News
"Maria's Gravy Pot"
By Ryan Fennell
A TRIO OF local filmmakers are preparing to unveil their first feature length film in early 2010.
Joe Minnella, Dennis Pornel, and Michael Zampetti have completed the film Maria's Gravy Pot which was shot primarily in Ocean Grove.
The film examines life in a hometown restaurant that serves up the "best gravy" and according Minnella, who wrote and directed the film, has a "mystical pull" on people.
"People that eat here need to keep eating here," Minnella said of the fictional restaurant.
The story goes that "Maria's" grandmother "Netta" grew up in a small village in Italy over 100 years ago. The village held best gravy contest in which women were not allowed to enter.
"Netta" dressed as a boy and enters the contest but it's quickly revealed that she is a female and "Netta" leaves the village for America.
The recipe is passed down to Maria and the gravy recipe becomes a big attraction down the Jersey Shore.
A competing restaurant sends a spy, "Matt" the competing restaurant's owner's son, to work at Maria's on a mission to steal the recipe.
Minnella describes the ensuing plot as" world's colliding" in that "Matt" has no interest in the restaurant business but when he enters Maria's Gravy Pot, although on a deceptive mission "a whole new world opens up to him."
Minnella calls it a "coming of age" story and "a feel good" story.
Maria's Gravy Pot took approximately two years to complete on a meager $14,000 budget mainly raised by Minnella and his co-producers Pornel and Zampetti.
Minnella and Zampetti grew up in the area and attended Saint James Grammar School and Red Bank Catholic. After high school the two attended different colleges. Minnella went on to the University of Scranton where he studied marketing and Zampetti attended Hofstra University to study communications.
"I was told that it's a safe bet to study something that you can make money doing so I went into marketing," Minnella said. "About half-way through I realized I couldn't do this. I can't sit in an office. This can't be for me."
Minnella began exploring his creative side and one weekend wrote a short film based on an incident that occurred on campus.
"It's coherent but it looks awful," Minnella said. "It was the first time I picked up a camera."
Minnella said that even though it wasn't something you'd see in a theater the experience of watching his work on screen was "the most amazing feeling in the world."
Minnella then approached his parents about making the move into the arts but was met with the notion that the best course of action would be to finish his degree first and then pursue a career in film afterward to which Minnella agreed.
After graduation Minnella became a student at the New York Film Academy.
"That's when I started reaching out to Mike (Zampetti)." Minnella said. Zampetti and Minnella started working on a handful of short films. Meanwhile, Minnella was working at a local restaurant when he met Pornel, who also had a strong interest in film. From there the three set out and are anticipating a busy 2010 having entered Maria's Gravy Pot in 14 film festivals throughout the country.
"This isn't a crew of a thousand people but we have three people now," Minnella said recalling the trio's first meeting. "As long as we're willing to sacrifice a little sleep and hate each other from time to time, we're going to be able to accomplish things."
Their first project, Diary of a Ghost was approximately 50 minutes long and was nominated for best script at a film festival in Staten Island.
"It was a big learning experience," Minnella said. "It was inspiration for the new stuff. Anytime anybody recognizes your work it means something special."
After the nomination for best script the Minnella, Pornel, and Zampetti held another meeting to discuss producing a feature length film.
"It was something we knew would cost a lot more money, take a lot more people, but I said if we tell a good story things are going to be fine for us," Minnella said.
So in February 2008, Minnella began writing.
According to Minnella, at first the script didn't seem to work the way he envisioned it but he recalled a technique he learned in film school where a writer takes the characters and puts them in a different setting.
"It was a combination of doing that and saying 'what do I know really well,"' Minnella said. "Again the restaurant thing came out because I've known it forever and Dennis knows it very well."
"That helped big time as a production designer," Minnella said of Pornel, the Production Designer for the film. "Because he's seen it. He knows the look. Everything you see in this film is very authentic and genuine."
During the writing process Minnella started to encounter a logistical problem.
"As I wrote I kept seeing what else happens in a restaurant."
Minnella said that more and more characters started to evolve as he wrote.
"Before you knew it we looked and there was 20 speaking roles," Minnella said. "When we finally sat down and gave it a read it was like this is really nice but there's no way we're going to be able to shoot this thing. Where are we going to get these actors, time, and locations?"
"I kept saying as long as we keep moving forward we're going to be fine," Minnella added.
"At the end of the day a film is just what you can capture in this little square. Can you get enough in this little square to tell a coherent story? You don't have a million dollars but can you make it look in (the frame) like there's a million dollars? I just firmly think that you can," Minnella said.
The next step for Minnella, Pornel, and Zampetti was funding the project.
They reached out to family and friends and into their own pockets and managed to raise $14,000.
The guys decided to spend half of the money to buy equipment rather than rent as a means for investment for future projects.
"Rather than rent really great stuff for that kind of money, you can buy really good stuff and have it. You build your inventory and have an investment in future projects," Minnella said.
The rest of the money was used to fill the needs for the production of the film which Minnella found included items like water bottles for the crew, a place to shoot the film, and filling roles.
The crew decided to set a shooting date for September 2008.
"One of the things I realized in business or anywhere is set a date and it will happen. Don't talk about things, do things," Minnella said.
Minnella soon found that they weren't going to be able to pay the actors they needed to fill what turned out to be 21 roles.
He remembered growing up and attending plays held in Thompson Park, where his parents were heavily involved.
Minnella reached out to one of those actors he had known growing up, Leslie Fornino.
"I know they viewed me as a little kid," Minnella said to Fornino. "Do you think they'd be comfortable having me direct them?"
Fornino spread the word and let the actors know that Minnella meant business and he was able to fill the majority of the roles.
Minnella needed his star "Matt" and found it in then 17 year-old Corey Mosello from Marlboro.
"He has such maturity as an actor I was shocked," Minnella said. "He knew the script better than anybody and knew everybody else's lines."
Minnella shot the film over 17 days in September 2008 in a rented hall in Ocean Grove that was designed to look like a restaurant.
"It was very much guerilla filmmaking," Minnella said describing the shooting schedule and having the all the actors available. "I took the role of a general. I literally said we're going to war. This isn't a student film. We anticipate getting into some big film festivals. We don't have a million dollars but we're not messing around."
On the eve of the shoot, one of Minnella's actresses fell ill and was unable to meet the schedule. Minnella had to scramble to fill the role, which required several re-writes during that sleepless night. Ultimately Minnella was able to cast Barbara Teofilo from Long Branch to fill the role.
"Keep moving forward is so important," Minnella said of the last minute disaster.
After everything was shot, Minnella had 24 hours worth of footage that now needed to be edited and have a soundtrack produced for it.
Minnella reached out to Tom Farinaro, a musician, who introduced him to George D. Gallo, a sound engineer, and Charlie Pranio, who wrote the theme music for the film.
"I can't imagine any other time in my career a collaboration of free talent like this ever," Minnella said. "People just did favors because either they liked our pitch or because they just have a love of the arts."
"The film has some of the best movie music I've heard in a long time. It wouldn't be crazy to say a song like that you could hear at an Oscars ceremony because it's that good," Minnella said of the original music in the film. "And it's some of the best ensemble acting I've ever seen in an independent film. It translated to the screen so well, it's amazing."
Minnella, Pornel, and Zampetti are now preparing for what they believe will be a very busy 2010 on the film festival circuit.
The trio is having a private screening of Maria's Gravy Pot on December 21 at the Clearview Cinemas Theatre in Red Bank at 7 p.m. The screening is completely private and by invite only so as not to jeopardize the film's film festival status for the 2010 season.
