MEDIA COVERAGE

Local grad's film impresses viewer
December 22, 2004
Victoria Advocate

Editor, the Advocate:

I had the pleasure of attending the screening of "Wesley Cash," the first feature film of Victoria High graduate Will Moore. Filmed locally in the Victoria area, it is a gritty and suspenseful story of greed and revenge in a small Texas town. I encourage everyone to attend one of the screenings being held this week at the Victoria Community Theater.
Part of the fun of seeing this movie is in identifying the area landscape and local landmarks, and you might also see a familiar face in some of the local actors.
You will experience a fine piece of storytelling with excellent cinematography, acting, music and a riveting plotline. We are sure to see more outstanding work from Will as he continues in his film career, and you can say, "I knew him when." This movie is not recommended for children under the age of 15 because of strong language and violence.
RUTH JOSLYN
Victoria

'Wesley Cash' sits well with movie goers in Victoria
December 19, 2004
ROBERT WILCOX
Victoria Advocate

VICTORIA - Violent, yet tender, Will Moore's "Wesley Cash" was a big hit with film goers at the Victoria Community Theatre on Friday night.

The suspense thriller is about a veteran, who after learning of his father's death, comes home with dreams of settling down and rebuilding the family cattle business. But things go awry and Cash ends up on the run.
Pamela Alex of Victoria said the most intense moment was the love that Cash displayed toward the character Mandy in one of the final scenes.
Nancy Licon, also from Victoria, has known actor Chad Svatek - whose screen name is Chad Matthews - for more than 18 years. Matthews plays Cash in the film.
"I know Chad and really liked the way he performed," Licon said. "I almost started to cry in his final scene with Mandy because it was hard seeing him so emotional."
Alex and Licon both liked one of the few comical scenes when Cash is spewed with oil while trying to fix his car. "It was really good, the actors were great, and the way it ended was exciting," Alex said.
The 71-minute film is Moore's first full feature production and cost about $20,000 to produce, according to Fagan Patterson who was the film's co-producer.
Several Victoria area residents were cast in the movie, which was filmed in the summer of 2003. Two of them were at the Friday showing and shared some of their thoughts after the show.
Walter Womack, 56, of McFadden played Daniel, an evil land grabber, and Diana Reddish, 23, of Austin, played Samantha, Cash's first love.
Reddish, who was born in Japan, is a self-described military brat who has lived around the world and ended up at UT Austin where she met Will Moore. Womack was born in Menard and met the crew when he tried out for the part. He enjoyed helping the crew as much as he liked the acting, he said.
Reddish saw the first cut of the film in Los Angeles and said the final version is less chronological, so you need to really concentrate on the plot.
Womack and Reddish have been active in theater and this is their first venture into film. Both mentioned that the most difficult thing about film is working yourself up emotionally.
"In theater you build up to emotion during the live production, but when I had to do retakes for film I had to get myself emotional again in just a few minutes," Reddish said.
"It's the immediacy in film versus the theater," Womack said.
When asked whether they would do it again, they chorused, "absolutely."
The Motion Picture Association of America has not rated the film, but it is not recommended for children under the age of 15 because of strong language and violence.
Moore and Fagan's next production has already secured some major funding. The movie will be called "The Bailbondsman" and will also star Chad Matthews in the lead role along with veteran actor Ernie Reyes Jr., who starred in the "Rundown."
Moore has also written roles for two other well-known actors, Eva Mendez and Elijah Woods, who he is currently in discussions with.
There's still time to see "Wesley Cash" at the Victoria Community Theatre. The film will run until Dec. 22, and advance tickets can still be purchased at JR's Boot Center, the Victoria Advocate and Victoria Communications Services, or on the day of the show at the theater. All tickets are $6.

Victoria grad will debut his first feature film in former hometown
November 25, 2004
ROBERT WILCOX
Victoria Advocate

VICTORIA - As a thank-you to the local actors who starred in his film, a former Victorian will screen the movie in December at the Victoria Community Theatre. He follows that class act with a casting call for his next movie that he also plans to shoot in the area.

Will Moore, who graduated from high school in Victoria in 1995 and now lives in Austin, wrote and directed "Wesley Cash," a full-length feature film that was filmed locally in August 2003 using a 16mm camera.

Working on a small budget, Moore ended up selling the camera after the shooting was over so he could finish the process. He spent about nine months editing the production on his personal computer.

"The hardest thing in the editing was the lip sync between the audio and video," Moore said. "The 16mm camera we used was noisier than I thought, so we had to record a lot of the audio over again."
Another Texan, 30-year-old Chad Matthews, plays the lead role of returning veteran Wesley Cash. Charles Colson, a Victoria hairdresser and massage therapist, plays the supporting role of the evil sheriff.
Fagan Patterson, 40, who was born and raised in Victoria, is Moore's partner and producer at Bandwagon Films.
"I'm excited it's all finally coming together," Patterson said.
The screening of the movie that is based on a true story will run from Dec. 15-22. Advance tickets can be purchased starting Dec. 1 at JR's Boot Center, the Victoria Advocate and Victoria Communications Services, or on the day of the show at the theater. All tickets will cost $6.
The Motion Picture Association of America has not rated the film, so it is not recommended for children under the age of 15 because of strong language and violence.
. . .
"Wesley Cash," billed as a suspense thriller, is about a veteran, who after learning of his father's death, comes home with dreams of settling down and rebuilding the family cattle business. Once home, however, Cash is told that his birthright, a 100,000-acre ranch, has been sold and that his love is in the arms of another man.
Without the ranch, Cash decides to leave, but not before convincing his love to go with him. What happens next is for moviegoers to find out, but suffice it to say that Wesley ends up on the run where he meets a number of color characters. And, in the end, a dark secret is revealed.
In July of this year, there was a screening in Los Angeles for film distributors. Moore had three initial offers and has narrowed the field to one solid offer.
. . .
Moore and Patterson have secured about $500,000 in funding for another film, which will be called "The Bailbondsman." It, too, will be a full-length feature film and will also star Chad Matthews in the lead role.
Veteran actor Ernie Reyes Jr., who starred in the "Rundown," has also committed to be in the new film.
For this second film, Moore asked fellow UT graduate, writer and musician Jonathan Case to help him write the script.
"The Bailbondsman" is about a shady character who bails criminals out of jail and then hires them to forces them to work for him. When another character in the movie is involved in a grisly car crash, the shifty bondsman comes to his rescue. The plot is replete with a backpack full of cash and cocaine, a Mexican tequila impresario by the name of Gen. Jimmy Benavides, and the means streets of a Texas underworld where the legal system fails and where the line between corporate and criminal is permanently blurred.
Moore hopes to cast some of the new roles for "The Bailbondsman" with more Victorians and even do a few weeks of filming in the area.
"I'm a Victoria boy, and always hope to film some parts of my movies here," he said.

Tickets available for screening
Tickets are still available for screenings of "Wesley Cash," a movie made by Victoria native Will Moore and filmed locally with a variety of area residents filling roles.

The screenings will begin tonight at 6:30 pm. and 8:30 p.m. at the Victoria Community Theatre at 206 E. Constitution, and continue at the same times through Dec. 22.
Tickets may be purchased for $6 at JR's Boot Center, Victoria Communications, Comet Cleaners and The Victoria Advocate or at the theater's box office prior to showings.
"Wesley Cash" is a suspense thriller about a veteran, who after learning of his father's death, returns home to rebuild the family's cattle business. Once home, he is told that his ranch has to be sold and realizes that his love is in the arms of another man.

Victorians have major roles in movie
August 31, 2003
PAT HATHCOCK
Victoria Advocate

Charles Colson had to die Aug. 14 and he'd been dreading it.

Colson is playing an ambiguously evil sheriff in an unnamed movie that was filmed around Victoria in August. A clearly dispensable character, the sheriff is shot dead in a scene filmed late in the movie. Colson knew he had to fall down to be dead and he has a bad knee that had him worried. He is a Victoria hairdresser and massage therapist and had even fretted to clients about his imminent fall.

The production is full of Victorians from the top down. The director, Will Moore, is a Victorian, Memorial High School '95. The male lead is Chad Svatek, St. Joseph High School '93.
Colson read for the part when one of his clients, Ruth Stock, urged him to. She has a part also.

"She's the gossipy woman in the mercantile store," he said.

Colson plays Sheriff Tanner, a party to a conspiracy that involves murdering a man and stealing his ranch. Wesley Cash, the man's son, comes back from the military to right the wrong. Tanner's a bit of a wimp for a conspiratorial villain.

"Ruth gave me Will's number in Austin and I sent a picture and called him, asked him what kind of guy is the sheriff? He said, 'He's kinda shy and timid and always wanted to be with the big boys and never made it,'" Colson said. "He's a sheriff who can be manipulated. He's insecure and not quite sure about things."

In a scene where he is called on to kill a man, Tanner can't do the job and throws up.
Colson was wearing a shirt that Moore liked and Moore asked him how attached he was to the shirt. If he died in it, it would necessarily be spattered with blood and then have a hole torn in it.

"I liked the shirt. Somebody gave it to me for Christmas," he said.

It's a shirt with broad stripes and a denim collar. He decided to sacrifice the shirt for the sake of art. "I decided it'd be kinda neat to have a souvenir of the movie," he said.
Moore cast several other locals in the movie, including Fagan Patterson, Walter Womack, Glen Davis, Rhett Hanes, Luke Merta, Eric Herman, Ken Vogel Sr., Felix Garcia of Odem, John C.C. Hamilton, Lupe Rendon and Bobby Kneifel. Some of the locally cast parts are pretty substantial. "Ken Vogel - he plays Butch - he's in the entire movie. I did an earlier short film with several of these local people," Moore said.

"I come by it honestly," Moore said of his acting. "My uncle was the first Ph.D. in drama from the University of Texas. I started doing stuff with the community theater and accidentally crossed paths with this guy (Will).

"My character's Daniel Irvin. He's one of the bad guys. He's the suit - he may be a lawyer, he may be a banker. He's one of the schemers. He must be an awful person but he's a pretty smooth character."

Womack, who says he lives in the middle of a pasture a few miles from McFaddin, was hanging around while they shot Colson's demise. Aug. 14 was not a good day to die, with broiling temperatures and little breeze stirring. The crew was shooting at Virginia Dierlam's ranch house near McFaddin. They had all caravanned over about 10 a.m. from the Fagan Patterson ranch, around the corner on Texas Highway 239 where they are quartering. Patterson got a role in the picture and offered the use of the deer-lease cabins on the ranch.
The offer was accepted with alacrity, as the movie is definitely a po' boy operation. They are shooting with a 16mm camera of ancient vintage. "It's an oldie but a goodie," Director of photography Jason Sherman says.

Included in the caravan was a trailer carrying Wes' car, a red Chevy II, a little beat up but sexy in a dilapidated way. It has a hot cam so it lopes along roughly. They trailer it because it only gets about five miles to the gallon of very expensive fuel. It is also inclined to capricious behavior so they minimize actually driving it.

Shooting starts with Sheriff Tanner getting out of a ratty Chevy pickup borrowed from a visitor. They do the routine with the little clapper held in front of the camera. It reads "Untitled - Wesley Cash." They change the numbers using pieces of tape. "Scene 140, shot 2, take 1," producer Dana Blumn says.

And they really holler "Action."

In Scene 140, shot 2, take 1, Colson gets out of the truck, takes a few steps, pauses and makes a little apprehensive noise, then goes on toward the house. Things in filming happen in little bitty increments, shots accumulating 45 seconds and a minute at a time, to be all stitched together into a movie in post-production. In the next shot, he passes by the Chevy II that is parked in the ranch yard and slaps the back fender as he walks past.

In the car, Wesley and Mandy are making out. This is a day so sweating, dripping, miserable hot that not even a 16-year-old could relish making out. They must be sliding around on each other like two catfish in a washtub. Wesley got out of the car and walked up to the house with Tanner, who banged on the door. Tanner was done up with a big brown Western hat that looked right sheriffly.

When Tanner is shot, blood spatters across Wes, who looks down and reacts in horror. They were first going to squirt the "blood" from a pump-up pressure tank with a hose attached but finally settled for just flinging it off a sponge.

When the sheriff got to do his death scene, a revolver slipping from his hand into the dirt, he explained his knee problem and looked around for something to slump down dead on. They finally did the best they could, Tanner looking ouchy as he died. Afterward, Colson was walking around with his pretty Christmas shirt covered with big patches of blood. He looked pretty happy with himself, shiny and ruddy in the heat.

Colson nurses some hope of remuneration when the film is finally finished and has heard that an appearance in a movie will allow him membership in the Screen Actors Guild, the movie actors union. Union membership could open the door to other jobs and you can hear that thought percolating in Colson's mind.

It will be some time before the post-production work is finished and that is the expensive part of the job for Moore. Blumn said, "He'll have to transfer the film, edit it, transfer it back, He's got to sell the camera to raise some money to do post-production."

Moore himself was making jokes about putting the equipment up on eBay.

He is the son of movie costume supervisor Stanley Moore, a former Victorian, so he has a legacy in the movie business. Will started out as a history major at the University of Texas and discovered two or three years into school that he was interested in movies.

He wrote the screenplay for the movie. "Parts of it are true. It kinda comes from stories I heard from my uncles when I was a little kid. I took it and gave it a modern spin," he said.
"It's a good story - a guy and girl on the run," he said. "This is the third or fourth draft. I wrote the first draft in California and planned to come back to Texas and make a movie. Then I discovered I needed to learn how to make movies. I met all these nice people and took about a year and rewrote it. In the third or fourth draft I did bring in some South Texas history about this area. I used the Rural Routes section the Victoria Advocate published a couple of years ago to get information about these little towns. And there's a Web site, I think the Handbook of Texas Online, that has everything about Texas history."

When he's finished with work in Texas, he will go out to Los Angeles, where he is moving, to work on the musical score with Jonathan Case, another Victorian.

Shooting was finished last Thursday, golf course shots at Colony Creek, and there was a wrap party that night. The crew will disperse, at least until somebody else comes up with a script.

A low-budget movie will be shot in the Victoria area this summer and some roles are open to local actors. Auditions for 10 roles in the "Wesley Cash Project" will begin at 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Victoria Community Theatre. The chase thriller tells the story of Wesley Cash, a young man who returns from service in the military with the hope of rebuilding his family's cattle business. Cash discovers that his recently deceased father was actually murdered and finds himself running for his life from his father's killers.

Some of the roles already have been cast with actors from Austin and California. Movie director and Austin filmmaker Will Moore said he is looking for approximately 10 actors from the Victoria area, including one to two older women, six to seven men ranging in ages from mid-20s to late-40s and a young boy. Moore said he hopes to cast a couple of the principal roles and a lot of supporting cast in Victoria.

"The most important thing is to come in and be relaxed, be yourself," he said, offering tips to actors interested in auditioning. Moore said he chose to do some casting and to film in the Victoria region because he grew up here.

"I think South Texas is beautiful. It's really open and very picturesque," he said. "I think it was important for me to shoot here and it's important that people who were from the town be involved in the project."

Moore, who is the son of movie costume supervisor Stanley Moore, formerly of Victoria, wrote the script. "It was a combination of stories I heard when I was younger," he said. "I'm a big fan of this genre, the chase-thriller genre. I always wanted to twist the story into a chase thriller."

The low-budget film will be Moore's first feature film. Since living in Austin, Moore has shot 10 short films, two music videos and other short film projects. The movie will be shot on the Fagan ranch near Tivoli, he said. He plans to begin filming Aug. 4 and finish Aug. 31.

"I'm financing this all myself. It's been a year in the making. I had to work two jobs to save money," Moore said. "After it's shot, I'll have the film processed and transferred so I can edit it. From the time we finish shooting, it could be a whole year before I have a finished product. With independent, low-budget films, you have the time but not the money." Moore said it was an important goal for him to make a feature film. "It's the story that's inside of me that I want to tell," he said.

For more information about the movie or Moore's production company, Bandwagon Films, visit his Web site at www.bandwagonfilms.com