John Ferrer, a 22-year-old resident of Greenville and former student of Wade Hampton High School, the Greenville County Fine Arts Center, and the North Carolina School of the Arts, will debut a feature-length film, Grownups, at 8 PM on Monday, January 30th, at the Handlebar, 304 East Stone Avenue, in Greenville. Ferrer wrote the screenplay and directed the film, which features a cast and crew comprised of numerous area residents.
Shot completely with a Canon XL2, the same digital camera used to create Gunner Palace, Grownups is a comedy about four children who make a pact never to grow up. Filmed entirely in the Western Carolina/Upstate South Carolina area, Grownups is the culmination of Ferrer’s childhood dream. “I´ve wanted to make movies as long as I can remember,” he admits. “Being able to use what is, essentially, a consumer camcorder to achieve this level of quality is amazing. Until now, it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and hours upon hours in a post-production studio, to create a film that looks this good.”
Working with an all-but-nonexistent budget and relying heavily on the kindness of strangers, Ferrer focused what little money he had on purchasing the camera he identified as the best available. Similar to the Panasonic X100, which was used to shoot the Courtney Cox thriller, November, the Canon XL2 shoots at both 24 and 30 frames a second, offers meticulous image and detail control, and features a host of interchangeable options. Editing was done with Final Cut Pro on a Macintosh Powerbook.
Ferrer and several of his crew are relocating to the Los Angeles area in a few weeks with the hope that their digital creation will serve as a calling card to the film industry.
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