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Charles Charles attends initial training at a pharmaceutical company.

Beth Riesgraf on Sunday’s ‘Leverage’ finale and moving the team to Portland

Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 2:12 PM     Updated: Monday, January 16, 2012, 12:14 PM

By Kristi Turnquist, The Oregonian
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View full sizeErik Heinila/TNTBeth Riesgraf and the rest of the “Leverage” crew are expected to be back in Portland to start shooting season 5 in mere months.

On Sunday night’s season 4 finale, the “Leverage” team has a showdown with the mysterious Latimer (Leon Rippy), and a foe from their past.

Portlanders should make a special effort to either watch or DVR Sunday night’s episode, “The Last Dam Job,” because this is the one that sets up the team relocating their base of operations from Boston to Portland.

While this makes sense as a practical matter — the TNT show has filmed in Portland since season 2 — it will require some narrative reason.

Beth Riesgraf, who plays the quirky cat burglar Parker on “Leverage,” says the finale will make it clear why Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) and the rest of the crew are pulling up stakes and heading to the Northwest.

In a phone interview, Riesgraf says other points of interest in the finale are the return of some familiar characters from previous episodes, including those played by Wil Wheaton and Richard Chamberlain.

“In the season finale, you sense some closure,” says Riesgraf. “And it will make sense to fans why the ‘Leverage’ troupe needs to change home base.”

The “Leverage” gang traveled to Portland in the recent episode, “The Gold Job,” taking down a crooked brother-sister duo running a cash-for-gold scam. Will there be some connection between that episode and the team moving to Portland?

“I think so,” Riesgraf says, teasingly. But she won’t reveal any more details, so as not to spoil the surprise.

Fans of “Leverage,” says Riesgraf, “will be anticipating the next season based on how this one ends.” There will be developments in the characters, and in how they relate to each other. “I’m really interested to see where Nathan Ford goes,” says Riesgraf. “It was such a dramatic finale for him personally. I’m also hoping to see more action for Parker.”

Speaking of relationships, what’s in store in season 5 for Parker and Hardison (Aldis Hodge), whose connection has grown stronger in season 4?

“I think they’ve both come to the understanding that they mean a great deal to one another, and this is a first for them in many ways,” says Riesgraf. “(Parker) has learned to trust that. She was leery at first. But she’s formed a bond with (Hardison) that’s different than the others. They’re secure in knowing that they have something special.”

Fans ask, Riesgraf says, when Parker and Hardison will get together. “I think there’s sort of an unspoken idea that they are together. They’re not like your average, everyday person. They’re not going to go off and get married. In terms of where they are right now, they’ve found what works for them. They sort of teeter-totter. I think it’s nice to see the two of them figure things out.”

The Parker-Hardison connection is different, Riesgraf says, from the way Nate and Sophie (Gina Bellman) are together. “The two of them together are genius,” says Riesgraf. “Their chemistry is so great and they have this mature understanding of what’s happening.”

As for how “Leverage” will change once the team is based in Portland, Riesgraf says, “I’m not really sure. I think it will be nice to give credit to the city that we’ve been in for the last 3 years and give credit to it being Portland.” She hopes the show can also make more use of locations outside the metro area. “Like the beach, and the mountains and waterfalls. They can double for so many continents. I think you’ll still us traveling.”

The “Leverage” team wasted no time working in a very specific local reference in “The Gold Job,” in which Parker is munching on a treat from a box of Voodoo Doughnuts. “I get asked so much about those donuts,” says Riesgraf. In the scene, Eliot (Christian Kane) looks inside the box and asks Parker if she took a bite out of every one of them. She replies yes, she had to see which one she wanted. Riesgraf had actually taken bites out of almost all the donuts she says, to see which one she wanted to focus on for the scene.

As Kane looks inside the box, Riesgraf says, “You could see for a moment there was a look on his face” where Kane is close to laughing.

“It was a lot of fun,” Riesgraf says. “We all kind of got the giggles. I was doing jump kicks in the middle of the street, I was so hyper. I had a major sugar crash about an hour later.”

With “Portlandia” and “Grimm,” “Leverage becomes the third TV series to be set in Portland. Riesgraf’s not too worried viewers may start to notice the same few locations turning up in the shows.

“We shoot in different places,” she says. “‘Portlandia’ is not necessarily going to be shooting down at the docks, blowing up warehouses. There’s maybe more of a crossover with ‘Grimm,’ but that world is a different world.”

To Riesgraf, Portland has qualities that help explain why productions are happy to film here. “It’s such an accessible city. You can walk everywhere. The food is great and you’ve got the best of everything within an hour. You’ve got the beach, you can do hikes, you can do farmers markets. I love the community there. There’s an overall sense of awareness and responsibility, and you don’t see that everywhere. It’s a nice place to be.”

Riesgraf says she hasn’t yet had a chance to visit all the Portland restaurants she wants to. “I love to try new restaurants and breakfast places I can take my son to.”

She won’t have long to wait before returning, Riesgraf says. “We’re scheduled to start shooting the beginning of March. I’m gearing up to head back soon.”

– Kristi Turnquist

Shit LA Actors Say – Starring Jeff Ellingson
Written, directed, produced & edited by:
Jeff Ellingson – http://www.youtube.com/jeffellingson & http://www.youtube.com/jeffephoto
Craig Michaelson – http://www.craigmichaelson.com & http://www.fullswingfilms.com

Leverage is launching an all new app for your Android and iOS device just in time for the season finale. Download it now and connect with other Leverage fans live during the season finale Sunday at 9|8c!

iOS:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/tnt-presents-leverage/id491170269?ls=1&mt=8

Android:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.turner.android.leveragecomp

More info:
http://www.tnt.tv/series/leverage/display/?contentId=244273

‘Black Eyed Kids’ sought for movie

Full-length film a continuation of Vancouver-based Web series called ‘Haunted Sunshine Girl’

Photo by Zachary Kaufman

The cast and crew of “Black Eyed Kids” film near the east side of the Hawthorne bridge in Portland. The film is based on the hit Vancouver-based Web series “Haunted Sunshine Girl,” which has had more than 5.7 million views so far.

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Haunted Sunshine Girl shivered inside her thick knitted cap and sturdy-looking blue cloth jacket as she gazed out at the gray Portland landscape.

Rain and winds pelted the cement and asphalt backdrop around the Hawthorne Bridge as the slender 17-year-old prepared herself to shoot another scene for her first film.

“It’s raining and I’m freezing,” Sunshine said with a determined smile. “This is really exciting, though. It’s a good next step.”

The teenager, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her from online stalkers, started work on the movie in late December. In it, she and her friends try to track down the origins of the occult legend of the black-eyed kids.

The production grew out of her Vancouver-based hit Web series, called “Haunted Sunshine Girl,” which, like the film, is the brainchild of Vancouver producer and director Nick Hagen.

So far, the year-old Web series — made up mostly of two minute videos on small handheld cameras — has gained a large cult following, netting more than 5.7 million total views on the YouTube channel “hauntedsunshinegirl.”

The full length film is a continuation of that series, which is about a girl that moves into a haunted house, Hagen said.

“The exciting thing about this movie is that we already have an audience built in,” Hagen said. “I’m optimistic that it will be successful.”

Hagen, who’s a big fan of horror movies, has long been fascinated with the odd tales of black-eyed kids that have spread across the Internet.

In most stories, a small group of kids with all-black eyes approaches an adult who’s alone in a car or a house. The kids, usually two boys between the ages of 10 and 13, ask for a ride home or to be let in to the house to use the bathroom or telephone.

The adult feels a sense of overwhelming fear before realizing that there’s something drastically wrong with the children’s eyes.

“It’s just kind of creepy,” Hagen said. “These kids coming up to the door and seeming more mature than they are. I don’t know what’s up with that, but I hope I don’t ever run into them.”

While he doesn’t really believe the tales are true, he does find them fascinating, Hagen said.

“They all seem so honest; I think that’s why it strikes me,” he said.

In the film, Sunshine and other actors from the Web series go to Portland in search of these strange kids. The city, both in the legend and the film, is a hot spot for sightings.

“We wanted to make this a stand-alone story that follows our heroine and friends on an all-new adventure,” said Mercedes Rose, mother of the teenager who plays Sunshine and an actress in the Web series and film. “BEKs (black eyed kids) are a new paranormal legend. It’s been out for a only few years, but we kind of liked the mystery of it.”

This will be the first feature film for Coat Tale Productions LLC, owned by Rose, Hagen and “Sunshine.” It’s being shot by Lyon Films, a Portland company.

Coat Tale Productions, which also does the Web series, gathered $11,651 in donations through kickstarter.com for the project, which is going by the working title of “Black Eyed Kids”.

That’s not a whole lot of money to make a film, but the documentary style keeps costs down because filmmakers don’t need a lot of studio settings or special effects — well, except for some rather expensive black contact lenses, Hagen said.

Aparna Parthasarathy, 17, who plays a black-eyed kid in the film, said wearing the lenses is sort of weird but not bad.

“I see little black rings and everything’s a little darker,” Parthasarathy said. “It’s sort of like wearing sunglasses.”

Because it’s a small production, many of the actors also double as crew.

Ironically, in a rainy scene where Sunshine and her friends ask strangers if they’ve seen any black-eyed kids, Parthasarathy — wearing her contacts — is off camera running right behind them holding an umbrella. Hagan and Rose want to keep the look a secret until the film is finished, so they asked that Parthasarathy not be photographed up close.

The production is somewhat different from others that Parthasarathy has been in. Hagen wrote the script for “Black Eyed Kids,” but there are several spots where he lets the actors come up with their own dialogue.

“It’s scripted, but at the same time, we as actors can kind of make it our own, add our own words to it,” Parthasarathy said. “That’s one of the great things about working with Sunshine.”

In the Web series, there’s even more improv. Most of the scenes aren’t scripted at all. Hagen said the spontaneous dialogue gives the production a more lively feel.

Parthasarathy said she’s loved working with Coat Tale Productions so far because it’s small and everybody is tight-knit. She’s also done some crew work on the Web series.

“They’re some of the best people I’ve worked with on set — they really treat everybody like family,” Parthasarathy said.

Rose’s youngest daughter and her exchange student also appear in the film, but Rose asked that their names be kept out of the story due to the same stalker issues that have plagued “Sunshine.”

The teenager has received unsettling private messages on YouTube and Facebook, although Rose screens the accounts before her daughter sees them.

“A couple of them even seem to think they know where she lives,” Rose said. “Not good.”

Rose has been in the film business for many years. She recently played a police officer in Leverage’s “The Boy’s Night Out Job” episode, which aired Dec. 18.

Asked for any inside info on the plot of the new film, she offered a sly smile.

“There may or may not be romance,” Rose said. “We have a third wheel, which is our comic relief, and — hey — we could even kill a character off.”

Hagen expects filming will continue through January, mostly at his house in Vancouver, which is the main setting for the Web series.

He hopes to have the film edited and ready for distribution by the end of winter, although he still needs to find a distributor, he said.

“Those are the guys that can get it out in theaters,” Hagen said. “If we don’t have any luck getting a distributor, we’ll still get it up online and sell DVDs that way, but I’m optimistic.”

Either way, Hagen said he plans to make sure there’s a screening of the film in Vancouver.

“I’d love to do a screening at the Kiggins Theatre, but I haven’t talked to them yet,” Hagen said.

Here is a link to our teaser on YouTube…

Here is a link to the short film…

Here is a link to more behind the scenes footage…

And a link to our Facebook Closet Man fan page where you can “LIKE” us and follow our progress…

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Closet-Man/203922396342006

Funds for this project will be used mostly for locations such as a high school classroom in which is a huge (mysterious) part of the film and is about a quarter of the film. We also need a loft to re-shoot the scenes from the Closet Man’s upbringing which will be the first 20 minutes of the film. Lighting is huge, can’t express how important proper lighting is while shooting scenes. Food while shooting all weekend long especially during the high school scenes in which a large group will be working 10-12 hour days, have to feed the crew! We have a ton of small roles (as characters continue to be introduced in this film) already filled and even most of our bigger ones but there are a couple important roles we will have to hire semi-experienced actors for. And of course camera repair is very possible…

Written and created by Mike Decker…

Directed by Damon Fontleroy…
Born without a chance to a prostitute mother, from a bedroom in the closet this young individual will rise to become much more than you can possibly imagine… Which in the beginning you think of him as dumb, uneducated, screwed up from childhood, haunted by his mother’s murder, and homeless other than, well, your closet…
You’re scared of him because you never know which closet he may be hiding in or about to rise out of. You have no idea what he’ll look like once he does as his attire changes with each closet he visits, stalking you from the inside of your own home for days or even weeks before making his move!
Preselecting the homes in which he roams and proving more intelligent than originally suspected, you begin to realize there is something else to this closet man, and your blood chills as you eventually digest just how much more to him there really is… a story, a goal, and even an end game that is revealed in twist after twist up until the final twisted moment revealing the truth and making sense of all the previous revelations that baffle you right till the very end…

Closet Man upbringing based on a true story…

My senior thesis project for film school. There are no visual effects or hidden cuts in the video. Watch in 1080p w/ headphones!

Visit http://continuum-film.com for more info about the film and the people who helped make it happen.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sicktyler

Like! Favorite! Subscribe!

Pay attention-this movie is going to take it all the way!
J.A

The Help is an uplifting and inspiring movie that shows what happens when a southern town’s unspoken code of rules and behaviour is shattered by three courageous women who strike up an unlikely friendship.

Like us on FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/TheHelpMovieUK

Based on the best-selling phenomenon and one of the most talked about books in years, The Help is an uplifting must-see movie event. Starring Emma Stone (Golden Globe Nominee, Easy A) as Skeeter, Viola Davis (Academy Award® Nominee, Doubt) as Aibileen and break out sensation Octavia Spencer as Minnie, The Help is a funny, heart-warming and thought-provoking book about three very different, extraordinary women in Mississippi during the 1960s, who risk their jobs, reputations and lives when they embark on a secret writing project together. Deeply moving, filled with poignancy, humour and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the ability of a small group of people to shine a beacon of light in changing times.

The Help is in UK cinemas now.