(Originally published by The Elmira Star-Gazette on Thursday, June 1, 2000))
Corning Director Tackles Vice in 'The SmoKing'
By Sarah McFarland
It's a bad habit, but it has its allure. Love it or hate it, people can be passionate about smoking.
Turning this ambivalence into the basis of a script, Corning resident Dave Rochelle wrote, directed and co-produced "The SmoKing," a 17-minute, black and white film.
"The SmoKing" premieres locally at 8pm Friday at the Corning Museum of Glass Auditorium. Doors open at 7pm.
With a cast and crew of friends, community support and some borrowed video equipment, Rochelle filmed on location in Corning over three weekends last summer.
"The organization was the hardest part. I've shot and edited hundreds of commercials, but never anything on this scale," says Rochelle, 31, a Horseheads native and a Cornell grad with a degree in government.
Rochelle and "The SmoKing" star Don Yearick sat down last weekend at The Glory Hole on Corning's Market Street to share some insights about their independent filmmaking experience.
Rochelle is no amateur auteur - he's been a production manager at WETM-TV in Elmira, and produced commercials in Albany. Currently, he teaches broadcasting, video production and film analysis, and manages the television studio at Corning Community College.
Yearick, 38, of Corning, has no formal acting experience. An aircraft mechanic for Corning Inc., he took on the project for fun, and is a co-producer as well as the leading man.
They created "The SmoKing" as a calling card to the film industry, and took the film to the Rochester International Film Festival in mid-May, where they won a "Shoestring" trophy. It's the first of many film festivals they hope to attend with the film.
"It's hard to make money off of shorts, and you know that going in," Rochelle says. "But when you come back two years later with a feature, you're taken seriously. People remember you."
"Shoestring" is appropriate. Rochelle says "The SmoKing" cost around $1,400, not including post-production costs and incidentals.
The project had a degree of comaraderie and community involvement you wouldn't find on the set of a Hollywood blockbuster. The Glory Hole and Lost Angel Glass closed to let the crew film inside. West End Gallery owner Tom Gardner painted the movie poster gratis, and those who made donations toward production costs will get to see their names in the credits Friday night.
More than 40 actors worked for free, on eight basic locations and shots Rochelle set on local roadways.
"I don't think there was anyone we know who wasn't in on this project," Rochelle says.
An on-again, off-again, now on-again smoker, Rochelle drew on his own experience to write the screenplay.
"It's sort of a fractured fairy tale. It could have been about any vice, any passion versus conformity. I sort of divided my own personality into two aspects - someone who loved smoking and took it to the extreme, and the opposite, a total non-smoker."
The story is set in an imaginary town where (with one exception) everybody smokes, but nobody smokes like the Smoke King.
The Smoke King drives a smoke-filled DeLorean, lights up with a blow torch, and pulls packs out of a bandolier slung across his chest.
The topic lent itself to some evocative (and inexpensive) effects.
It's an allegory, so it's not about reality," Rochelle says. "With all the haze in the air and some neat lighting, we were able to create a dream world."
Rochelle's only real regret about the project was that he had to encourage his actors to smoke.
"I actually wasn't really much of a smoker, so I went into training a couple months before and started smoking more. I didn't want to be on the set and not be in shape," Yearick says.
It was pretty bad in here," Rochelle says, gesturing around the Glory Hole, where a key scene was shot.
"It was very bad," Yearick says.
"Plus we had theatrical smoke generators for some scenes," Rochelle adds. Those are non-toxic, but it still makes it..."
"Smoky," Yearick says.
More than 40 (sic) hours of footage were shot, and the editing took between 300 and 400 hours.
"And we were just working on a 17-minute short," says Yearick. Imagine what you have to go through for a feature film."
Rochelle and Yearick worked on every aspect of the project, from composing the original music score with their band Royal Jelly: Rochelle on guitar, Yearick on bass, and G Brown (a former Corning resident) on drums, to stamping the promotional matchbooks for the film's local premiere.
Rochelle formed a company to handle talent contracts and accept donations for the film. Now Smoke King Productions is taking on a life of its own. Rochelle is doing free-lance, corporate, commercial and industrial videos, and planning to put earnings into his next film.
"We are working on a full-length feature screenplay," Rochelle says.
"That's about all we know right now," Yearick says.
They plan to shoot the film (tentatively titled "Monkey Run") next summer. So far, only Yearick has been cast.
Rochelle figures the feature will cost $60,000, and he will have to incorporate his production company and seek investors.
"They will own a stake in the movie," Rochelle says. "I've definitely learned that you have to secure the money first. I'm not about to fund $50,000-60,000 on my credit cards - they're still maxed from 'The SmoKing.'"
Right now, Rochelle and Yearick are looking at entering more film festivals - some events award cash and equipment as prizes.
Applications are out to the Austin Film Festival in Texas, the AFI (American Film Institute) Festival in Los Angeles, and the Palm Springs International Film Festival, among others.