Fear of the unknown.
We all face it daily. How often are we afraid to seek or reveal truth for fear of the knowledge it brings?
The story of Reco explores this as Annie embarks on a destined journey on horseback across Utah’s back country. Sent to fetch her adoptive grandmother, she meets a woman and confronts a past that leads her to a life changing discovery.
But first, she has to come to terms with the vivid and fearful dreams that have haunted her for most of her life and risk asking the questions that could bring the truth she's been seeking.
Chris has scribed several feature length screenplays as well as several short films with genre and theme spanning the spectrum. Though he has written and directed several smaller projects in the past, Reco is his first film to be produced with a significant budget and a full cast and crew.
Courtney Baxter is from West Chester, Pennsylvania, but she has worked all over the country since her career began as a professional SAG/AFTRA actress at the age of 11. Courtney attends a competitive public high school, is the school-community liaison, dances on several competition dance teams and has still managed to work steadily while enjoying normal teen years. Her work in film, episodics, dance, radio and voiceovers has been rewarding and extensive. Performance is a passion for Courtney, but she aspires to learn about all aspects of the entertainment industry.
Courtney's parents, Debbie and Rick, and her siblings, Chelsea, Kyle and Lindsey, have always been supportive in her acting career and it was an incredible opportunity for them to work on set alongside Courtney during the filming of Reco. Courtney is grateful to have learned so much as an Executive Producer and actor in the making of the film and is proud and excited to share the movie with as many people as possible.
Stacee attended the Acting Emphasis Program at the University of Utah and graduated from Westminster College in Theatre and Communications. She has appeared in a number of TV commercials and has been involved in several films, most recently as Shannon, the Evil Stepmother in “The Boathouse Detectives.” Stacee has performed in many theatres throughout the region, including The Salt Lake Acting Company, The Egyptian Theatre in Park City and The Rose Wagner Theatre. She also savors being the vocalist in a Salt Lake jazz band. Stacee is thrilled to be a part of Reco. She especially appreciated how the creative people involved helped the project evolve into a warm, fun and collective heart.
John started his acting career while transitioning out of being a dot com CEO. During an extended stay in Hamburg Germany, John landed a principal role in a film sponsored by national television station ZDF. The film won first place in Berlin’s film festival. Returning to the United States John continued acting studies from several leading available instructors including Tom Logan (Director/Producer). John has received featured acting roles in various local and national projects and is very excited to be part of the professional cast and crew in the making of Reco.
Mary began as an assistant to Emmy Award winning producer Don Schain (“High school Musical”). She spent 8 years working as a camera assistant on over 25 features including “High School Musical” and “High school Musical 2”, “World’s Fastest Indian” (starring Anthony Hopkins) and “Maldonado Miracle” (Salma Hayek’s directorial debut). In 2006 she co-produced “Let Go” (a short by Kelly King). Next, she wrote, produced and directed the short “Black Ear” which premiered in Salt Lake City, UT in 2008. In 2009 she produced “Devil Drink” (a short by Sean McGarry), and “Disoriented” (a short by Robert ‘Ziggie’ Orchard). Her hopes for Reco are that the film moves audiences internationally and creates an opportunity for ReCinema to bring more amazing films to the world.
Kyle started filmmaking after enrolling in the University of Utah’s film program’s introductory production class. Hooked, he dropped out at the end of the semester and spent his tuition on a camera and editing system, and never looked back. He has since directed and/or produced nearly a dozen short films, most of which no one has ever heard of. In 2004, he co-founded the Motion Picture Association of Utah, a non-profit association of filmmakers, cast and crew committed to ensuring the future of Utah’s film industry. The MPAU has been the driving force behind Utah’s Motion Picture Incentive Fund, where Utah serves as one of the top examples of a successful motion picture incentive program. He continues to actively sit on the Board of Directors. In the fall of 2008, Clayton Farr approached him with a simple question: Can we do what Pixar has done, but for live action? And from that, ReCinema was born. He is proud to have been a part of Recos inception and realization.
Clayton is a co-founder of ReCinema along with Kyle Mallory. His past work has been as a director and writer of his share of short films and a number of slightly longer documentaries as well as a film instructor. With whiteboard pen and Excel docs in hand he cheerfully listened to and haranged the multitude of brighter folks around him during this great production.
Jason began his career a decade ago working as an assistant location manager for “Touched by an Angel”. In 2004, he began working for Park City Television, shooting extreme sports content and quickly became the head of commercial production. Invited to join an elite group of filmmakers, Jason has worked at the Sundance Institute’s Directors Lab over the past ten years as an assistant director, Steadicam operator and first assistant camera for the labs. Jason also shot the feature documentary “We Still Believe” that follows the 90’s band Blessed Union Of Souls, which later won an Emmy for Best Documentary.
Steve has completed hundreds of projects including over thirty feature films, ranging from “Windwalker” to “The Work and the Glory” Trilogy. In addition to feature work, Steve has lent his talents to eight highly regarded IMAX films, such as “Hidden Secrets of the Grand Canyon”, one of the most successful IMAX films of all time, and the Academy Award nominee “Amazon”. Steve has also edited scores of commercials for clients such as the LDS Church, Major League Baseball, the Boy Scouts of America, the Salvation Army, and the National football League. Steve has been an active member of The American Cinema Editors, an honorary professional society dedicated to the art and science of film editing, since 1995.
Jennifer has been editing film and video for the last 18 years. This love affair began when a few students from The Sundance Film Institute came to her high school in Salt Lake City, Utah to teach the drama class how to make films. From that moment, she was hooked! She moved to San Francisco and improved her skills at San Francisco State, The Film Arts Foundation, and City College of S.F. While in San Francisco she worked with filmmaker Aron Ranen on documentaries and corporate videos. She currently shoots and edits video for the web and short narrative films.
Randin’s diverse musical background spanning classical, rock, electronic and world music prepared him well for film composition. Originally from southern California, where he studied composition at the University of California at San Diego, Randin worked for 5 years in a remote Australian Aboriginal community before arriving in Utah in 2009. Since then, his music has won awards from the Park City Film Music Festival, the 48 Hour Film Project and the Action on Film International Film Festival.
After entering the School of Media Arts at the University of Arizona, Michaela quickly began working on fellow students’ films as a production sound recordist and composer. She began working for university’s Production Lab and Post-Production Lab, developing a wide range of knowledge which ultimately led her to create sound design for students and faculty. Her key contribution to the university itself was designing a post-production audio workflow for master the audio on senior BFA films. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Aesthetics and Criticism of Media Arts and a Minor in Music, Michaela was invited to work as a production sound mixer at the Sundance Institute’s Directors Lab in 2008 and has been a participant every summer since.
Reco is an Official Selection at both the Big Apple Film Festival and Sacramento Film Festival!
Reco has been selected to screen at the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival! This sounds like a great fest in Vancouver – look for us there August 10th - 14th, 2011.
We're honored to have won the 'Audience Award' at the West Chester Film Festival (let the masses vote!) Even more impressive is our winning with the Academy Award 'God of Love' in the running. Thanks! Looking forward even more to our upcoming festival screenings…
Great news! Reco has just been selected to screen at the West Chester Film Festival, Four Site Film Festival and Park City Music Festival. Our festival submissions continue – we’re looking forward to screening at these greats fests and many more.
We've submitted today to the Cinequest Film Festival (San Jose, CA) and the Ashland Independent Film Festival (Ashland, OR). We'll keep you posted as we hear news.
So far we've submitted Reco to the following festivals. We won't receive notice if we got in to any of them until starting early December.
Sundance, Slamdance, Ann Arbor, Nashville, Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills Shorts, Cleveland International, BigPond Adelaide (Australia), Atlanta, Aspen Shortsfest, Florida, Seattle International, and West Chester International (PA).
Gavin on the City Weekly blog ran this nice interview about Reco and director Chris Adler. Check it out! Lots of Behind the Scenes photos.
Here's a clip of some behind the scenes footage from Reco. We shot this up in Spanish Fork Canyon with the folks at Flying Sensors. They helped us capture our breathtaking aerial shots.
Our talented composer Randin Graves has made the Reco soundtrack available on CD Baby. Its also available on Amazon and iTunes. Check it out!
Reco has an IMDB page! It has a few issues that they are still working on (duplicate entries, etc) but it should be ship-shape sooner or later.
Reco has wrapped production! Our cast and crew went way beyond expectation and delivered something quite stunning. The actor’s performances constantly moved the people on the set watching them. Our light artists are truly masters of their craft and made locations that were already captivating look even better. With bittersweet feelings we now move from production into post production.
Dennis Light has joined the Reco Production team! Dennis is a very experienced location scout who has worked his magic on a big pile of local feature films as well as the TV series “Touched by an Angel”. Glad to have you aboard!
We just finished registering Reco Productions, LLC as a business entity here in Utah.
We’ve booked the venue and we’re holding auditions for the unfilled three roles in Reco the 21st and 22nd at Jeff Johnson’s studio.
Project Description: “Reco” is a period western dramatic short film set in the late 1800′s in the Utah high country. It’s scheduled to shoot from June 23rd to June 26th, 2010. It will be shot around the Salt Lake City area and nearby.
Auditioning for Characters: Bella, Thomas, Bill
So we’re planning on using the services of Flying Sensors to shoot an important action scene in Reco.
Flying Sensors operates a fleet of R/C helicopters, blimps, etc. that can carry a camera and shoot some incredible footage. The camera is remotely controllable with a full pan/tilt head to follow the action.
So why do we need something like this in a western?
There’s an important scene in Reco where Annie confronts her birth mother over the reason why she was abandoned when she was 5. When she learns why it happened, she can’t accept it and flees from the house on horseback. This is no ordinary horse. Reco is a retired racehorse and he knows how to run. We wanted to make sure we capture this scene in a way that really lets us connect with what Annie is feeling as she rides. We need to show the speed at which she’s fleeing, as well as show the emotion on her face.
A static shot just won’t do! Our initial plan was to use a camera car, but that would really limit where we could shoot this scene. The scene calls for “Annie riding Reco across a vast meadow”. To shoot with a camera car limits that to “Annie riding Reco across a vast meadow WITH A PAVED ROAD THAT RUNS PARALLEL TO IT”. With our limited budget, time, etc. that would be a tall order to fill!
Enter the helicopters!
With the RED ONE dangling precariously beneath a large R/C helicopter we can shoot this scene in any vast meadow that’s picturesque and safe to ride in, provided we can get cars nearby to unload gear. We can also shoot some scenes where Annie travels across the Utah wilderness in some very cinematic ways that a short film with our budget normally couldn’t even dream of.
Stay tuned for updates!
Courtney Baxter has been cast in the lead role of Annie and are looking forward to working with her next month.
To find out more about Reco, please feel free to email or connect with us on Facebook.
Reco is a ReCinema project.