Fairfax filmmaker has vision of Hollywood
By Orrin Konheim
Chris Schrack, 23, grew up in Fairfax City with dreams of one day making it big in Hollywood, but unlike many of his peers who went off to film school or went straight to L.A., Schrack chose to pursue those dreams in his own back yard.
“I wasn’t quite ready to make the jump to California just yet, seeing as how I’ve been an East Coast person my whole life,” said Schrack, who graduated from James Madison University in 2007 as a cinema studies major. “I also didn’t want to be $100,000 in debt and not be in any better position than I started.”
Schrack, a 2003 Fairfax High graduate, still lives in Fairfax City. In addition to working at a car dealership, Schrack and his childhood friend Christian Biceno founded their own film company, Lucid Gem Productions LLC, and have spent the last six months working on a two-hour feature film. The film, “Elysium,” a thriller about a prostitute on the run, was filmed in multiple parts.
“I tend to build my movies around images that pop into my head. One of the first images I came up with was the shot of a lonely and sad girl riding the metro, and I kind of built a story around that,” said Schrack.
Schrack has been into filmmaking since he was 10. He had been acting in short films made by his friends, some of whom are working on this production.
“After doing a whole bunch of short films, I realized I probably just liked being behind the camera,” said Schrack.
As a cinematic studies major at JMU’s prestigious School of Media Arts and Design, Schrack has had the opportunities to formally learn aspects of film and screenwriting, submit films for the school’s annual student film festival (where he won two awards), and learn from other students who share his creative gifts. Making their own film, however, would not have been possible without capital. Schrack put up some $10,000 in life savings toward the film.
With such a relatively small budget, Schrack and Biceno found ways to save costs. Biceno acted as the male lead, and many childhood friends filled in most of the actress roles. For the lead role of the prostitute, Lucid Gems brought in Erin Biszak, who Schrack met when he helped shoot a friend’s film in San Diego. Due to cost consideration, Lucid Gems also opted out of applying for any shooting permits with the D.C. film office. This created some obstacles.
Over the course of a 10-day shoot, the pair had to individually secure permission from every private location they wished to shoot in and had to be careful about shooting in public so that the tone of the film wasn’t ruined.
“All of the locations were quite helpful,” Schrack said. “We shot at a bookstore in Dupont Circle, and they were very helpful and let us shoot there for free. We also shot at a Crystal City Motel in Arlington for the price of a room. It was a little tough finding places, but once we found them, they worked with us.”
Schrack invested much of the money in a professional-quality camcorder so the film wouldn’t have the look of a student film festival entry.
“It shoots 24 frames per second just like film and it really does deliver film-quality images,” said Schrack.
Schrack says he will look forward to releasing his film on the festival circuit. Although the occasional sleeper, like "Little Miss Sunshine," "Hustle and Flow," and "The Blair Witch Project," was picked out from the film festival circuit and turned into a massive hit, Schrack is more optimistic about his chances.
“For any young filmmaker to bank on distribution is unwise, but we really want it to be a stepping stone to produce future projects. Best-case scenario is that it’s well received and allows us to do more work.”
The film will be released in the film festival circuit in the coming months, and Schrack plans to move to California within a year.