters dubbed Heroes of Creativity. It’s truly grassroots filmmaking on a whole new Internet level.

 

And as far as the four remaining films needed to complete the Crings' 12-by-12 series, our favorite logline is that of #11, Perchance to Dream. It reads: 'A man suffering from narcolepsy is on a desperate search to discover where reality meets the dream world and whether he lives for now, for later or exists only in a former time.'

 

Film

May 3, 2007
Budding Director
Hendersonville’s Jon Russell Cring keeps on cranking a movie a month

In the time it takes many indie auteurs to complain they just can’t find any funding, Jon Russell Cring will have premiered his third completed feature in less than four months—with another in the can and another ready to shoot. With the premiere 7 p.m. Thursday of Budd at Gallatin’s Palace Theatre, the Hendersonville filmmaker and his F3 Films will be a third of the way through their Extra/Ordinary Film Project—an attempt to produce and premiere 12 locally made feature films in as many months.

After January’s comedy Bernee (which has played at regional festivals) and March’s thriller Ought, Budd comes as something of a palate cleanser—a comedy about an English teacher (D.R. Smith) whose classroom meltdown prompts a round of regression therapy with a psychiatrist (Paige Trewitt). Of special note is an appearance by Valri Bromfield, a veteran film and TV comic who performed on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live and worked early on in a comedy team with Dan Aykroyd. Now a Nashville resident and customer-service rep with the Nashville Symphony, she appears in the film as what Cring calls “Budd’s slightly psychotic, masochistic mother.”

Co-directed with Cring’s wife Tracy, who also serves as cinematographer and editor, Budd is said to be appropriate for ages 14 and up. Next up: the high school romance Too, followed by a nine-day shoot this month for the homeless drama $6 Man. If only Terrence Malick worked at this pace. Tickets for the screening are $5; for more information on this and future films, see extraordinaryfilmproject.com.


The Lebanon Democrat
April 4, 2007

Tinseltown comes to Lebanon

 

Film with local ties premieres Thursday

By Brandon Puttbrese
The News Examiner


Denton Blane Everett (left) and Jasson Cring pose for a photo 
to publicize their upcoming film “Ought,” premiering 7 p.m. 
Thursday at The Palace Theater in Gallatin. (Submitted photo)

A Sumner-based moviemaking family is set to unveil its latest movie, “Ought,” about a man struggling to cope with his guilt after hitting a child with his car — and getting away with it.

The full-length feature film will premiere at the historic Palace Theater, 146 N. Water in Gallatin, on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Director Jon Russell Cring says “Ought” is a thriller about a hit-and-run seen through the eyes of the notorious driver.

The story — written by the filmmaker’s award-winning novelist father Jonathan Cring — is loosely based on actual events, says Jon Russell.

A close relative was injured by in a hit-and-run accident in the 1990s, the director said. “We never knew who the driver was.”

The movie picks up from there, says Jon Russell, owner of F3 Films, a production company operated by him and wife Tracy Cring.

“It’s a fictional account of the life of a person who hits, runs and gets away with it,” he said.

The main character, Johnson Reynolds, a self-destructive lawyer played by Denton Blane Everett, injects himself into the life of the family he scarred, attempting to “find redemption without asking for forgiveness,” Jon Russell says.

“It’s a sinister tale,” he said, adding that the film is not suitable for young children.

The movie also features some local actors.

“Ought” is the first installment of a yearlong, 12-movie deal called the “Extra/Ordinary Film Project” — orchestrated by Jon Russell and wife Tracy Cring, who own the movie production company F3 Films.

Jon Russell shot footage for the entire movie over 10 days in February. Tracy, who is F3’s editing specialist, spliced and cut film, making the story tighter and better flowing for another 10 days.

In the remaining eight days of February, the husband-wife team put the finishing touches, including adding music and additional editing, on the film.

The plan, Jon Russell says, is to produce one movie a month for 12 months.

“I love working with my wife,” Jon Russell said. “We just love creating art together. It’s a tremendous amount of work, but at the end of a month you have something that lasts forever.”

The filmmaking duo has already finished shooting the second installment, “Budd,” the story of a high school English professor who has melt down in front of students and then utilizes a shrink to find where his passions led him astray.

Tracy is currently deep into the editing process, and postproduction will finish by the end of March, Jon Russell says.

The couple is looking for actors, extras and investors for future projects. Those interested can inquire by e-mailing the Crings at f3films@comcast.net.

 

1/25/07

JIM RIDLEY- NASHVILLE SCENE

BERNEE While Thong Girl grabbed the headlines, this locally produced feature from Hendersonville filmmaker Jon Russell Cring also set up shop in Gallatin last year. The comedy stars Nashville stand-up comic Heather Horton as a sassy single-mom waitress struggling to make ends meet in a small town, with no help from her tactless ways. The premiere 7 p.m. Thursday at Gallatin’s Palace Theatre is also a kickoff for Cring’s wildly ambitious Extraordinary Film Project, a plan to make 12 feature-length films in 12 months. The first one, Ought, a thriller about a lawyer haunted by a hit-and-run accident, begins shooting Feb. 1, with the flashback-heavy drama Budd to follow in March. “If nothing else, I’ll have a hell of a eulogy,” Cring says of his daunting schedule. Co-starring Buddy Farler, Jenson Goins, Chris Whitsett and Alicia Ridley (no relation), Bernee will also be available the same day on DVD; see extraordinaryfilmproject.com for more information. —JIM RIDLEY

 

Friday, 01/19/07

Film tells story of waitress and her big mouth
 
Heather Horton (left) stars as Bernee, and Buddy Farler (right) plays Jib in the locally produced film “Bernee.” 
(Jennifer Easton/The News Examiner)

Locally produced comedy opens at the Palace


Cinema fans will get a rare chance to attend a hometown movie premiere at Gallatin’s Palace Theater Thursday evening when the locally produced comedy “Bernee” makes its debut.

The film was shot over two weeks in August at several locations around Hendersonville and Gallatin, including the Blue Goose Cafe, H.G. Hill’s, and St. Joseph’s of Arimathea and Gallatin’s downtown city square.

The 109-minute feature film tells the story of Bernice Jakes, a loudmouth waitress who suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome and the struggles she encounters in everyday life.

“She’s an outrageous character. She says what’s on her mind — no matter if it’s appropriate or not,” said Jon Russell Cring, the film’s director and producer.

Nashville actress and standup comedian Heather Horton plays the title character as Bernee.

“Bernee definitely doesn’t beat around the bush. She calls it like it is,” Horton said.

Cring said that inspiration for the film came from a bold waitress that his father, Jonathon Richard Cring, encountered while dining at a restaurant.

Cring’s father, an accomplished composer and writer, wrote the script after the waitress insulted him. “She said, ‘you’re such a big man, you really don’t want to sit there,’

“She was actually trying to be nice, but she was so bold to say that. We wondered what the rest of her life might be like.”

“Our movies start out with a little nugget like that and we fictionalize the rest,” Cring said.

The filmmaker believes that moviegoers will see a little of themselves in Bernee.

“Everybody’s life has been hers at some point. Our movies are about common folks … ordinary people put in extraordinary situations. I believe that everyone’s life is an epic movie,” Cring said.

“There aren’t enough interesting characters in Hollywood.”

The filmmaker is putting his money where his mouth is.

His independent production company, F3 Films, is launching the Extraordinary Film Project, an ambitious endeavor to make 12 feature films in 12 months.

“It’s sort of like Mount Everest. It’s there and we have the ability to do it,” said Cring.

The project is a family affair for the Cring family. Cring’s wife, Tracy, is the cinematographer, while his father writes all the screenplays. Brother Jasson acts, and brother Jerrod helps score the music for the films.

Filming for the project’s next film, “Ought” begins Feb. 1. Cring says he will shoot in Sumner County again and hopes to get other cities around Middle Tennessee involved.

“Bernee” premiers at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Palace Theater in Gallatin. Tickets are $5. DVD copies of the movie will be for sale.

F3 Films will be looking for “ordinary folks” to participate as extras in front of the camera and behind the scenes in upcoming films. Visit www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com for information.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hendersonville Star News, Hendersonville, TN

Wednesday, 01/10/07

Locally produced film hits the big screen



For one day in August Hendersonville's Blue Goose Café on Main Street became a movie sound stage as it was the primary shooting location for "Bernee," an independently produced film made by F3-Films.

Now the café, along with the cast of the production as well as some Hendersonville firefighters and police officers will see the results of their work during the movie's premier on Thursday, Jan. 25 at The Palace Theater in Gallatin.

F3-Films owned by Russell Cring and his wife Tracy is a family operation taking stories of everyday people and giving them life on the movie screen.

Cring believes there is a market for this type production, with two of his previous films having been screened at national film festivals.

"I believe there will always be a future for independent film," Cring said, adding as long as people are willing to take a chance on producing them.

The local entrepreneur believes so strongly in independent film he is planning the, "Extra Ordinary Film Project" that will have him producing 12 films in 12 months.

Helping with this task is his father, Jonathan Richard Cring, a local composer who also has his hand in script writing.

It was his father's story that Cring turned into "Bernee" a story about a single mother trying to make a living as a waitress.

Most of the film was shot at the Blue Goose, but there were scenes at local businesses and at St. Joseph of Arimathea Church.

The plot also involved a fire and Cring, with the cooperation of the city as well as the fire and police departments, used city employees as extras.

Nashville-based standup comic Heather Hudson had the lead role, however Cring used local talent for most of the remaining parts.

The lead character is based on a waitress Cring said his father met while on a trip to Florida.

"We want to make stories about ordinary people," he said.

Hendersonville residents for five years, Cring and his wife are committed to independent film production in this area.

"I believe there is a future for me here," he said.

"Bernee" has a one-night showing at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25 at Gallatin's historic Palace Theater. Ticket cost is $5.