Making movie magic
- Details
- Published on Monday, 12 November 2012 12:54
- Written by Paul Gordon
The Mayo men shooting indy film in Peoria; "Heartland" is a detective story with spiritual twist
A Peoria man and his two sons are trying to make movie magic in and around the city, using local talent all the way.
"Heartland" is the title of the independent feature fim of the detective story genre. But this one, while still gritty as most detective films are, has a spiritual message as well, said screenwriter Bill Mayo.
Shooting only on weekends, the film is using various local venues, including the Peoria Civic Center, Apollo Theatre and the Creve Coeur Club.
For 30 years Bill Mayo had a plot and characters for a screenplay in his mind. But until a couple years ago, the retired Caterpillar Inc. vice president had never put them on paper.
Now he and his two sons, Mike and Bob Mayo, are fulfilling Bill's dream and turning his screenplay into a central Illinois-based feature film.
With what the Mayos called "phenomenal help" from local civic and law enforcement leaders and using only local talent — for lead characters as well as extras —"Heartland" is being filmed on weekends at various locations throughout the Peoria area.
"Even with all the different things I had to do at Caterpillar in my career, this is one of the most complex undertakings I've ever done," Bill Mayo, 60, said. "And I am loving it."
He has been slowed recently by treatments for cancer that was diagnosed only a few weeks ago. But last Saturday, while filming of "Heartland" was taking place at the Creve Coeur Club, Bill was able to find a silver lining in that situation.
"The beauty of this illness is that my boys have had to step up and take the reins on the project. It's been great to watch," he said.
Said Mike Mayo, who is directing the film, "This has become an opportunity for dad, my brother and me to spend time together and to pursue what has been his lifelong dream. It has been priceless."
"Heartland" centers on a police detective who uncovers a murder plot while looking into the death of a controversial radio talk-show host from apparent natural causes. In the process, the Mayos said, the detective also "discovers something far more significant to believe in."
"It's a story that, while gritty and real-world, is also about transformation in the spirit of God. I wanted to do that story," Bill Mayo said.
He wrote the screenplay while a graduate student at Bradley University. A creative writing class assignment was to write 20 pages of a screenplay. The instructor told the students the typical screenplay is 120 pages and he challenged any of them who wanted to try and write a full screenplay.
Mayo did it. "I'd had these characters in my head for 30 years, I just hadn't written anything. So I just started writing it. When I got finished I had a 143-page screenplay. I thought I was done after that," he said.
However, his sons had other ideas after reading the screenplay. "They encouraged me to do something with it and not just let it sit on some shelf. They convinced me we could pull it off as a father-son team," Bill said.
Mike said the idea to film it came to him one night when he had trouble falling to sleep. "I just kept thinking about it and thinking about it and going through everything we'd need to do it. I'm a visual arts guy and my brother Bob is an audio guy, so that was a good start. So we suggested it to dad, but I didn't think he'd bite. But he did," he said.
Deciding to do the film and getting it done were different animals, however. "Well, not too many doors opened up for us at first," Bill said. "Then we had a meeting with Mayor Jim Ardis and it was like the Red Sea parted. He helped us get in touch with people and suddenly the whole community was ready and willing to help. We got phenomenal support from a lot of public officials and agencies, including the Peoria Police Department. It has been great."
Ardis said he is probably being given more credit than he deserves. "I made some phone calls and introduced them, but for the most part they were able to go out and sell themselves," he said.
He added, however, that it is in the city's best interest to cooperate and help where possible with such projects. "Here we have somebody spending their own money in Peoria to do something that will showcase the city, there is no reason not to help," he said. He added doing so for a small, independent film could help Peoria build a reputation if others want to film in Peoria.
"You know, though, what we did doesn't compare to what we do every day to help people in Peoria who need it," Ardis said.
Ardis was given a cameo role in the film. But like most others there is no pay, just a film credit. Even the lead actors are paid only a stipend. Most of the costs for the project, which are paid by Bill Mayo, are for production needs. The Mayos contracted with Heroic Age Studios of Mount Zion for the production work.
Shooting is done on weekends because almost all of those involved in the film have regular full-time jobs. Mike Mayo works in the global mining division at Caterpillar and Bob Mayo is a student at Eureka College.
Still, Mike said, "We are doing our absolute best to make it a quality film. Sure, we want to premier it here and do it for friends and family but we want to make it good enough to possibly try to find a distributor. So we want it to be of the highest quality and people are working there butts off to make that happen."
The decision to shoot in Peoria helped on the costs but Bill said it also was an opportunity to showcase Peoria — the community and the talent that is here.
At first it was going to be filmed in Chicago "but we decided to keep it local because it was something that could happen in anybody's back yard," added Mike.
To date, filming has occurred on four weekends out of 13 total scheduled. The crew and actors have filmed at the Creve Coeur Club, the Peoria Police Station and Springdale Cemetery. Future filming locations will include the Peoria Civic Center and the Apollo Theatre. Shooting will continue into next year.
Paul Gordon is editor of The Peorian. He can be reached at 692-7880 or editor@thepeorian.com
