THE BUZZ ABOUT PUZZ

Somewhere on a street lay an errant brown puzzle piece. Bicyclists might pedal over it. Sparrows might peck at it. But Puzz went on a quest to find its owner. \n"Puzz," the second short film by The Nineteenth State Filmmakers' Collective, is to be premiered along with five other local films on Friday, July 7th at 8 p.m. at the Hospital, located at 1021 South Walnut St. \nThe twenty minute film tells the story of a puzzle fanatic who began a mission to return a lost puzzle piece. On the other hand, Annette, who struggled with a stifling relationship with her dopey boyfriend, was also trying to complete a puzzle with only one jigsaw missing. \nDavid Orr, the writer of the script, said he got his inspiration from watching a TV commercial for puzzles called "Puzz 3D." \n"I thought Puzz is kind of a fun word for a name," Orr said. "The next day I just started to write a story about him."\nFrom there Orr created some colorful characters that Puzz encounters on the road, including a pogo enthusiast who always jumps on his pogo stick, and a lonely lady who lives with her fake cat, both of whom seem wacky and unreal.\n"I am not really worried about the reality when I am writing," Orr said. "The most interesting thing to me is how people interact, and I don't go with the easy and stereotypical way of interactions between characters."\nTo do that, the film is composed of less dialogue, but more visual statements that are collected entirely from Bloomington. \n"If you look around, Bloomington has a lot of interesting and unique locations," said Will Claytor, cinematographer of the film, and founder of the Nineteenth State Filmmaker's Collective. "We tried to use as much of it as we can." \nThere are shots at Third Street Park, the Game Preserve on the square, and the new playground at Cascades Park, which is Claytor's favorite spot for the film.\n"It's a ridiculous looking playground that has a three story tall castle and slides," Claytor said. "We love the interesting shapes and bright colors."\nBut with no budget to block public spaces, shooting at the playground packed with kids became stressful for the cast and crew, according to Orr.\n"Sometimes when things were going really well, all of a sudden a kid ran through the scene or somebody would just yell really loudly," said Orr. \nScheduling was another issue for the group. All the people involved have day jobs; thus main shots had to be done on weekends while editing took up the time after work, said Claytor. The shared love for films led them through the difficulties.\n"We are all friends, and none of us really went to acting school or film school," said Nathan Vollmar, who starred as Puzz. "But we all want to make movies and be creative in that way."\nVollmar, whom Orr described as charismatic, said he had more fun in editing as he enjoyed watching, cutting and messing with various scenes. \n"But I don't mind acting if my friends ask me to," said Vollmar.\nFriendship and collaboration are what has kept the Nineteenth State Filmmakers' Collective going. The Bloomington-based production company was established last year by a group of friends to produce and support local and independent films. \n"Gulf War Syndrome," the company's first short production, won the audience's choice of favorite film at the 2005 Cinephile Film Festival, an event that showcased locally made films from the Bloomington community.\nThis year the same crew decided to participate in the making of "Puzz," and continued to emphasize team work with no traditional directorial credit.\nWith about twenty people involved, the group has worked collectively where everybody shares talents, ideas and trust. There is no director, and no big ego but contributions from all, Claytor said.\n"We discussed the script together; we shot with Will's camera, edited scenes on our own computers, and used original music," Vollmar said. "We've worked out pretty well." \nWhen asked about the screening event, Orr stressed that it will be a really special evening of local films.\n"You can see different local bands at one night, but it's very rare to get a night of just local films," said Orr. "So I encourage people to come see some good art."\nAn additional screening of "Puzz" will be held on Sunday, July 9 at 3 p.m. at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium as part of Plan-It-X Fest, an annual punk rock festival put on by Plan-It-X Records.\nFor more information, contact the Nineteenth State Filmmakers' Collective at nineteenthstate@gmail.com.