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    Local filmmaker talks 'Wingman' [Movies]
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    The superhero film genre is greatly beloved by many (and vehemently despised by some). Every year sees a spat of new movies, some really great, some not so much. This year we will see two very highly anticipated new films: “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises” (and if you didn’t know this, you won’t care anyway). However, you don’t need millions of dollars to make a superhero movie. I had the pleasure of meeting with local filmmaker John Vanderford to discuss his movie “Wingman,” which plays this upcoming Monday, March 26, at the Comedy Caravan.

    Tell me about “Wingman.”

    “‘Wingman’ is the first feature that I worked on. It was brought to me January 2010 by a friend of mine, the screenwriter. [It] had originally been written as a series of web episodes and he was interested in having me direct it. I looked at it and saw the potential for it to be a feature and went through and reworked the script. A few months later we started shooting it, at the end of May 2010, and we were wrapped by August. We spent plenty of time in post-production doing all the fun stuff and then it premiered at Village 8 last June.”

    What’s it about?

    “It’s a superhero mockumentary. It’s about a sidekick who’s terrible at his job; he gets fired by the superhero he’s working for, and there’s a documentary crew that’s following him around through all this. They were wanting to tell the story of a young hero on his rise to greatness, and instead they end up following him as he goes from odd job to odd job. It’s very comedic, not very action-y for a superhero movie. The overall message is sort of learning what it truly means to be a hero.”

    You said it’s your first feature; have you done other things before?

     “The only thing I have really done on my own before is the 48 Hour Film Project, as far as film goes. I come more from a theater background. I’ve been doing technical theater since I was five years old. I got into the film world late 2009, just kind of on a lark… I picked up a camera and was working on a documentary project that got scrapped… but the first thing that I finished was the 48 Hour Film Project.”

    How’d that go?

    “It was interesting. I look back on it and I’m proud of it; I can see a lot of the techniques that I still use today, but I also cringe because of all the stuff I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was doing. But I’m still thoroughly satisfied with it as a first thing, and honestly at this point that’s how I’m looking at ‘Wingman’ because since I’ve finished this I’ve been working on a lot of other projects with a lot of other people around town. I’ve learned a lot of things since we wrapped up ‘Wingman’ and I still am very proud of it for what it is.”

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    About Allan Day

    There are legitimate theories that the Big Bang originated from the collapse of a black hole in a fourth-dimensional universe. This stuff fascinates me, and I love reading about it. I love reading about science. And about anything, for that matter, provided it's interesting - and everything is potentially interesting, so I'm fascinated by a lot of things. I also read a lot of fiction (Kurt Vonnegut deserves deification) and watch a lot of movies (Charlie Chaplin also deserves deification). I've made a few short films myself. I'm also a writer of everything - I'm close to a Bachelor's in English at IUS. My life consists of reading, writing, bartending, and taking care of my daughter full-time. Life is busy and life is stressful, but that's why there's music and art and other forms of relaxation.

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