Lack of degree costs Masiello USF job

OUR VIEW ‘Ownership’ of 2 parks falls on you

First Posted: 8/22/2014 WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A movie filmed mostly in Wilkes-Barre in 2012 and 2013 is expected to be released this fall, and those who are in it and helped make it will get to see it here today.
Kevin Davis, a nurse from Taylor who grew up in Wilkes-Barre, wrote, directed and starred in &#8220;Man in a Box,&#8221; a film for which Davis drew from events in his own life, including a 1990 drug conviction and doing jail time.
Davis plays Lloyd Taylor, a man released from a mental institution after spending 20 years there for murdering his family as a child.
In a recent phone interview, Davis, 44, said shooting wrapped up in June 2013, and editing was completed in January or February.
Some &#8220;rough copies&#8221; of the film were sent to a couple major film festivals, but so far none have bit. Davis said he&#8217;s waiting for the fall, when more festivals are held, and hopes the film will generate some interest.
Davis had also contacted Movies 14 earlier this year to arrange for a premiere for the cast and crew, but the theater didn&#8217;t have time available until August. So people who were involved in the production have received invitations for the movie&#8217;s limited debut today at the theater on Northampton Street, and Davis hopes they&#8217;ll be pleased.
&#8220;Considering the budget, I was quite pleased with the film,&#8221; Davis said. &#8220;But I&#8217;m my own worst critic when it comes to acting.&#8221;
The movie was made on a budget of less than $7,000.
There are a few scenes he said he would have done over, had he seen them before shooting ended, because he thinks he could have done them better. But that&#8217;s one of the challenges of directing and acting simultaneously.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if I would ever feature myself again. If I did, it would be a minor role. I&#8217;ll stick with directing,&#8221; he said with a laugh.
One of the challenges Davis faced was his own lack of experience, as this was his first venture in directing, and the inexperience of some crew members. In retrospect, he would have gone back and used a &#8220;shot list&#8221; &#8212; a list of different camera angles &#8212; for every scene.
&#8220;We missed so many shots, we had to call the actors back and re-shoot. We tried to duplicate the scene &#8212; clothing, hairstyle, make sure it all matched.
While he&#8217;s never had any formal training in acting or directing, Davis credits Luzerne County Community College English professor Sally Healey as an inspiration, and was grateful to writer Tom Peeler, whom he said &#8220;took what I had written and smoothed out the rough edges for me.&#8221;
What Davis is most proud of about the film, now that it&#8217;s finished and ready for viewing, is the location. &#8220;It was shot in Wilkes-Barre, mostly. It&#8217;s my hometown, where I grew up,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;We had an actual strip club, an actual church, uniforms for police, a police car. I tried to be authentic in that,&#8221; Davis said.
And Wilkes-Barre is also the locale for his next film &#8212; a horror movie, Davis said.
He plans to begin shooting here in the late fall and early winter.

Movie filmed in Wilkes-Barre hopes for fall release