HIFF: In the Mockumentary 'The Premiere', the Community Is the Star

There are probably more people in the world than you imagine who have dreamed of producing their own original musical for the stage, and this week, there is one film screening at the Hamptons International Film Festival that is all about doing exactly that …

Or is it?

“The Premiere,” which was shot entirely on the East End, will have its world premiere at Guild Hall this Thursday as part of HIFF. The film will screen again at Sag Harbor Cinema on Saturday. Best described as a “mockumentary,” it tells the story of Sam Pezzullo, a hapless and down on his luck producer/writer/director who aspires to create a musical based on the film franchise “Scream” and bring it to life on the stage of Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.

The film is co-directed and co-produced by Pezzullo and Miles Anthony (aka Christopher Bouckoms), who together operate Made Out East, a full service creative agency and production company. “The Premiere” follows Pezzullo (as himself) as he scrambles to find talent, money and an affordable place to live on the East End (which in itself could be a movie) all while maneuvering through the stresses and pitfalls of producing a musical, or at least attempting to.

The film actually began life as an innocent foray into the world of improvisational comedy. It all started a few years ago when Pezzullo enrolled in an improv class taught by Scott Baker at Bay Street Theater. That’s where he met fellow students Andrea Harum Schiavoni (a real-life judge) and her thespian children Anna and Thomas Schiavoni, as well as Kathryn Bromberg and Ruby Jackson, all of whom are East End residents.

“We all met at Bay Street, took this improv class and enjoyed it,” Pezzullo explained.

Meanwhile, Pezzullo and Anthony had been hard at work on some creative projects through Made Out East. Among them was a promotional YouTube video designed to plug the upcoming release of the film “Scream 5” (in case you’re wondering, Pezzullo is a huge fan of the franchise).

“We came up with the concept of a character who would try to make a musical version of ‘Scream’ to craft this original teaser,” explained Pezzullo. “It was never meant to be more than that, but when it was released on YouTube people wanted to know whether it was real or fake. They wanted to know, ‘Is there really a musical?’”

“When we started out, as Sam mentioned, we were working with Paramount, the movie studio,” added Anthony. “We put together five concepts as a promotional release to promote ‘Scream 5,’ but they didn’t want to do something comedic, they wanted something scary.”

However, Anthony noted that he and Pezzullo were so in love with the idea, they decided that even if Paramount wouldn’t finance it they could pull off a film version of the concept on their own using local talent and the East End community. As a result, the film was shot in and around Bay Street Theater as well as at local businesses and locations across the East End.

“We found we could do more of a narrative and started raising money and crafted an overall concept and continued to film,” Pezzullo explained. “It relied heavily on the improv element to craft the dialogue. It was an ambitious effort.”

Despite starting life as a video short, “The Premiere” is a project that Pezzullo had always envisioned as a feature length film, yet it’s one that was never fully scripted. Instead, he and Anthony leaned heavily on improvisational elements and relied on the talents of the cast, crew and even people on the street to propel the plot points of the story forward unscripted.

“I felt this style of comedy really leant itself to longer, drawn-out scenes,” Pezzullo explained. “I felt I couldn’t tell the entire story in a shorter format. I envisioned it feature length, but didn’t have the entire narrative crafted when we started shooting. That took place as it grew and it was how the characters developed.”

The filmmakers may not have known exactly where the storyline would ultimately lead them, but one thing was crystal clear from the start — the fact that Pezzullo and Anthony didn’t have the budget to actually stage “Scream” the musical itself.

“We knew the musical element had to disappear,” said Pezzullo. “So there’s this narrative shift to where it’s the making of a film about the musical that never happened, paying homage to being self-reverential and being meta.”

While some audience members may find “The Premiere” to be reminiscent of the quirky pseudo-documentaries of director Christopher Guest, like “Waiting for Guffman” or “Best in Show,” the filmmakers note that his work was not the basis of their own inspiration.

“There definitely are comparisons drawn to Christopher Guest, with this ensemble of quirky off-beat characters,” said Pezzullo, who admits that he also picked up lessons on comedic facial expressions by watching Lucille Ball in “I Love Lucy” reruns. “Because our budget was very limited, we didn’t want to ask too much of the other actors and the locations. We had to design the whole film around me because I had the time and resources to go all in on it. That way we could have the other characters come in and out.

“I also drew a lot of inspiration from ‘The Comeback’ with Lisa Kudrow, which is about a washed-up actress now doing a reality show,” he continued. “It’s ego-maniacal, delusional people who have an agenda, which is to succeed in this business.”

Because the script wasn’t set in stone and the filmmakers wanted to limit the time required of their volunteer actors, Pezzullo opted not to explain the full storyline of the film to the performers in order to elicit more authentic responses from them while shooting their scenes.

“It was inspiring being around Sam for all of this, because so many people were in the dark about what this is about,” noted Anthony. “Through Sam’s performance he was navigating this quirky sense of humor and world building — he was guiding them through the dialogue but also brought his sense of humor, his imagination and his world life experiences.”

The film offers a true insider’s take of what it’s like to live year round on the East End, and like the character of Sam in the film, both Pezzullo, who lives in Water Mill, and Anthony, who lives in Wainscott, have more than one job.

“Both Sam and I wear a variety of hats and work in a few different things,” Anthony explained. “In addition to our production and creative agency, my wife and I are both real estate agents, while Sam runs the show [as maître d] over at [Sag Harbor’s] Tutto il Giorno.”

“I grew up not far from city in New Rochelle, the Hamptons was always a summer destination for friends and I had relatives with homes here,” said Pezzullo in explaining his connection to the East End. “I always found myself drawn to this area, whether it was for a day or a couple months at a time. I started working with HIFF in 2011, spent a few months a year here in the fall. When COVID hit, I took the leap to move out here full time. It’s such a happy place for me. It has everything to offer, the natural beauty, small town charm with big city sophistication.

“It’s a place like no other.”

“It was my Neverland, my escape from the big city,” added Anthony. “I fell in love with the land and the light.”

Because of their personal awareness and understanding of what it takes to live year round on the East End, both Pezzullo and Anthony felt it was important to pay tribute to the hardworking, everyday people who call this place home.

“We wanted to highlight local people as much as possible,” Pezzullo explained. “A lot of people are not familiar with that side of it. There’s this reputation for the area being the playground of the rich and famous, and aspirational. All the businesses that we feature in the film are run by year round residents. We wanted to give people a more well-rounded image of the Hamptons and Sag Harbor by showing them in their element. We have characterized versions of Shane from Sag Town or Jade the tailor or Kevin Menard, the owner of Dragon Hemp, using their actual lives in the narratives and showing how they might intersect in an absurd and comical way with someone like Sam.”

“We represented the juxtaposition between locals and non-locals,” added Anthony. “They are grounded in the way they live and Sam has bigger than life aspirations. That represents what the Hamptons is — going back to the farmers and fishermen.”

“The Premiere” screens on Thursday, October 10, at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton. A second screening will be offered on Saturday, October 12, at 2:30 p.m. at Sag Harbor Cinema, 90 Main Street, Sag Harbor. For tickets and more information about the Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs through October 14, visit hamptonsfilmfest.org.