3 Guys and a Rabbit

All smiles after a long day of filming.

Chris, Justin Rose, Greg Wave

In December 2020, my good friends Justin Rose, Greg Wave and myself, were foolish, crazy, and naive enough to think that we could not only make a Feature Film, but a good one.  One that could potentially play at Film Festivals and get us some exposure and a film that people, beyond just our family and friends, would like.  Justin and I had made Red Velvet Evening the year before and that turned out great.  While Greg and I had been a part of dozens and dozens of projects over the last few years, we'd always talked about making something ourselves.  Justin had just finished writing a tremendous script with Greg and I in mind as the main characters.  Then Justin and I made Father's Day with Greg as an actor and he got to see Justin's magic up close and that got the ball rolling.  So the three of us banded together and vowed to make what was at that time called "The Rabbit"

We've played all over the world, but at the beginning,
 it was all just hope.

We filmed Father's Day in December 2020 and January 2021 and during filming and the Post Production time, the three of us started meeting regularly to talk about and planning to make "The Rabbit".  The plan was for Greg and I to do all the Casting and the three of us would find all the locations and would do all the crew work and filmmaking.  If Greg or I weren't in a scene, we'd be holding the microphones or lights and doing setup. We would plan everything meticulously and not waste anyone's, including our own, time.  Which is a common occurrence in movie making.  The amount of time  on a set that I've sat around unnecessarily is gross and always irritating to me.  One of the things Greg and I vowed was to not do that to the actors and at the locations people let us use.

Helping to pave the way for the Rabbit. Still very proud of this.

Justin wrote the story with filming it in mind.  Thus it's written more like a play with longer scenes, heavy dialogue and simple locations.  For the most part.  It's a very intertwined story and now looking back, we were quite ambitious thinking we could pull this off.  But we met weekly either at Coffee Rush in Gilbert, Greg's place in Tempe or at Twin Peaks in Scottsdale. Sometimes two or three times a week.  We were meticulous in finding the right actors, the right locations and planning out all the props we would need.  Greg and I handled all the casting.  We went through all the actors we'd worked with over the years, went through multiple Agencies and got referrals and talked to dozens of people.  We purposely didn't want to hold any auditions.  Most of the parts required serious acting ability and we wanted to ensure we knew everyone we cast, as much as possible anyway.  When we wanted someone, we called them, met with them, talked at length, told each person how serious we were taking this and what our plans were upon completion.  Everyone we talked to loved the script, but not everyone wanted to be a part of it for various reasons.  

Justin made a really cool promo piece,
but at this point it was only a belief.

While this was going on, Justin finished post production on Father's Day and I started sending it out to Film Festivals all over the world.  I really believed it would do well and we told every actor we talked to about Rabbit that we'd made Father's Day and it was going to make a splash at Festivals and then Rabbit would do even better.  Of course, I had NO WAY AT ALL of knowing that, but I believed in it and sold that bill of goods to everyone.  As an actor, you want a great role, of course, but you also want the project to help you get exposure and hopefully help your own career.  I understood that, it was our whole intent in making Rabbit, so it was easy to sell because we all believed in it.  But actually making that happen is another story.  Almost all the projects in Arizona are garbage. We wanted to rise far above and set the standard and never compromise on that.

Finding the right rabbit mask was no easy feat! 
Posters by Steven and Cindy Leyba!!!

In March 2021 we decided we would film the opening scene.  It's a long scene and only has 2 people in it and so it was easy to set up.  Jeff Unterkofler and Greg were in the scene.  I'd done a feature film with Jeff in Northern California, so I knew he could act and that he would deliver and thankfully he agreed.  We met and planned and planned and the night of filming, we got an all day rainstorm, something that almost NEVER happens here in Arizona.  It hampered our lights outside, but the filming went great and Jeff and Greg were both outstanding.  The scene is over 20 minutes but cut down to about 12 in the final version.  But a lot of dialogue and filming and we were off to a great start!

Jeff and Greg on Day One of Filming!!!!

We thought we'd be good to go and started planning the next scenes, but one of our actors backed out, so we needed to fill a prominent role.  In so many projects I've been a part of this happens.  But then they just get someone, anyone,  to fill the role and keep going.  We chose not too.  We knew that having the right actors was far more important than just filling it in.  It set us back in time, but was easily the right thing to do and led us to Danny Zavala as Oscar.  Every single showing we've had, someone mentions him, because he was the perfect Oscar.  Had we used the original actor, it would have been a different film so we were blessed with Danny for sure!  However we did not film again until June.  During that time Father's Day really started to take off on the Festival circuit.  We won awards right away and it helped with the casting of Rabbit, pointing to proven results.  But it was also humbling, surprising and very cool.

Justin getting a great shot of Oscar, Danny Zavala,
finding the Rabbit mask.

That left most of our filming to be done in the summer.  In Phoenix.  Some of it outdoors.  Needless to say it was challenging.  But to a person, everyone was on board and everyone delivered, every time.  We filmed a scene with Jeff Kimble and Palimo Lopez at a really shitty, fleabag motel in Mesa.  It fit the look we wanted but it was a comically awful motel and we had to keep turning off the air conditioning because it was too noisy to film.  It became a hot box.  We were also interrupted by management thinking we were either shooting a porno or doing a drug deal. It was that kind of motel.  We also filmed a big scene in a garage and that was stifling hot.  But nothing compared to filming the desert scenes all day in 115 degrees and we were out in the middle of nowhere, so there was no cover. It was brutal.  But no one complained.  Every knew what to expect and we worked expeditiously and didn't waste anyone's time.  But it was HOT!!!

Filming in the desert in the middle of summer was no joke! 
Or maybe just stupid....

The remaining scenes were mostly indoors and once we were finally able to cast 7 year-old Isaac Leyba as Luis Cortez, in the most difficult role to cast, because not everyone wanted their child to be a dark film, we were able to wrap principal photography by late August.  During the summer and into the Fall, Father's Day was continuing to have a great run on the Film Festival circuit and we even got the chance to play at the famous Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  That was a big thrill and surreal.  I had been keeping everyone on Rabbit up to date on everything, as we would be following a similar path when completed and the success was fun to share.

 

At the Chinese Theater in Hollywood with Daniel Craig! 
The crowds may have been more for him but you won't convince me of that.

By late fall we were in heavy post production and busy with Father's Day Film Festivals.  We even got the chance to play at the Mesa International Film Festival, so everyone here in the Valley had a chance to see it.  Justin was busy doing the majority of the work at this point and he had created the first trailer for Rabbit.  When we sent that out on social media it really blew up.  I am sure it also helped us get the first of multiple offers to buy the film and it wasn't even finished.  I'd been posting still shots from filming on the IMDb page and now with the trailer, it was obvious we had something potentially good to outsiders.

Justin was continually making new promotional material
that we'd use online and for Festivals.

Once the new year came around, Justin had the film mostly in order and thought we needed to add a few more scenes, so we planned out and did add about 5 scenes.  Although most weren't full scenes, but rather a look or close up or something specific to add to a scene.  But whether you film for 10 minutes of 10 seconds, the set up is the same and the work is almost the same.  So we did those 5 different pieces and they definitely added some great layers.  Father's Day finished its run in March after winning some awards in Palm Springs and then playing at my alma mater for the Central Michigan International Film Festival.  That was a real personal thrill as I flew back and dozens of friends of mine drove to Mt. Pleasant to see it.  I never envisioned myself going back to CMU for anything remotely like this and it was a fantastic experience.

Film Festivals aplenty!!  We've been all over the world at nearly 100 film festivals this last year.

We had promised everyone in Rabbit a theater premier so they could all invite all their family and friends.  In late April 2022 the film was ready and we had the private premier at the Pollack Cinema in Tempe at a beautifully renovated theater and we let everyone invite whoever they wanted.  Justin was working on the film right up until we showed it that afternoon.  It was a really great day and I'm happy we were able to deliver on our promise.  Greg and I had seen some rough cuts, but this was everyone's chance to see it for the first time completed.  It went over really great with the audience and then we had a wonderful Q&A with the whole cast onstage afterwards.

Cast Premier at the Pollack Cinema with a great Q&A!

We immediately started sending it out to Film Festivals.  Following the same plan as Father's Day, lots of International Festivals and anything that was very soon.  We wanted as much immediate, independent, feedback as we could get.  1 day later we were an Official Selection in Albuquerque at the Mindfield Film Festival and an eventual winner.  Then the awards started pouring in from Europe; Best Feature Film in Hungary at the Black Cat Festival, at the Prague International Film Festival, Athens Greece, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Berlin, Germany, Stockholm, Sweden and then finally our first chance to play Live in the US at the Sunburn Film Festival in Tucson.  They only took 2 feature films and we were one of them.  Getting a feature in a Festival is a much more difficult achievement than a short film.  It's a time issue, they can take and show 10 Shorts for every feature, so they generally only take a handful at most.

Fantastic showing at the Sunburn Film Festival in Tucson. 
I don't even like Tucson! Lol

We had a great showing and crowd in Tucson and again, a chance for most of our actors to invite family and friends.  After that we started getting Selections all over, Orlando, NYC, Chicago, Las Vegas, Michigan and all over California.  But the ultimate was being chosen for the first SModcastle Film Festival in New Jersey put on by filmmaker extraordinaire Kevin Smith at his hometown theater that he has just purchased and put all his offices in.  It was very quickly dubbed Sundance East and we couldn't wait to attend.  

SModcastle Film Festival in NJ, but first Justin and I were on TV, Channel 3 in Phoenix promoting the torrent of Festivals we were also in that week; Mesa (AZ), Culver City(CA), Santa Clarita, CA.

SModcastle was everything we hoped and we made the right connection and subsequently were offered a deal for our film.  Exactly what we always hoped and envisioned.  It all, somehow, came true.  The deal allows us to still play in Film Festivals until it's release, so we have continued to do so and had more great showings and response.  We were just invited to share it at a Festival in Beverly Hills and we continue to have more ahead.  We were asked to write an article about our experience for a prominent filmmaking website and I was featured in an article when I returned to Michigan for the Adrian Film Festival.  I also did an extensive Podcast detailing all sorts of things about my life in this world.  It's been a wild ride.  It has also been a tremendous amount of work, time and effort, but none of it seemed that daunting at the time.  But looking back now, it was wildly ambitious. 3 guys, no budget, trying to do something that usually takes teams of people and millions of dollars.  Now we have a new, brilliant, script Justin has penned and we've started pre-production on an even more ambitious film.  It is exciting.  I'd never have thought it truly possible.  No matter what happens now for myself in the world of entertainment, I am beyond satisfied.  Starting from literally nothing just a few years ago, I've done way more than I had even thought possible.  I even wrote a film and had it play all over the world, winning awards and then to make Run Rabbit and have even more success, its' crazy to me.  As I get ready to go back to Michigan to speak at my alma mater, Central Michigan University,  for Alumni Weekend, about my life as an actor and filmmaker; well anyone that knew me then would be shocked, to say the least. Most of all, me. Fire Up!! 🐰🐇🐰

Forever Fired Up!!!!!