Probably not!
“Strings”
When Billy, a struggling pianist, leaves his family to join an experimental therapy group called Strings, he quickly realizes he’s made a mistake and wants his old life back. But as the group makes it impossible to leave, the only way Billy can return home is to have facial reconstructive surgery, which leads to a dangerous cat and mouse for not only him but his family as well.
This thriller is the debut feature by Austin co-directors Ben Foster and Mark Dennis, from a script by Dennis. Shot from last March to late December and filming in over 50 locations in and around Austin, Foster admits looking back on the project that there were a lot of things he would change.
After making the short film, “The Alternate,” in the end of 2007, Dennis approached Foster with the script for “Strings” which they immediately wanted to begin making. “We really hit the ground running and kind of put ‘The Alternate’ to the side,” Foster says. ”We never submitted it to a festival; we played it in the ‘Strings’ audition waiting room.”
At first the two thought of making “Strings” their “practice film” into making a real feature, but soon realized that would be an expensive endeavor. “We see this as our film school, practice and real thing into one.” Foster says the biggest challenge was not having a locked script when shooting started. Tweaking and rewriting the story while casting (Billy Harvey plays the Billy character before the facial surgery and Chris Potter plays him postop) and then also while filming; it made for a lot of frustration and many pick ups. “For our next film we’re going to lock a script before making the movie and we’re not going to compromise on anything,” says Foster, who adds that though they had many growing pains, their film shows there are filmmakers in Austin who want to tell stories other than about twentysomething relationships.
Financed through credit cards and the help of the Austin community, Foster says the film is close to being locked and will be submitted into festivals soon. Shot on HD by Mike Simpson, the film is produced by Foster, Dennis and Gretchen Upshaw and is edited by the directors.
