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KETTERING — Blake Sorenson has a story that is becoming all too familiar
for many struggling citizens in today's economy — no job and no house.
Sorenson's situation may be a real life issue, but Sorenson himself is fake.
He is the main character in the independent film, "$6 Man."
Greenmont-Oak Park Community Church, 1921 Woodman Drive, will have a free
showing of the film at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9.
The film was produced by The Extra/Ordinary Film Project Co. in Nashville,
Tenn. The company is owned by Columbus, Ohio-native Jon Russell Cring.
The premise of the story has to do with how the character Sorenson, a widowed
father, and his daughter live on $6 a day while being homeless. Phillip Roebuck
of Washington plays Sorenson and Constance Owl of North Carolina plays
Sorenson's daughter, Natalie.
"Very heartwarming. It's what movies should be," Cring said via
telephone from his Nashville office. "Movies should touch you
emotionally."
Cring said the idea for the film occurred during a discussion he had with his
father Jonathon Richard Cring after the two saw the 2006 movie, "The
Pursuit of Happyness," which starred Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith. In
the movie,
The Smiths play a father and son who suddenly find themselves homeless as a
result of the struggling salesman career of Will Smith's character. The movie
was inspired by the real-life story of Chris Gardner, who is now an author,
entrepreneur and public speaker.
"$6 Man" was filmed in Nashville and surrounding cities, Cring
said. The film company finished shooting the film in June 2007.
Cring's creed
For Cring, making movies is a full-time gig. "We're either making
movies or out there showing movies all the time," he said.
Having movie showings like the one that will take place at Greenmont-Oak Park
Community on Sunday, is one of the ways that Cring spreads the word about his
films. He said he also uses his Myspace web page to advertise and solicit acting
talent.
"Hopefully we will get mentioned in someone's Oscar speech," Cring
said.
Cring said he likes to do movies about common people and thinks "that
the everyday person should be the hero of films. ... I just want to keep on
telling the human story."
Cring hopes he makes the type of movies that prompt viewers to say, "I
understand that or I have had an experience like that."
He also believes that "a good story never goes out of style."
A good movie story would involve "telling the way that the world is or
the way you would want the world to be," Cring said. A good story would not
try to make people superhuman, turn them into gods or animals, in Cring's
opinion.
"It's not a filmmaker's job to preach anybody any sort of ideas. It's
(the filmmaker's) job to portray life as it is or as you would like it to be and
then let the people make the decision of what the film meant to them," he
said. "There shouldn't be any agenda in making a movie."
Tips for young filmmakers
• Have a story, but don't write it yourself. Look for a story from
those who like to write.
• Don't wait for anybody to tell you to do it, just do it.
• "I recommend that you work as quickly as possible and finish it as
quickly as possible," Cring said.
• Make a lot of movies
• Have a "realistic dialogue, a story that people can relate to and a
passion to finish the movie," Cring said.
For more information, visit www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com.
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Fri, Nov 09 2007
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Cumberland County Film Society to present "$6
Man" Nov. 16
On Friday, Nov. 16, at 1 p.m., the Cumberland County Film Society will
present $6 Man at the Palace Theatre in Crossville. This Upper Cumberland
premier screening is part of the Film Society's educational mission and is free
and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served.
Hendersonville filmmaker Jon Russell Cring and his company F3Films have
completed a number of feature-length movies. "We make films about ordinary
people who are put into extraordinary circumstances," Cring said. $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 isn't as much about being
homeless as it is about the relationship between a father and a daughter.
"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 give 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.
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."
Information about $6 Man comes from Bill Friskics-Warren of The Tennessean. The
director, Jon Russell Cring, and some of his team members will introduce the
film and be present for a discussion immediately following the film.
For more information, contact the Cumberland County Film Society's vice
president, Margie Buxbaum, 484-6936.
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Sunday, 07/22/07 Tennessean
$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.
New local film explores themes of fatherhood and homelessness
By BILL FRISKICS-WARREN
Staff Writer
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.
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Henn Theatre to show Nashville filmstarring native
It is hard for most of us to imagine what it would be like to be
homeless, but consider what it would be like trying to raise a child
while living and surviving on the streets of a big city. Murphy child
actress, 10-year-old Constance Owl, spent two weeks doing just that
while filming the feature length movie $6 Dollar Man this past spring in
Nashville. Under the direction of Jon Russell Cring and his company F3
Films, Six Dollar Man is the inspirational story of a young father Blake
Sorenson, played by west coast actor Phillip Roebuck, who after his
wife's death from brain Cancer, cannot pay the medical bills and loses
their family in foreclosure. Forced into the streets to survive as they
can, the father and his young daughter Natalie, played by Constance Owl,
forge a bond of determination and optimism all the while discovering
that kindness and generosity is never for sale.
Owl was cast from young actors throughout the country vying for a
role in the Extra Ordinary Film Project. The series is inspired by
ordinary people doing extraordinary things and marks the sixth film in
the 12 part series. Director Jon Russell Cring and wife, cinema
photographer Tracy Cring, have won acclaim at film festivals throughout
the southeast for their outstanding work in the independent film
industry. Most recently, screenwriter Jonathan Richard Cring was awarded
Best Screenplay at the Top Ten Films in America. The film is F3 Films
first feature length movie shot in high definition. It will be entered
in many film festivals on both coasts. "Constance Owl was a joy to
work with. Her energy and exuberance were infectious and the light of
her performance comes through in the finished product of $6 Dollar
Man." Said director Jon Russell Cring.
To prepare for the role of Natalie, Constance studied a nearly
100-page script, wore only two outfits and went two weeks without
combing or washing her hair. "It made me really appreciate what it
means to go hungry, dirty and not have a home to go to each night. My
parents reminded a lot that even though I was acting, there were
children really living that way right here in our own country. It makes
you thankful for everything you have and to never judge people."
Says Constance Owl. The film will debut in Nashville on July 12 and will
also be shown in Murphy at the Henn Theatre on Saturday, July 21 at
11:00 a.m. Ticket price is $5.00. Director Jon Russell Cring and the F3
Films crew wanted Owl to have a premier in her hometown and were very
impressed with the historic Henn Theatre and the important role the tiny
theatre carried in the early days of movie houses throughout the
southeast. Tickets may be purchased at the door on the day of the
showing or through the company's website at www.
extraordinaryfilmproject.com.
$6 Dollar Man marks Owl's eighth film including projects completed
with Blue Ridge Motion Pictures, Veritas Productions, Raise The Barre
and Full Lock Productions among others. She currently has three films in
postproduction, has earned SAG (Screen Actors Guild) eligibility and has
two IMDB listings to date. Her next film is D.E.D. scheduled to go into
production this month in Tampa, Florida. Constance also signed her first
Equity Theatre contract with Atlanta's third oldest professional
theatre, Theatrical Outfit, where she won the coveted role of Scout in
the company's upcoming production of To Kill A Mockingbird. She is also
awaiting word on auditions for a major motion picture directed by Debbie
Allen and a co-host position with Cartoon Network at Turner Broadcasting
in Atlanta.
Constance is represented by Joy Pervis of Hot Shot Kids in Atlanta
and studies with renowned acting coach Lisina Longo at The Company
Acting Studio in Atlanta. She is the daughter of Cliff and Janis Owl,
God-daughter of Rick Kmet and granddaughter of Joan Hollingsworth and
Clifford and Maggie Owl, all of Murphy.
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Full-house sees local premier
10-year-old local Constance Owl co-stars in "$6 Man"
DWIGHT OTWELL Cherokee Sentinel Editor
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| 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. |
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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.
To comment on this article, e-mail Dwight at cherokeesentinel@
gmail.com.
Front Page- Murphy
girl stars in movie to be premiered at Henn Theater Saturday
By Dwight Otwell Editor
Most budding sixth graders spend their summers at the swimming pool and hanging
with friends.
Ten-year-old Murphy resident Constance Owl this summer has been working on
her acting career, including co-staring in a feature film that will have its
North Carolina premiere Saturday at the Henn Theater.
The film "$6 Man" will be shown at the theater on Tennessee Street
at 11 a.m. and admission is $5. Constance plays the role of Natalie Sorrenson,
daughter of Blake Sorrenson, a young father who is forced by circumstances into
the streets with his daughter to face the struggles of the life of the homeless,
while still trying to make a difference and provide for his daughter.
"It was a remarkable experience - 10 days of the hardest work she has
ever done," Constance's mother, Janice Owl said. "We are thrilled with
the finished product. We went to the premier in Tennessee (August 9) and she was
thrilled. She feels quite the diva."
Constance has already appeared in a number of productions, including the lead
in "Hot Shot Kids", an Industrial film "Keep Cobb Cool",
parts with Turner Classic Movies and Turner Broadcasting Cartoon Network, a
theater production of To Kill A Mockingbird", the lead in the Kudzu
Playhouse production of "The Game of Life" and a lead part in the
Alliance Theater production of "Buggy Malone".
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| Constance
Owl and co-star Philip Roebuck are working on a scene from $6
man . |
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Janice said that they have been working about four days a week in Atlanta.
"We had no idea things would be as crazy as they have been," she
said. "She (Constance) has slowly climbed her way to the top in Atlanta.
Constance completed the fourth grade at Murphy Elementary School. She was out
of school for a month that year due to her pursuit of an acting career. She was
home schooled this past year for the fifth grade. She is home schooled through a
company that caters to people in the business, Janice said.
Janice owns and manages the Murphy School of Dance. She did choreography for
the Peacock Playhouse in Hayesville. Janice said she had no intention of getting
Constance into acting. Constance became interested in acting while going with
her mother to the Peacock Playhouse. She told her mother she wanted to do more
in acting.
Constance tried out for a part in a children's production at the Alliance
Theater in Atlanta. She was one of nine children chosen out of 900 who tried
out, Janice said. Constance won the lead role.
"There is a horrible connotation of pushy stage parents," Janice
said. "She (Constance) dragged me into this. We work hard to keep her
grounded."
The Extra/Ordinary Film Project of Hendersonville, TN has a goal of producing
and premiering 12 feature length films in six months. With "$6 man",
they are at the half-way point.
The screenplays are written by Jonathan Richard Cring, winner of the Best
Screenplay Award at the Top Ten Films in America for his film "Bernee".
Cring said the films are entered at film festivals and if they win awards,
they are distributed to video stores. Three of the five films in the series are
already in distribution at video stores. They will also be distributed to retail
outlets.
Cring said that "$6 Man" is rated See Movie Premiere page
2A
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