Camrin Richardson didn't get paid for his last job as a private contractor, but that doesn't bother him. After all, how often does an 11-year-old get the chance to star in his own feature-length motion picture?

The Gilbert youth was one of approximately 150 local actors and extras recruited by Tennessee-based filmmaker Jon Russell Cring to appear in "Melvyn's Clock," a low-budget drama shot over two weeks earlier this month throughout central Arizona. The movie - edited at a whiplash clip - will premiere Thursday at Pollack Tempe Cinema.

"It was a great experience," Richardson says of his film debut. "But it wasn't as fun or easy as people say. We worked really long hours. It was tiring."

Indeed, long hours come with the territory for Cring and his wife, Tracy, who serves as his co-director, cinematographer and editor. Last year, the couple launched the Extra/Ordinary Film Project, an ambitious gambit to shoot "12 feature length movies 12 months," all across the country. "Melvyn's Clock" is the ninth film in the series; the 10th, "Has Been," will be shot next month in Sacramento, Calif.

Tempe businessman and part-time actor Lanny Rethaber, who plays the title role in "Melvyn's Clock," was astounded when the Crings' cinematic road-show first rolled into town.

"In 15 years of acting, I've never heard of anybody making movies this way," he says. "It's extraordinary to say the least."

In the movie - a day-in-the-life drama similar in construction to "Friday" and "Falling Down" - Rethaber plays Melvyn, an aging gadfly whose daily ritual of roaming the streets near his home takes a violent and unexpected turn. His young co-star, Richardson, plays one of Melvyn's neighbors, a boy jeopardized by his divorced father's suicidal impulses.

Like all of the Extra/Ordinary productions, "Melvyn's Clock" is based on a screenplay by the director's father, Jonathan Richard Cring, a professional writer and musician who also composes the soundtracks. By any measure, the elder Cring's rate of productivity is astonishing - it takes him only "eight to 10 hours" to dictate a 100-page screenplay, according to his son.

Such on-the-fly creativity might seem suspect, evoking comparisons, perhaps, to the wily amateur Spielbergs played by Jack Black and Mos Def in "Be Kind Rewind." But leading man Rethaber swears the Crings know what they're doing: "It was very quick-paced. I was very impressed. So often on movie sets you're just sitting around - the industry is notorious for that. But it wasn't the case here."

Jose Rosete, who plays the suicidal father, agrees. "The crew was small, but they were all on the same page. They all had exactly the same thing in mind. It was really efficient."

So Cring knows how to shoot a movie. Why 12 in 12 months?

"It started as a dare," he says, while putting the finishing touches on "Melvyn's Clock" at the production's temporary headquarters in Queen Creek. "I challenged my dad to try his hand at writing screenplays, and he found that he had a penchant for it. And then he challenged me to direct them."

Weary of toiling on low-budget horror movies for a Tennessee-based production company, Cring decided to partner with his family and hang his own filmmaking shingle. "I was sick of my job. Zombies don't talk. We wanted to make movies where dialogue was king again."

After shooting eight films in Michigan and Tennessee - including a period thriller set in the 1960s and an all-puppet family movie - Cring decided to move the project westward to Arizona, for the "bigger market" and camera-pleasing wintertime scenery. Working on a bantamweight budget of under $5,000, Cring cast "Melvyn's Clock" with unpaid actors and scouted locations across the Valley: a hot dog vender in Gilbert, a chiropractor office in Queen Creek, Beihn Park in Guadalupe, in addition to street scenes in Tempe and Scottsdale. Portions were also filmed in Phoenix and Prescott.

Audiences who attend the Tempe premiere would do well to diminish their expectations. Post-production on a Hollywood-style feature is an expensive and time-consuming process: Foley sound effects, computerized color correction, digital effects and the like. There's simply no way that "Melvyn's Clock" will look or sound as slick. (It would be impressive if the movie looks like it was shot for $100,000, as Cring claims.)

However, the limited budget does make for fun anecdotes. Cring humorously notes that the crew only had one "squib" - the explosive charges that simulate bullet wounds - for a pivotal shooting scene in a borrowed home. Flailing, the squibbed actor accidentally knocked a hole in the drywall. Cut, print. Before leaving, the crew patched the hole.

The low budget also forced the cast to improvise. As Melvyn, Rethaber had to play "old" - the character is at least 10 years older than the actor himself. With expensive make-up out of the question, Rethaber used a slight hunch to convey the Melvyn's decrepitude. Cring concedes that the movie is unlikely to make its money back during the Tempe screening or anytime soon after, but notes that "movies have a long shelf life." Insiders speculate that the Crings might try to sell their entire Extra/Ordinary catalog in totem to a distributor, instead of piecemeal.

To some extent, Cring is relying on the 12 month/12 movie mandate ("gimmick" seems too harsh) to promote "Melvyn's Clock." He laments Hollywood's fixation on "flying weapons and talking polar bears" and offers his character-driven films as novel alternatives. (Oscar-nominees such as "Juno" and "The Savages" have shown the soulful, character-driven movie is hardly dead in Hollywood.)

For the unpaid cast, the experience was an opportunity to explore their dramatic capabilities, and limits. The young actor, Richardson, may yet evolve into his generation's Olivier, but during an emotional scene that called for tears, he found himself unable to muster.

"I couldn't get up any tears, so they had to go to the store for Visine," he recalls, with a sheepish grin.

Don't worry, dude - that's the way they do it in Hollywood, too.

Barnstorming Cring Family Debuts Melvyn’s Clock in Tempe

Written by Kevin Lambert

Social interactions at parties or nights out on the town usually incorporate the fundamental opening questions of small talk between strangers. That foundation of introduction, ‘What do you do?’ is asked and answered dozens of times each night. As more people come into and out of your life, the answers grow repetitive, and are found to depend on the relative economy of the surrounding city. In the Valley, for instance, common responses are “Bartender”, “Real Estate Agent”, and “Loan Officer”, among others. Jon Russell Cring and his little brother Jasson (pronounced jay-SAWN) must lick their lips at this little verbal ritual, because their occupation defies the conventional. “I’m a film director and producer, and Jasson is an actor and assistant director,” says Cring the elder, his eyes squinted with mischievous humor,” and our goal was to make twelve movies in twelve months, in twelve different cities.” “We got close; we did ten movies in ten cities,” his brother says, clearly displaying the indefinable joy that he and his brother share, though the 21-year-old is separated from his brother by sixteen years. What would usually be a large generational gap between siblings doesn’t figure into the Cring brothers’ dynamic.

Based out of Nashville, Tennessee, the Cring family’s Extra/Ordinary Film Project is a rare cinematic vision. Their mission statement is as follows: At one time the cinema was used to soften the blow of the Depression, calm the fears of a nation at war, promote the joys of the great American Dream, alert us to the dangers of apathy and prejudice, and generate great feelings of pathos and humor to move us in a direction to find our better selves. We believe it is time for such a great adventure again.

Their newest adventure, Melvyn’s Clock, is set to screen on February 28^th at the Pollack Cinema, located at 1825 E. Elliot Rd in Tempe. Next city after Phoenix? Sacramento. Meet motion picture explorers Jon Russell and Jasson Cring.

AZ Weekly: Tell us about your family background and how this project got under way:

Jon Russell Cring: My wife Tracy is our cinematographer, Jasson is an actor, I’m a director, and our father is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist. We have all the ingredients.

Jasson Cring: He (Dad Jon Richard Cring) writes enough to where each production is feature length, and they are spread over many different genres. So the originality is there, which is obviously essential.

AZW: What is Melvyn’s Clock about, and how does it fit into your overall vision of movie-making?

JRC: The name of our company, Extra/Ordinary Film Project, reflects what kind of films we want to make: Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Melvyn’s Clock is about a lonely old man whose daily walk is full of the little ‘Should I or shouldn’t I?’ life moments. He wants to explore other people’s lives, so sometimes he’s annoying; sometimes he’s endearing. It depends on the situation and who he talks to.

JR: I think it is accessible to people because everyone has that curiosity about others, but few of us can just walk up to someone and start talking to them for no reason. This movie is about someone who does, and what happens to him because of it.

AZW: Ten movies in ten cities, all in a year. You must be exhausted. What is your schedule like, and where do you stay?

JC: We shoot in eleven days, edit for another ten, and then post production and screening during the next ten. Yeah, it’s a lot of work, but we wouldn’t be doing anything else. We’re having so much fun right now. Living out of hotels isn’t so bad.

JRC: The idea is to spread the word and find art houses and theatres that want to keep showing movies like ours. It’s a real grassroots thing. With all our travel; it’s the best way to promote.

AZW: What do your films offer that studio, mega-budget projects don’t?

JRC: We’re not going to compete with The Transformers, ok? I don’t want to. Our movies are about real people, not monsters eating New York. Our brother was hit in a hit-and-run accident, and the perpetrator was never found. Our movie Ought was about the life of the person who committed a similar crime. Most movies would be about the victim’s aftermath. We want to explore other sides of a story.

JC: Yeah, people have white or black hats in typical movies. Our movies are about the grey hats. The characters I love to play are the ones who are both good and bad; they don’t conform to the idea of the protagonist as we usually know him.

AZW: Thanks guys, you’re doing great stuff!

JRC and JC: Thank you! Make sure to come to the screening!

Location, Location, Location

Deadline, deadline, deadline

By Robrt L. Pela

Published on February 28, 2008

Poor Melvyn. His daily walk, which usually doesn’t amount to much more than waving at or chatting up his neighbors, is today filled with crises and mayhem. Plus, it’s really hot out, since Melvyn lives in Phoenix.

The PG-13 film Melvyn's Clock is the work of Tennessee-based husband-and-wife filmmakers Jon Russell and Tracy Cring, who shot the flick entirely in Arizona earlier this year. The shoot took less than a month, a conceit of the couple’s Extra/Ordinary Film Project, which intends to make 12 feature-length movies in 12 months. Melvyn's Clock is the eighth of the dozen films, and its première here will no doubt be well-attended by the many actors and extras from the location shoots in Sedona, Wickenburg, Apache Junction, Prescott, Queen Creek, Tempe, Sun City, Paradise Valley, Chandler, Scottsdale, and Litchfield Park.

Forget about people. It’s these locations, Cring says, that are the real stars of the film. “Hollywood is mainly concerned about what stars they can place in movies,” Cring insists. “But we make our stories and tales, and the action they weave are the stars of our movies.” Cring’s filmic philosophy appears to be working. The duo’s previous seven flicks have been warmly received at various festivals.

Indie film series comes to Tempe

by Tye Rabens
published on Monday, February 25, 2008

Extra/Ordinary Film Project will kick off a nationwide series of feature films Thursday at the Pollack Cinema in Tempe.

The Hendersonville, Tenn., project's ambition is to travel to five different cities in 2008 to shoot and premiere a movie in each city.

"We come into an area, make a movie, premiere and promo it in two months," said screenwriter and program director Jon Russell Cring. "It creates more of a grassroots movement."

It's a simple concept to understand, but complex in design, like much of Cring's creative motivation.

"I try to show the 'ordinary person put into extraordinary circumstance,' " he said. "[Movies are] all about entertainment in Hollywood, but I search more so for the relatability in reality, how well have the potential to do great things in us, and the potential to do nothing."

Extra/Ordinary and its most recent offering, "Melvyn's Clock," indeed have a kitschy and low-budget aura, which Cring hopes will be instinctively charming to the campus audience.

"The great advantage to college is that [students are] young enough to go out and expand their borders," Cring said. "And this film deals with themes of politics, sex and insanity — themes that all college kids understand."

The strength of the premiere, which begins at 7 p.m., is its local appeal. Scenes were shot Valleywide and beyond in a bit of a home-movie road-trip format.

"If it was within 70 miles and on a map, we drove there," said Cring, referring to sites including Tempe, Gilbert, Scottsdale, and Sedona. Also, some of the more than 150 actors and extras in "Melvyn's Clock" are locals, like ASU marketing sophomore Alexander Maeser.

"The process [used in making this film] is not what one would normally expect," said Maeser, making his feature-film debut as Randy, a high school athlete-turned-father.

"It was segmented, but fun, and you definitely gotta stay in character," Maeser said. "[Scene-making] was a longer process than I thought, but John worked hard and the directing is great. I'm just excited for the premiere, and hopefully the movie gets the recognition and accolades it deserves."

Tickets for the premiere of "Melvyn's Clock" cost $5 and can be found at www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com.

Reach the reporter at: trabens@asu.edu.

Indie flick plays Pollack Feb. 28

Comments 0 | Recommend 0

February 21, 2008 - 5:52PM

By Jason Ludwig | AFN

Jon Russell Cring is tired of expensive movies that are high on special effects and low on decent plots.

“If you have great stories you can make films that are going to touch people emotionally,” the Tennessee-based filmmaker said. “You need a good story - not all movies have a story; some just have a concept.”

With that philosophy in mind, Cring created the super-low budget film Melvyn’s Clock, which will premiere at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28 at Pollack Tempe Cinemas, 1825 E. Elliot Road.

The independent film uses more than 150 local actors and extras and was shot at about 25 different Arizona locations, including Sedona, Wickenburg, Apache Junction, Tempe, Sun City, Paradise Valley, Chandler and Scottsdale. The film tells the tale of Melvyn, a gregarious older man who gets tied up in a lot of trouble.

The film started as a simple observation that turned, over the span of a breakneck three weeks, into a funny tale of bad things happening to good people.

“The writer saw a guy walk into a McDonald’s who acted like he owned the place, just chatting everybody up,” Cring said.

Such humble plot origins are Cring’s raison d’etre: his goal in filmmaking is to take movies back to character-driven, ordinary situations.

“We forget how interesting everyday experience is, and that we all have so much in common that everything’s relatable.”

Cring’s livelihood is entirely a family affair - his father is the scriptwriter, his wife the camera operator and he’s the director. The group recruits pro bono actors and borrows shoot locations, starting and completing full-length feature films in times as short as three weeks.

His team started the Extra/Ordinary Film Project in 2007 with the goal of making 12 films in 12 months. He said he “only” completed eight of the 12, but all the films were low-to-no-budget affairs utilizing solid scripts and strong actors to tell stories without the intrusion of expensive Hollywood effects.

“I’m a firm believer in quantity,” Cring said. “I believe quality can come from quantity.”

Cring’s goal is nothing short of total revolution within the film industry. Armed with little more than a script and a camera, his goal is to prove that vision and passion is all that’s needed to make an entertaining film.

“I don’t think budget makes any difference at all,” he said. “My goal is still to entertain - I know I’m in the entertainment industry and I want to be entertaining.”

The "Clock" Is Ticking Towards Premier

On Thursday night, February 28^th, 2008, at 7:00 P.M., the Pollack Tempe Cinemas, 1825 East Elliot Road, Tempe, Arizona, will be the hosting theater for the premier of the new movie, Melvyn’s Clock, produced by the Extra/Ordinary Film Project, with its base in Hendersonville, Tennessee. General admission is $5.00.

The company has been in the Arizona area filming the new movie, using locations in Sedona, Wickenburg, Apache Junction, Prescott, Queen Creek, Tempe, Sun City, Paradise Valley, Chandler, Scottsdale, and Litchfield Park, taking advantage of the beautiful scenery and wonderful actors and extras from the community. The Extra/Ordinary Film Project set a goal to make twelve feature length films in twelve months with an aspiration of making movies that are a “return to the great story.”

“While Hollywood is mainly concerned about what stars they can place in movies, we make our stories and tales and the action they weave the stars of our movies,” says Jon Russell Cring, director and co-founder.

Winning many awards at film festivals, the movies sport a delicious blending of entertainment, intelligence, inspiration and most importantly—a great sense of humor.

The Extra/Ordinary Film Project is truly a family affair, with father, Jonathan Richard Cring, the screenwriter; son, Jon Russell Cring, the director; and daughter-in-law, Tracy Nicole Cring, the cinematographer and editor.

“In days of old, people would gather for miles around when the carnival would visit the town with all of its wonderful sights, smells and entertainment,” says screenwriter Cring. “I guess that’s what we’re kind of doing this year in America—taking the craft of filmmaking on the road to make five new films—each with the flavor of a different area of the country, using the tremendous base of talent and budding stars that exist in every corner of our great land.”

Melvyn’s Clock is the whimsical and often mysterious tale of an aging gent who launches on a daily routine, walking through his community to meet and greet all of his neighbors only to discover on one particular day that crisis and mayhem truly await him around every corner. It is rated PG-13.

For more information or to reserve tickets for the limited-seating premier, feel free to log onto www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com or call (480) 457-1663.

Local Trio Move “The Clock” Forward

Three of the most respected and honored actors in the Phoenix and Valley area have recently joined forces for the first time and collaborated with the Extra/Ordinary Film Project from Hendersonville, Tennessee, to produce the new movie, Melvyn’s Clock.

Joyce Gittoes, Jose Rosete and Lanny Rethaber, all of the Phoenix metropolitan area, are feature players in this new release, filmed entirely in the state of Arizona in locations in Sedona, Wickenburg, Apache Junction, Guadalupe, Queen Creek, Sun City and Prescott.

Joyce Gittoes is a native New Yorker who has been transplanted into the Phoenix area for the past ten years. She began her acting career at the age of sixty and is a feature player in the Black Theater Troupe in town, having won numerous honors. She is playing the part of Mrs. L in Melvyn’s Clock—a sweet-hearted woman battling the effects of pending Alzheimer’s.

Jose Rosete has become an Arizona favorite, already collecting credits in movies such as Running on Empty, Three Kings and Any Given Sunday, along with being seen weekly on AZ-TV. He plays the part of Tony, a disturbed young father who is about to lose custody of his only son.

Lanny Rethaber tackles the title role of Melvyn, a glib, sweet, intriguing, but often meddling older chap who tries desperately to become involved in his community but ends up trapped in a bit of mishap and mayhem. Lanny is well-known to area residents for his commercial television appearances with the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and his work as executive producer of the movie short, Denial, which was showcased at the Scottish Film Festival.

The Extra/Ordinary Film Project has been in the area for the past two months as part of its ongoing process of making twelve feature length films in twelve months, using different sites, sounds and cultures all across the United States.

“We make movies that return the storyline as the star, where people can become invested in the lives of characters who find themselves trying to lead ordinary lives, but being placed in extraordinary situations,” says director Jon Russell Cring.

Melvyn’s Clock, rated PG-13, will have a Phoenix premier on Thursday night, February 28^th, 2008, at 7:00 P.M. at the Pollack Tempe Cinemas in Tempe, Arizona. Admission is five dollars and seating is limited. To purchase tickets, log onto www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com or call (480) 457-1663.

Extra/Ordinary Coming to Phoenix

The Extra/Ordinary Film Project, with its base in Hendersonville, Tennessee, is coming to Phoenix, Arizona, to continue the production on a goal set last year to produce twelve feature-length films in twelve months. Thus far the company has put together eight films ranging from comedy to drama to thriller. Founded by husband and wife team, Jon Russell and Tracy Cring, the fledgling organization aspires to create movies which are “a return to the great story.”

“While Hollywood is mainly concerned about what stars they can place in the movies, and what are the best vehicles in which to use the star power of these individuals, we have set out to write and construct really great stories and use up-and-coming, and even local, folk, to propel these tales onto film and into the minds and hearts of our audiences,” said Russ Cring, director and co-founder.

Winning awards at many film festivals and receiving acclaim from critics at a variety of premiers, the films sport a delicious blending of entertainment, intelligence, inspiration and, of course, most importantly, a great sense of humor.

“That’s what a great story is,” said Jonathan Richard Cring, father and screenwriter. “It’s when you believe that the people you are viewing are not just real, but real to you and you feel invested in their lives.”

The company will be filming the movie Melvyn’s Clock in Arizona from January 4^th through January 27^th, using locations all over the state.

Melvyn’s Clock is the whimsical tale of an aging gent who launches on a daily routine to walk through his community to meet and greet all of his neighbors, only to discover on this particular day, that mystery and mayhem await him around every corner.

For more information, feel free to log onto www.extraordinaryfilmproject.com or call (615) 715-1578.

Melvyn's Clock' can't be beat for speed

Craig Outhier, Tribune