Local director debuts action movie in hometown
What happens when “Rocky” meets “Enter the Dragon?”
Answer: “The Red Canvas”
Adam Boster, an independent filmmaker based in Columbia, got to debut his first Hollywood action movie on Dec. 16 at Forum 8 Theaters. “The Red Canvas” opens nationwide in April 2009, and Boster already is planning a sequel to be filmed in Columbia and St. Louis.
“The Red Canvas” is about street kid Johnny Sanchez, played by Ernie Reyes Jr., who fights in “gladiator wars” while in prison. The warden eventually decides to give Johnny a second chance and sponsors him to fight in The Red Canvas, a professional mixed martial arts tournament ruled by Gen. Insou Krang, played by George Takei, who is known for his role as Mr. Sulu on “Star Trek.”
The movie, co-directed by Boster and Ken Chamitoff, falls into the mixed martial arts genre, which combines wrestling with kick boxing. “It’s boxing with the kicking element and the ground fighting element,” he said.
The movie, which cost about $3 million to make, started out with no budget. “Ken (Chamitoff) turns 40, gets motivated and writes a script,” Boster said of the production’s genesis.
Boster operates his production company, Boster Studios, and photography company, Photo-Kicks, out of Parkade Plaza. At the time Chamitoff was writing the script, he and Boster were working with several martial arts photography companies.
“Naturally, Ken (Chamitoff) is on the road shooting photography, and (the movie) becomes about martial arts,” Boster said. “He’s telling a school owner about the script, and the school owner says, ‘That’s a great idea. Can I put money into that?’ And the guy decides he wants to put 20 grand into making the film.”
Boster and Chamitoff decided to make the film in Chamitoff’s Los Angeles backyard over the course of a few months. “Very quickly more people wanted to put funds into it, and before we knew it we had a $400,000 film and real talent attached,” Boster said. “Before we got into production we were at $800,000. Bottom line is that it became a $3 million film when it was all said and done.”
Collecting money for the film as they went was not the best way to plan for the movie, said Boster, who began creating films at age 19, worked on Missouri-based productions during college and in 17 years has worked on more than 100 motion pictures.
“Many films are made in that way, but I wouldn’t recommend making it like that,” he said. “There’s a magic sweet spot that you can make a film for, and it’s somewhere under a million (dollars), where you can take it to the international markets, and you can just sell it to foreign countries and make your money back.”
As a small independent filmmaker, being careful with the money available is crucial.
“The (entertainment) business is always trying to get you to make it bigger to where it’s the blockbuster with Keanu Reeves, where there’s 10 exploding buildings and an interstellar space scene,” he said. “A lot of films start out with, ‘I got two guys talking in a room drinking coffee.’ And you can make that for very little money. The minute you have 18 locations, a bunch of different wardrobe and 12 different characters, that movie can be made for about $1 million.
“The real goal from a business perspective in not to compete with Warner Brothers and Universal; it’s to understand the niche we’re involved in, and build films in that niche,” he explained. “And that niche is a $900,000 film. You stay underneath that number, and you make a film for under a million bucks. You can take that film, as long as the film captivates you and has an idea that’s sellable, to markets all over the country, all over the world, and you can make some money back and sell it to television. If it’s really good, you can get into theaters.”
Photo-Kicks created all the marketing materials for the movie. He started the business in July 2002 after moving back to Missouri from Los Angeles, and Chamitoff is the CEO. The photo business started in Boster’s garage.
“Very quickly, we had too many cars in the street and realized our neighbors might get really frustrated at us,” Boster joked. “We found a building, rented that space, outgrew that space, and now we’re in Parkade Plaza. It seems we’re outgrowing our space every six months.”
For the making of “The Red Canvas,” Boster’s business played a vital role: Photo-Kicks did most of the processing for the film.
The sequel will be filmed in St. Louis and Columbia because “it’s more cost effective to do it out here,” he said.
As for the director’s involvement with Columbia, he said he plans to stay put, and is looking into buying about 50 acres of land to expand Photo-Kicks.
“It’s time to build Missouri’s film industry,” he said. “Missouri’s film industry has matured to a place where it makes sense to make more films here. There’s enough staff and crew and resources and knowledge, that it makes sense to produce six to 12 films out of Missouri every year.”