MUSIC COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY: Paul Baker. PERCUSSION: Jim Kassis
“THE BALLAD OF THE BAD DOG” WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY: John Balquist (yahn soon).
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MAISY’S GARDEN (SYNOPSIS): A human BAD DOG disrupts a marriage that’s on its way to breaking apart over money issues, convincing a high-powered lawyer to trade in his firm’s partnership for gardening tools, Real-life stories abound, people talking about everything from shark attacks in supposedly calm waters to the residue of marriages that really never ended except on paper. Spiritual growth seems inevitable when the true fragility of life and love are revealed.
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REAL-LIFE STORIES:
“SURPRISED AT MOTHER’S CRYING”––Jill Pixley
“BITTEN BY A SHARK”––Peter Aris
“BUTTON TO KILL SADDAM HUSSEIN”––Michael Bolgatz
“IF FATHER EVER SEES THIS MOVIE”––Jon Jennings
“GIVING BACK MY HEART”––Whit Wagner
“MARKED “B” FOR BETRAYAL”––Grace Eng
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Statement about the IMPROV making of the Collaborative feature, MAISY’S GARDEN, by Rick Schmidt Co-Writer, Co-Director, Co-Producer, Executive Producer and founder of FEATURE WORKSHOPS (from FIGUEIRA DA FOZ INTL. FILM FESTIVAL catalogue):
In August, 1998, as I was working with my son Morgan Schmidt-Feng, to organize the FEATURE WORKSHOPS shoot that ultimately produced MAISY’S GARDEN, I heard from him that he had a lawyer friend, Michael Bolgatz, who had recently separated from his wife and that it appeared we could use his house as a location. Morgan had met this guy at the little shared kid’s park that was set in a central courtyard-like area between both Morgan’s apartment building and Mike’s house. Their little daughters had become friends and over time Morgan had learned about Mike’s aspirations to write, direct, and act in movies. Feature Workshops, where we make a movie start to finish in 10 days, seemed like a perfect answer to Mike’s dream.
When I learned about the location I felt that not only did we have a good location (old house centrally located in Berkeley, California), but also the potential of building our improvisational story around the disintegration of a marriage. After all, Mike wanted to act. He was a lawyer in real life so he could play a lawyer better than any actor (especially when having to make up his own lines, thought patterns, and specific references to the job). And his marriage had fallen apart in real life, supplying our production with the kind of emotional fallout that accompanies that kind of tragedy. Mike was questioning his life, responsible at times for the sole care of his young children (his daughter Maisy was around 6, plus a younger baby only about a year old). This was ample grist for the mill of moviemaking.
Actor Michael Bolgatz.
For the other participants/Co-Writers/Co-Directors, Mike's small redwood house (a cabin-like structure surrounded by trees and dense follage) would offer them a hook upon which to hang their ideas as we progressed through the shoot. The group of perspective filmmakers who joined our DIGITAL VIDEO shoot were as varied as most other FEATURE WORKSHOPS. Peter Aris, a scriptwriter who flew in from London, England, was eager to break the ice and learn my “no-budget” techniques (he tells the real-life story of a shark attack). Carlos R. Acuna, from the hot central California town of El Centro, wanted to test his scriptwriting abilities, get inspired to make his own indie feature up the road. Grace Eng (she told the real-life story “Marked “B” For Betrayal” ), wrote in her application that she wanted to “look beneath the buried secrets and tales” to make her own features. She's since line produced THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA for my old college roommate, Wayne Wang (JOY LUCK CLUB, SMOKE – we made our first feature together, A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER
From Los Angeles we were joined by Whit Wagner (“Bret”), an actor with extensive experience who wanted to break into making his own scripted movies (check out his IMPROV scenes with Jill. He deserves some good film roles!) Jon Jennings (“If My Father Ever Sees This Movie” story), a filmmaking student from Montana, wanted a taste of filmmaking outside of the classroom. Happily, his real-life story became another pertinent part of the story we developed during editing.
While Mike’s breakup was very amicable – his ex-wife occasionally visiting our set from her second house across town – it was a reminder that not everybody who begins a marriage with high hopes for a long-lasting love is fortunate enough to be given that wonderful gift of continuity. I thought it would be a good use of the Feature Workshops process to investigate the mysteries of love and marriage, the unheralded shift that lives take after a divorce. Keep in mind that my son Morgan (Director of Photography, Co-Writer, Co-Director, and Co-Producer) was a product of my first marriage, both of us experiencing the difficulties of a broken home. Our motivation for digging into this subject matter was obvious.
Jill Pixley, who onscreen plays Mike’s soon-to-be ex-wife, starred in the feature DAUGHTERS (1997), by writer/director Chris Brown, so we had help from a seasoned actress. As soon as Jill arrived on the set we had the ability to start building her movie-relationship with Mike and Maisy, shooting intimate scenes between the happy couple, shots of her working around the house, being a mother to Maisy, basically being a housewife. When Jill's best friend, Jessica (played by Jessica Heidt, a co-lead of 'LONELINESS IS SOUL' ) asks for a loan, Jill slowly realizes she has no access to her husband's money. This quickly became a topic of concern in our movie – WHO HOLDS THE PURSE STRINGS IN A MARRIAGE? And actor/co-writer/co-Director John Balquist (fresh from his amazing "Enlightenment/Magic Mushroom” Story in LONELINESS IS SOUL" also joined us in a lead role.
MAISY'S GARDEN/See Full Movie.
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