Get Goosed!: How a
goose inspired a movie
Interview with Charles Newcomb
By Robin Reed
Charles Newcomb is a screenwriter who lives in Colorado, preferring the
mountain air to any city. One day, fate introduced him to a feathered friend,
and a movie named "Get Goosed!" was born.
Tell me the story of meeting the goose.
I was taking break from writing a TV show. I had been spending fourteen hour
days writing on my computer. Thirteen episodes of the TV series had to be
done is six weeks. I sat on the ground at a nearby lake and relaxed. Some Canada
geese passed over in "V" formation. One of them left the formation,
flew down and landed, and walked right up to me. I was very surprised and
I said to myself, "What
the hell is this?" But we quickly became friends.
Do you know why the goose did this?
She was probably imprinted to humans. I must look a little like the person who
took care of her before. At first, I went back to the lake every evening to feed
her and spend time with her. I didn't want to take her home, though, so it was
hard to leave. She tried to follow my car and I had to chase her back.
You named her "Owashi." What does that name
mean?
It's supposed to be a Lakota Sioux word meaning "White Face." A man I
hired as my "goose wrangler," who is part Indian, chose the name. I
looked it up in a Sioux language dictionary but I couldn't find it. I have no
reason to disbelieve the wrangler, though. I'm part Indian also; my father was
half Indian, from the Klamath tribe in Oregon.
When did you get movie idea?
I decided to write a screenplay about the goose. It was never my idea to
make a movie myself.
What made you choose a Native American as the main
human character?
A story came to me about an old man in a rest home by a lake who is befriended
by a goose. Then I decided the old man would be a Native American. The
story came to me, went down through my fingers into my computer and onto
the page.
Did you finish the screenplay before you decided to
produce it?
I pitched it to Barna Kabay, a producer and Oscar nominated director. He
produced the TV show I was writing when I first met Owashi. It's called "Mysteries
of the Black Rose Castle" and was shot in the German Alps. All the actors
are American and English. There are thirteen episodes, and they will be
shown this fall in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia.
I also sent a copy to entertainment attorney Joel Hulett. He
called me and said, "Let's make it ourselves."
How did you get the financing?
The attorney had done a lot of work in entertainment, but at that time had a lot
of clients in the oil and gas industries. He talked to a lot of those clients
for backing. Another key investor was a friend of mine from my journalism days.
She was once the National Vice Chair of the Reform Party.
What kind of budget did you plan for?
We knew the exact figure when we sold the shares. Two hundred thousand dollars.
I think the film looks like it cost two million. We used talented people who don't
have a name yet. If you have a good gaffer, you can make any film look more
expensive than it really is.
How hard was it to get the production together?
Some elements of production were new to me. We had a "turn key" crew
lined up. That means that we called one company and they were supposed to supply
everyone we needed. Four hours before we were supposed to start shooting, the
crew emailed me and said that they were staying with another job that paid
better. I had the cast, and for six days I had to pay them to wait. In that six
days I found a new crew.
How many people were there in the cast, and how did
you find them?
Thirty two speaking roles. We cast it ourselves. We did auditions in Colorado,
L.A., and had a casting call on an actors' website. Many of them recorded lines
of the script on a tape and mailed the tape to us. John Pahe, our lead,
auditioned in L.A.
How long did you shoot last year, and did you get most
of the film done?
We got about two thirds of it done. We took a break, and during that time John
Pahe had a major stroke.
How did Mr. Pahe's stroke affect the production?
It shut everything down. He recovered quite a bit in about five months. By that
time it was winter in Colorado, so that caused a continuity problem. We had to
wait for warm weather to return. We got back to it July 15 to the 24th. Just
last week we were still doing some second unit pickups.
How is Mr. Pahe now?
He's not 100 percent, but he's much better. Right after the stroke, he
couldn't walk or speak. When we did shoot again, we had to work around the fact
that he tired easily. He could only work about two hours, then he'd have to
rest. We were lucky that we had shot everything in which he had to be lively and
happy before the stroke. The later shooting was all stuff in which he was
depressed.
Many films have a Completion Bond, insurance against
something that could cause the film to shut down. Did you have one?
We had some insurance, but this was a low budget film, so we did not have a
Completion Bond. We had liability insurance that cost $5000, and film insurance
in case film got lost or destroyed.
Your other star, Owashi the goose, was killed before
you finished shooting. How did that happen?
We had filmed most of the scenes with Owashi. One morning, I went to where
we were keeping her, near a lake, and a little girl said there was a dead goose
in the bushes. We're sure it was a local young man who had nothing better to do
than to kill something. Supposedly, he has even bragged about it.
That must have been quite a blow, to the production and
to you.
We did have a backup goose, and were able to finish that way. Personally, I
spent hundreds of hours with Owashi. When she was still living by the lake where
I met her, she would sometimes fly to my house. One time, a dog attacked her and
tore out a lot of feathers. She stayed in my back yard for several weeks while
she recovered.
When do you go into post production?
Next week. It will take 5 to 6 weeks. We have a composer in L.A. named Troy
Stone. This will be his first feature.
How do you plan to look for a distributor?
We have one that's interested. I can't name it now. They have deal with HBO,
Showtime, Cinemax, all the big cable networks.
Will the movie be in a theater near me?
There may be a limited theatrical release. It will mostly be on cable and video.
Owashi wasn't trained by someone who trains animals for
movies. How did you get her to do the things you wanted?
I didn't. I wrote the things she did. The screenplay was built around the
behavior that I saw her do.
Did she work well with John Pahe?
Yes, she bonded with him. He was also a similar height and shape to whomever it
was she imprinted on before I met her.
Any last funny stories about the production you want to
tell us?
About all I can think of is that I had written a part for an old lady. I
happened to meet a retired Franciscan nun, and when I saw her face, I knew she
would be perfect. So I changed that part to be a retired nun.
Thank you. I look forward to seeing Get Goosed!
To learn more about GET GOOSED!, visit Charles' website by
clicking here.
Robin Reed is a writer who currently lives in Los Angeles, hoping that the
gods of the entertainment industry will smile on her screenwriting efforts. She
has been published in several chapbooks put out by Twilight Tales, which can be
seen at http://www.twilighttales.com,
and has one short story in Crafty Cat Crimes: 100 Tiny Cat Tale Mysteries,
available from Barnes and Noble. She is also a cartoonist and has a web site
where you can see her work: http://www.barstowproductions.com.
