Jim Fitzpatrick of Seminole, director of “Scouts Honor” and who also plays one of the Scout leaders, moves the cast of Tampa Bay area child actors into place.
SEMINOLE – Gov. Charlie Crist didn’t show up and the wind played havoc with the sound. Other than that, the almost final day of shooting for “Scouts Honor,” a locally filmed family movie went as planned at St. Petersburg College’s Seminole campus library and the Seminole Recreation Center Saturday.
According to Jim Fitzpatrick, president of PacAtlantic Pictures and director of “Scouts Honor,” Crist was scheduled to appear in a cameo role. Call time for the governor was noon on Saturday.
The rest of the cast, mostly Bay area kids ages 6 to 16, and crew arrived at 11 a.m. While the crew unloaded cameras and lighting equipment from a truck, the actors and their parents, milled around.
By noon all was in place to shoot the final scene of the movie.
“Scouts Honor” tells the story of a fictional small town in rural Florida that is taken over by a “gang of motorcycle riding bad dudes.” A coed group of Adventure Scouts return from a camping trip and, using their scouting knowledge and camping equipment, save the town. Scenes were shot in various Pinellas County locations, including Heritage Village and the Highland Recreation Complex in Largo.
NFL players Chidi Ahanotu, Mike Alstott, and Simeon Rice are among those playing the bad guys. World light heavyweight boxing champ Antonio Tarver is cast to play the pastor of the town. Associate producer Liz McCallum said Tarver’s training schedule has kept him from filming so far.
Ahanotu, now retired, was at Saturday’s shoot because his 9-year-old son, E.J., plays one of the campers.
“It’s always a father’s dream to work hand-in-hand with his children,” Ahanotu said.
Ahanotu said he did his own stunts, including climbing a tree and falling off a ladder, and that acting like a bad guy wasn’t hard for him.
“I flipped the switch pretty easily,” he said. “I just imagined I was playing football and that I was after someone.”
By 12:30 p.m., Fitzpatrick and SPC president Dr. Carl Kuttler were on their cell phones trying to track down the governor. Neither was successful.
The governor’s office indicated Monday that the event was not listed on Crist’s schedule.
“We would have been privileged to have had him come to the college,” Kuttler said. “We were privileged to have the filming done at the college.”
Fitzpatrick said he hopes this will be the beginning of a series of Adventure Scout films. Executive producers include Jon Sheinberg, son and business partner of Sid Sheinberg who led Universal Studios for 38 years, and Sam Nicholson, CEO and founder of Stargate Films.
Fitzpatrick said he sees the “talent and crew base in this area growing by leaps and bounds.” While this film, with a budget of about $350,000, isn’t eligible for any of the incentives offered by the Governor’s Office of Film and Entertainment, Fitzpatrick said that the good news is that incentives are there.
“With each film we make, our budget will grow,” Fitzpatrick said.
With all in place and people starting to swelter in the sun, Fitzpatrick, a graduate of Seminole High School, improvised.
Actor Jeff Freeman, who plays the somewhat bumbling mayor of the town, and who resembles Crist, filled in for the governor so the cast could rehearse and so the crew could check settings.
Finally, Fitzpatrick made a quick adjustment and wrote the governor out of the script.
“We’ll have the mayor present the awards,” Fitzpatrick told the children.
Then it was the wind’s turn to cause a glitch. Strong gusts whipped the ropes holding the flag against the flagpole causing some sound issues.
But the Adventure Scouts, including local performers Price Serfass, 13, of Belleair, and J.J. and Jadon Fitzpatrick, 12 and 10 respectively, of Seminole, remained poised through several takes with the camera at their backs and then several more with the camera in front of them.
“Loud and proud,” Fitzpatrick reminded the children as they prepared for yet another take.
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