Film crew finds different paths lead to same location

Andover filmmaker Chars Bonin had always wanted to write a feature-length movie, but it was a struggle to sell a screenplay, or to even get anyone in the business to read it.

Bonin, who's been successful in recent years with various short films through his own company, Orange Apple Productions, and others, decided to take matters into his own hands and write and produce a feature-length film himself.

A previous acting gig had "opened my eyes to the fact that you can shoot a movie for $60,000 and you can do it here and even get money back," he said.

So Bonin came up with "Finding Home," which is a suspenseful drama that focuses on a couple's camping trip gone terribly wrong.

The 90-minute movie, which Bonin also directed and produced, has a private screening scheduled for Feb. 23 at the Heights Theatre in Columbia Heights.

The film is about how people's choices affect one another. The message is, "If you really want to work through something, and both parties are willing, you can get through anything," he said.

The low-budget film was shot in 10 days with a small cast and crew at the remote Camp Olympia in northern Wisconsin during September 2010.

The camp, where there's no cell phone service, has more than 300 wooded acres and a private lake.

Bonin's crew shot the movie with a high-resolution camera called a RedCam, which is "designed for the big screen," he said.

Coincidentally, a couple of his former classmates from Blaine High School were instrumental in pulling it all together.

They each juggle full-time jobs and have young children at home. "It just amazes me that we took different paths to end up in the same spot," he said, explaining that they'd all gone their separate ways after they graduated in 1989.

Anoka resident Stein Rosburg, who'd been a special effects coordinator for a number of Hollywood productions, stepped into the role of executive producer for "Finding Home." He described their chance encounter as serendipitous.

Rosburg came across Bonin's name by chance on a list related to local film production. At the time, Rosburg, who had recently returned to Minnesota from Albuquerque, N.M., was looking for local film work. "I wasn't even sure it was the same Chars Bonin, but I decided to check anyway," he said.

"That history and trust and faith in each other in the real world translates into the movie world," Rosburg said, adding: "I was able to speak freely and it made me want to invest in the movie."

Moving the gear wasn't easy

Getting the gear into the woods and onto pontoon boats and ATVs was "nothing short of a miracle," Rosburg said. "It was the biggest project I've taken on by far."

The group often put in 12- to 16-hour days during the filming. "The crew and everybody put their heart into it, and you can tell by the outcome," Rosburg said, adding that the camping trip created a special bond with everyone involved.

Seeing people's reactions during the movie's premiere at Camp Olympia made it all worthwhile. "I saw people covering their eyes and freaking out" -- including his mom, he said.

Besides believable performances and strong writing and directing, fellow Blaine alum Chris Schuette's original score adds to the movie's drama, he said.

Bonin had run into Schuette, who has composed music for everything from commercials to video games, at a local gym a few years ago. Even before his script was written, Bonin had Schuette in mind for the music.

"I knew his background in classical piano would be perfect for this," said Bonin.

When Schuette initially watched a rough cut of the movie without a soundtrack, "I imagined the music in my head," he said, "what I as a viewer expect the scene to sound like when I'm watching."

Sunny day turns ugly

For example, in an early scene of "Finding Home," when the couple goes canoeing, it's a sunny, beautiful day. "In my head I thought, this sounds like a piano or strings," he said.

Later on, "the surroundings turn on them. What was once beautiful is now something they have to survive," and the music becomes more abrupt, said Schuette, who lives in Lino Lakes.

"Chars gave me some direction on the cues, like, 'convey this emotion or feeling here,' but he left the creative part to me," he said.

All in all, he's proud of how it turned out. "We were able to pool our individual talents and create something that's better than the sum of its parts," he said.

Anna Pratt is a Minneapolis freelance writer.