Film shoots in Whitewright

WHITEWRIGHT — Through the lens of a camera, Whitewright rolled back the decades Saturday as the cast and crew of “John and Claudia” worked on the second day of shooting in the small town.

“I wanted to do something romantic, but also something that had drama and action,” Director David Redish said of the story, which writer/producer Matthew Thomas Miller called a homage to the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

“I just sort of had some retrospective things happen in my life and it made me evaluate the way I feel about love, the way I feel about relationships, the way I feel about how the past may have been,” Redish said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, people still fall in love the same way.” In November, Redish said, he approached Miller with his idea.

“We’re raising a question about love. … And we’re getting two people’s story about how they interpret love in their own lives,” Miller said.

Once the script was set, Redish began searching for a location to shoot the short film. “We were looking for a town with a ’60s, ’70s feel, as well as a look,” Miller said. “Just walking around here you get a sense of a different time and its ideals.”

Redish said they scouted a number of North Texas locations before someone recommended Whitewright. “We went all over for about a week and just weren’t seeing what we needed,” he said, but when they drove into town the decision was made. “Immediately, we said, ‘This is the place.’”

The pair said the city leadership made the decision even easier. “The town really embraced us,” Redish said.

Whitewright Chamber of Commerce Secretary Cathy Pierce said the benefits of the shoot haven’t been one-sided. “The streets have just been full all day,” she said Friday. “Our businesses have had people in and out all day, so this is just an economy boost for us.”

The city hosted the cast and crew of Will Wallace’s “Red Wing” for filming in July. That movie is expected to be released later this year.

“This is our way to bring people into our city to shop, to have dinner, to see what we have here,” Pierce said.

Besides the city, community members have also made the cast and crew feel at home, providing classic cars to help set the scene and extras for the film.

Whitewright residents Robert and Barbara Layman fit the bill for both, parking their 1950 Plymouth in downtown on Friday and Saturday. “We were just sitting over there on the bench and they needed somebody to be a middle-aged couple to walk down the sidewalk,” Robert Layman said. “We were just on the sidewalk at the right time.”

Miller and Redish said the film features primarily up-and-coming talent. “We just wanted people that we knew were going to work hard and nobody was going to feel like they were above the production,” Miller said.

The shoot in Whitewright was expected to wrap on Saturday with cast and crew moving on to Marfa, Texas, for more filming.

Miller said he and Redish hope to eventually turn the short film into a full-length feature film. “We’re going to enter it into festival and see what kind of opportunities we get,” Miller said.