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And the race to take his place HAS BEGUN. Watch it - it's funny. Nathan Smith Jones, Richard Dutcher, Kirby Heyborne, Eric Artell, Jennifer Hoskins, Richard Moll
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| Nathan Smith Jones plays Peter Beuhmann, a wannabe writer/director whose runaway ego and drive to take Dutcher's place threatens to destroy all in his path including Mormon Cinema itself. | Nathan Smith Jones is a wannabe writer/director whose runaway ego and drive to take Dutcher's place threatens to destroy all in his path including Mormon Cinema itself. He lives in Salt Lake City. |
| Kirby Heyborne plays Ephraim Thomas, Peter's Production assistant who enjoys the pain and indignities of being a P.A. for a no-budget film (see photo, right). He also enjoys fish. | Kirby Heyborne is everything a man could want. Young, virile and talented, his acting prowess can be seen in many Utah film productions. He plays the titular returned missionary in "THE RM", the young Idaho-bound missionary that stole the show in "THE SINGLES WARD" and a soldier in the up-coming "Saints Of War" ["Saints and Soldiers"]. He hates fish. |
| Jen Hoskins plays Judy Schumway, a versatile, controversial woman with seemingly conflicting pursuits: Mormon housewife, amateur Filmmaker, feminist and mother of two. A Gemini, Judy is independent and stubborn, but she also has a softer side not usually found in feminist amatuer filmmaking Mormon women. | Jennifer Hoskins is a Pennsylvania native who moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue her acting career. A relative newcomer, Jennifer's talent has been recognized by critics, audiences and co-stars alike in several theatre productions in the Los Angeles area. She now lives in Salt Lake City. |
| Eric Artell plays Kevin Evans, a determined amateur Mormon filmmaker with a heart of gold, who perseveres in his filmmaking dreams against the wishes of his parents, who see filmmaking as evil, and not conducive to what a good Mormon boy should do for a living. Their staunch immovable stance makes them almost a cliche. Don't they realize what they're doing to their son? What kind of world is this turning into when a kid can't even keep a camera in his own house? Evil? I'll show you evil. Evil is being controlling. Do you see me trying to control this website? No. I let it be what it is. I mean, I just...sorry. Kevin's story...affects me. | Eric Artell has won several roles in plays in the Los Angeles area and in his native New Jersey. He has landed many national commercial spots, including a VoiceStream commercial with Jaime Lee Curtis as well as several network Television appearances. |
| Richard Dutcher plays Richard Dutcher, the larger-than-life founder of Mormon Cinema who wrote and directed the celebrated films "Gods Army" and "Brigham City". | Richard Dutcher is the larger-than-life founder of Mormon Cinema who wrote and directed the celebrated films "Gods Army" and "Brigham City". This is his first all-out comedy! This photo aptly captures Richard's contagious wit and sense of humor. |
| Richard Moll plays Oliver Wendelle, a critic who doesn't pull punches when giving his viewpoint on these "Mormon films". And though he may be harsh, so are the realities of independent cinema. It's not for the faint of heart. In addition to attacking Mormon Cinema, he also enjoys attacking High School plays and the dreams of his friend John. | Richard Moll is best known as "Bull" from the hit 80s TV sitcom "NIGHT COURT". This is his second "Mormon-themed" movie, playing Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith in the obscure 70s film "Brigham and Joseph". |
| Dave Boud plays Dave Skousen, a Production Assistant to Judy. Mr. Skousen is a masochist who enjoys doing TONS of things for little or no credit or thanks. His duties for Judy include Production Assistant, location scout, gaffer, gofer, whipping boy, general scapegoat, leiutennant scape-goat, and mascot. Will these tensions boil to the surface? | Dave Boud is a brilliant comedic actor who has performed to rave reviews in both the Skinny Lincolns comedy troupe and Comedy Sportz - Salt Lake troupe. Underappreciated for years, he also enjoys being a masochist by pursuing an acting career despite the lame productions who don't hire him because he's too talented, too "edgy", or is passed over for a lead role which was given to the producer's cousin. Mr. Boud has slaved for years in this God-forsaken market. He works as a waiter at the Red Lobster on 1300 East and I-80. |
| Dan Merkley plays Michael-Enoch Glaser, who is Peter's childhood friend. Devout and determined not to let the "biz" get to his everlasting soul, Michael-Enoch is even opposed to being mentioned on this website. But, defiantly, we resist. Winner of the Regional Bible Trivia contest and one of the leaders of his Mormon congregation--of which Peter is a part--Michael-Enoch makes Peter's film a church activity to help out his friend, but is nervous about it. | According to Dan Merkley himself, he is not an actor. According to us, we don't think he is either, it's just something he does brilliantly on the side as he strives toward total world-domination. |
In the immortal words of Jerry Garcia, "what a long, strange trip it's been." So it was with the odyssey of making "The Work and The Story".
In many ways, the obstacles the heroes of this movie face reflect the same problems we had in making this film. How exactly? Well, maybe someday we'll elaborate further if anyone's interested.
Some people have asked what films and what Mormon producers and directors we're "mocking" in our "mock-umentary". There are a few subtle jabs at a couple of films, but we didn't want to exclude the vast audience who hasn't seen a "Mormon" film. In some ways, this movie was a great way for us to mock ourselves.
WORKING WITH RICHARD
"Do you hate me yet?" Richard asked after yet another meeting wherein he gave his strong opinions about the creative direction of the movie. "Yet?" I asked sarcastically, with a chuckle. Then he smiled and said, "If you let people know what a pain it is to work with me, maybe all these people will stop calling me!"
Richard and I have given each other quite a few headaches, and though he pledges he'll never again act in a movie he himself isn't directing, I must publicly thank him for being in this film. It's not easy for the man who carries the mantle of "founder of Mormon Cinema" to lighten up and act a little silly, but he was courageous enough to do so, and the result is a side of him that audiences have never seen before.
Thanks for visiting the website. And tell a friend about us!
Nathan Smith Jones
This movie is fictitious. Any similarities between the characters depicted in this film and actual persons is coincidental but most likely the very people this film is satirizing.
Seven "Mormon" films have been released in theaters since "God's Army", including: "The Other Side of Heaven", "The Singles Ward", "Out of Step", "Charly", "Handcart", and "The R.M.". And there's more on the way. (see ldsfilm.com for more details.)
With so much about Mormon Cinema in the public, we began to wonder, what if Richard Dutcher mysteriously disappeared four months after "God's Army" came to theaters? Who would take his place? Who would lead our people?
Thus is the premise of the new documentary-style comedy "The Work and The Story" After Richard's disappearance in July 2000, three amateur Mormon filmmakers individually set out to create their first feature-length films to take Dutcher's place as the next "Mormon Spielberg". But one of these filmmakers doesn't want Richard found. What does that cryptic statement mean? What lies in store for our three heroes?
FIND OUT ALL THIS AND MORE IN THE MONUMENTAL MORMON MOTION PICTURE EVENT OF THE YEAR!
The funniest movie ever made about Mormon Cinema. The ONLY movie ever made about Mormon Cinema!
"The Work and The Story" is for anyone who has seen a Mormon film, hasn't seen a Mormon film, or hates all things having to do with Mormons or films. I.E., THIS MOVIE'S FOR YOU!!
DISCLAIMER: not available in all areas. See store for details. If there isn't a store, then go to any store for details. It doesn't matter what store. It doesn't matter what business. Just go there for the details. The details. The ones for this movie. If they have no details, tell them they're ignorant and they must brush up on their knowledge of the upcoming landmark film "The Work and The Story", or little, obscure, independent movies that play in the Western United States in general.
The movie business is full of brothers.
For example, Andy and Larry Wachowski directed "The Matrix" and "The Matrix Reloaded" and Keenen, Joel and Ethan Coen wrote and produced "The Man Who Wasn't There," "Fargo" and "O' Brother, Where Art Thou."
Possibly joining their ranks soon will be Andrew, Wendell and William Pace with "Shift" and "Shift 2: Second Gear."
The Pace brothers have been making movies for about 10 years. Originally, it was just a creative outlet for them to express themselves.
"We have been interested in movies all our lives," Andrew said. "It started with radio shows and then went to camcorders as we got older."
"Shift 2: Second Gear" is a sequel to "Shift", which was originally intended to be a spoof off of the "Shaft" movies and the 1970s-style of cop movies. The brothers have come a long way since the first "Shift," which was made in 1997, they said.
"We went from a cast of 13 to a cast of more than 130, and the movie went from 18 minutes to an hour and 40 minutes," William said.
Filming for "Shift 2" began in January 1998.
"It wasn't like we were filming every day for five years. It was more like two or three days every month," Andrew said.
The crew members all contributed something, Andrew said.
"We are all creative in our own little way, and when we get together, it's almost atomic," Andrew said. "We all work together and play off each other's strengths and weaknesses."
The movie was filmed all over Northern Utah with no budget. William said everything in the film was already owned by the brothers or other crew members, or it was borrowed.
"We had lots of extremely creative volunteers for this, and they helped so much in the filming process," William said
"It was a really fun experience working with my brothers," he said. "They were really honest and forthcoming with suggestions on what to do with the film. We all think along the same lines so that made things easier."
The brothers all aspire to ultimately be involved in the movie business.
Andrew is interested in writing and currently has 20 scripts in the works. He never really considered acting and has had no formal training, but would pursue it if the opportunity came along, he said.
Wendell, director of videography, has worked on other films before: "Share The Moon" and the currently-unreleased "The Work and The Story."
"I'm not going to sell my soul to the movie gods, but I like the movie business," he said.
William said, "I would like to keep working with my brothers, but I would like to work on some more ambitious projects of my own."
William enjoys directing, illustrating, designing and concept drawing, he said.
"I would enjoy having a chance to be in every avenue that film offers," William said.
Andrew said he knows he and his brothers could make entertaining movies.
"We have new ideas, and we want to share them with the world as soon as we get the chance. We want to show people how much we can do with so little money," he said. "We can do die-hard everything, and people can trust us for good films."
The brothers have talked to the Utah Film Commission to see about getting "Shift 2" shown in Salt Lake City.
"But for right now, we really just want to pack the house and hope that everyone has fun," Andrew said.
"Shift 2" is being premiered Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall.
| THE WORK AND THE STORY |
a Do It Now Picture Jennifer Hoskins Nathan Smith Jones Eric Artell Dan Merkley Kirby Heyborne and Richard Dutcher as himself
Executive Producers Jileen Sargent Darren Douglas Nord Spencer Hill Cinematography Ben Hurst and Tristan Whitman and Jason Brunner
Casting Steffanie Casperson Producers Nathan Smith Jones and Miriam Smith and Dan Merkley Web Design Q Casperson Music Big Idea Music
Editors Ron Ralston and Steve Hennessey and John Crossman Sound Editor Gerald Hartley Grip Dave Boud Written and Directed by Nathan Smith Jones
See the trailer at www.theworkandthestory.com
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Films and television programs shot entirely or partially in Utah during the past year and their current video status:
AWAITING RELEASE/AIRING
[3 other lists are in article: CURRENTLY/OR SOON TO BE FILMING; RECENTLY COMPLETED FILMING; RECENT/CURRENT RELEASE]
[EXCERPT]
LDS-themed films
SCHEDULED FOR FALL RELEASE
- "Suddenly Unexpected" (special screenings in Houston theaters)
- "The Work and the Story," Aug. 29 (limited digital-video screenings)
- "The Book of Mormon Movie, Vol. 1: The Journey," Sept. 12
- "Day of Defense," Oct. 10
- "Best Two Years," Oct. 10
- "Pride and Prejudice," fall 2003
SCHEDULED FOR WINTER 2004:
- "The Home Teachers," Jan. 9
- "Saints and Soldiers," early 2004
ALSO
- "The Legend of Johnny Lingo," Aug. 29