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Lights.... Camera! Bitz-ee Mama's!
Local flavor adds
to highly anticipated independent film release By
Ed Sharpe CouryGraph Productions/Glendale Daily Planet
- Preliminary Article Release (Keep checking back as
I add more!) - As the battle between Heaven and Hell rages on, only Rose can determine
the outcome and therefore becomes the ultimate goal for both sides.
L- Tamara McDaniel
- Producer, Ellen Muth - lead actress,
Lulu Rodriguez and Kristine Ortega - Bitz-ee
Mama's owners
and Kevin R.
Phipps -Director. Photo
By Ed Sharpe Glendale Daily Planet
For close to 40 years, Bitz-ee Mama's, a restaurant
serving both Mexican and American food, has been catering to
City Council members, judges, newspaper reporters, merchants and
your next door neighbor! This week
though, Bitz-ee Mama's takes on a new role as location for a new
movie!
Owner Lulu Rodriguez
and co-owner Kristine Ortega embraced the opportunity to have a
movie segment done at the restaurant.
In addition to playing hosts, Lu Lu prepared
the food that was in the movie and and Christina
appeared in the movie as a food server.
Lu Lu said "It
was neat to see how well people work together and
to produce a film"
she continued "We all worked until after
midnight, the crew was fantastic - the place was so
clean you would have never known they were here."
Tamara McDaniel of the Phoenix Independent Film Makers Group
stated, "
The lovely ladies who own Bitz-ee Mama's have been wonderful to work with and very generous, kind and accommodating. I’m so grateful they’re letting us shoot at their restaurant. The location
for this pivotal scene was perfect for us both in terms of practical reasons like parking, extra rooms and such, but also the atmosphere was just what we were looking for.
"
To bring readers up to speed on what the many fans of Ellen Muth, star of the acclaimed “Dead Like Me” TV
series already know, the focus has shifted from the living room to the big screen as production of her newest movie, “The Nephila”
began this week.
Shot entirely on-location in Phoenix and historic downtown Glendale, “The Nephila” tells the story of a fallen angel searching for the ultimate weapon in the battle between good and evil, a nephila, which is a child born of an angel and a human.
Rebecca
Thompson (L) Applies makeup to Ellen Muth (R), star of Nephila
During the second day of shooting that took place at
Bitz-ee Mama's Restaurant
in historic downtown Glendale Arizona. Photo
By Ed Sharpe Glendale Daily Planet
Muth plays Rose, the nephila and is joined by top independent film actors Joe Flowers
( Azael) and Kevin Tye ( Raphael) as the feuding angels.
Written by Joshua Mathieson and produced by Tamara McDaniel of the Phoenix Independent Filmmakers Group and veteran producer Jon Bonnell of Infinite Spectrum Productions, “The Nephila” is a product of the vibrant Phoenix indie film community.
“We’re very proud that we can attract such talent here”, says McDaniel,
“and adding Ellen to our line-up of experienced local cast and crew shows how far independent film has come here in Phoenix”.
The Director of Photography is Joel Kaye. and hi-tech video image capture
is achieved with the use of the phenomenal ' RED ONE'.
Bitz-ee
Mama's restaurant
was the production's location for the second day of shooting.
The news of “The Nephila” spread quickly on the Internet and the Ellen Muth fan sites are now buzzing with activity about this new film. “Our goal is to take a fresh approach to such a traditional theme”, says seasoned Director Kevin R. Phipps, “With the action, drama and special effects planned, we’re sure that our audience is in for a heck of a ride.”
The film stars Ellen Muth in the part of Rose – known best for her starring role of George in the hit series “Dead Like Me”, and introducing two fabulous actors from right here in Phoenix, Joe Flowers who is playing Azael and Kevin Tye who is playing Raphael.
Tamera McDaniel sums things up. " We have been so fortunate in all the assistance we’ve gotten – from our local industry professionals to local vendors and companies – it’s really incredible how things have come together to make this project happen. We have such a phenomenal team I’m continually awestruck by the dedication and whole hearted commitment by every single person in the cast and crew. Our goal is to turn this short into a feature. "
Release of “The Nephila” will take
place at key film festivals later this year, followed the making of
the production into a full length feature.
Michelle and Tim await the rolling
of the camera....
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