AB Productions first feature film. 71 minutes. 2009.

Fiercely independent dark comedy feature was shot on a super indie budget over ten straight days.

GRAPES (The Story of an Aspiring Serial Killer) has been selected for juried competition at the 2009 Bare Bones International Film Festival in Muskogee. The film was shot on location in the creator’s hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska and on the campus of their alma mater, the University of Nebraska. Director Jake Hull also wrote the screenplay and produced the film, arranging a ten straight day shoot on a budget well under ten thousand dollars. Director of Photography Rhett McClure utilized a Panasonic HVX-200 camera and shot P2 HD digital photography. Producer Seth Requenez of AB Productions arranged catering, set design, transportation and all other production at both locations.

“Very good script!... The story is electric.” is how renowned UCLA screenwriting legend Lew Hunter described the screenplay. The cast and crew got to read Lew’s script notes on the first day of shooting. The film’s name was changed from the original working title “The Reality of My Demise”. GRAPES was made possible through the fiscal sponsorship program from Nebraska Independent Film Projects. NIFP.org is a nonprofit group dedicated to helping filmmakers in Nebraska produce their own films.

The crew for the film is composed of both video professionals and aspiring film students who earning college credit for some twelve to eighteen hour workdays. Principal photography was completed in ten straight days. McClure took vacation time from his job as Advertising Producer at Snitily Carr Advertising to shoot the film.

The location shoot served as a familiar setting for several cast and crew who grew up in the Wahoo area. In addition to Hull and McClure, producer Seth Requenez and lead actor Jeremy Furrow (William ‘Grapes’ Atwood) went to school with Hull, as well as script supervisor Luke Virgil. Producer Trevor Snell and audio tech Zach Votipka received college credit for handling all audio Foley work. Luke Rustermier, who plays Arthur, still lives in Wahoo today and has acted for Jake previously in a short film called “Part Time”.

Former Nurse and Model Brandi Facholas makes a particularly intense film debut in a great performance as Clarice, the object of Grape’s suspicions and desire. “I nearly fractured my arm during one of the stunt sequences we shot in Grape’s apartment,” Brandi said during the shoot. “Using liquid bandages on my elbows worked to allow us to keep shooting.”

GRAPES first screened for cast and crew in December 2008, and then premiered February 2009 at the Omaha Film Festival to great acclaim. Hoppe Productions financed the film after meeting Jake through a mutual friend. AB Productions has entered GRAPES in several strategically selected film festivals around the country and have already received two awards of merit.

Synopsis:
Grapes is a dark comedy that analyzes the scary humor behind the ambitions of a bright yet troubled college student. William Atwood the Second (nicknamed Grapes) is a young psychology student who aspires to become a great American serial killer. Both the authorities and his invalid grandmother have questions about Grapes and his schoolwork. When a real murderer moves into his small college town and begins to kill the local college students one by one, Grapes’ sense of competition pushes him to try his hand at the murder game. A wrench is thrown into his plan when he finds out that his first victim could very well be the College Killer’s next.