communityfilmout by chris carpenter


FILMOUT 2017’s SOMETHING LIKE SUMMER


LOVE’S LATEST IS A WINNER


Something Like Summer is shaping up to be one of the most popular entries on this year’s LGBT film festival circuit. This ambitious romantic-drama traces the 12-year relationship between handsome, young Ben and Tim.


Ben (played by Grant Davis) is


an aspiring but shy singer when the pair first meets in high school, while Tim (Davi Santos of recentPower Rangers fame) yearns to be a painter. The film explores their developing talents, as well as their tumultuous, on again-off again affair. It even includes seven powerful songs, performed beautifully by Davis. Carlos Pedraza serves as one


of the movie’s producers. The Bogota, Colombia-born filmmaker has a number of gay and mainstream credits to his name, including the award-winning 2011 feature Judas Kiss and two popular Star Trek web series. He recently spoke withThe Rage Monthly prior to the West Coast premiere of his latest at FilmOut. He explained how this project came together, “One of the producers, Tom Ly, created his own production company to acquire the rights to the book, written by Jay Bell. He came across us (Pedraza and partner J.T. Tepnapa) whenJudas Kiss was play- ing festivals and brought us on board. We began the process of development and fundraising. It took five years in all for the film to get made.” The film is beautifully shot by its director, David Berry, though it’s unusual for the same person to serve as both director and cinematographer. Pedraza discussed the choice, “It was sort of a decision that was forced upon us, but it was a happy accident. J.T. had been slated to direct but became


ill a few days into shooting so David stepped in to take over. He was already shooting the film, so he had been well-prepped. He did a great job in both capacities. As to whether Something Like Summer is properly termed as a musical, “We struggled with that in pre-production. It has songs but not really full-blown production numbers. We ultimately embraced it since so many people were referring to it as a musical.There have been so many other musical films and network TV episodes since it was filmed, that it kind of makes sense now. Glee was still on when we first started developing the film, but that was about it. Pedraza talked about how they went


about finding such a great young cast. “We did a traditional casting process for the two leads, with auditions and postings. One of our producers knew Davi’s agent, so there was already a connection there and he was the first we cast.” He continued, “We cast a wide net for the role of Ben, looking


I would say at the


center the theme is courage, it’s about


coming out and not being afraid… The other message is about finding and


defining who you are.” 12 RAGE monthly | JUNE 2017


all across America and even Australia and England, as well as for the female lead. We were so lucky to get Ajiona Alexus (who plays Allison, Ben’s best friend), who currently plays the younger Cookie on TV’sEmpire and is in Netflix’s13 Reasons Why.” There is a sequence in the movie


set in Paris, France, which would be an expensive undertaking for an independent film. Pedraza discussed how they managed to avoid it, “That was actually shot in Portland, Oregon, with the help of CGI. I lived in Portland and am very familiar with the city.” He continued, laughing as he did, “One side of the river in


Portland was Paris and the other side was Chicago. I was familiar with a local French restaurant that we used for the restaurant scene.” As to the moral or message of the


film, “There’s a couple of things. I would say at the center the theme is courage, it’s about coming out and not being afraid. Even though Ben comes out as gay in the ninth grade, he has to handle other things in his life with courage, like singing and relationships. The other message is about finding and defining who you are. That’s a process that friends and other people can help us with but each of us has to decide for ourselves.” When asked what is next on their


slate, Pedraza offered this, “There are three or four things that we’re explor- ing right now. Two are adaptations, one is a biopic and one is a science fiction project. We are looking to see how much financial interest we can get fromSomething Like Summer, which is working out well so far. The trailer has really taken off and is generating interest everywhere. It has over 1,000,000 views in the Philippines of all places (laughs)!


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