By Steven Peros (writer-director of "Footprints")
(April 2010)

Sometimes you just have to make a movie. After winning a then-record five awards at NYU’s film festival with my undergrad short film, “Old Clowns Don’t Bite,” I went on to work for a TV producer in Manhattan, all the while writing at night and on weekends. I decided that becoming a successful screenwriter would be my ticket to becoming that sought-after hyphenate: “Writer-Director.” Two years out of NYU, my first screenplay was optioned by serious producers who were fast-tracking it to production. Wow — so fast! I had arrived! (P.S.: The movie hit theatres twelve years later with totally different producers.)

That film was Lionsgate’s “The Cat’s Meow,” directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Kirsten Dunst and Eddie Izzard. I was an integral part of the production, on set for rehearsals and every day of the shoot. Since I had conceived of this historic murder tale, with an ensemble of 13, I was a valuable asset to both Peter and the producers. I’m proud of that film. Among other things, what it reinforced was that … I wanted to direct as well as write.

After the release of “The Cat’s Meow,” I worked with four different sets of producers on four different projects, hoping one of them would be my feature directorial debut. These were all “low budget,” ranging from $2 million to $6 million. There were a few “almost,” and then actors who said yes but didn’t trigger financing. Then there was the superstar in the big boxing franchise who wanted to star in my directorial debut … but only if I didn’t actually direct it. And he would have to do his mandatory rewrite.

Five years after “The Cat’s Meow,” I was no closer to that feature directorial debut. That’s when I rethought it all. I was challenged by my now-fiancée to write a film that could be produced for an amount of money I might actually be able to raise through private sources. Often, that “ultra low budget” first feature happens because someone has access to a lake house or country house: “I’ll do a horror movie in that house, or a dysfunctional family drama, or a Big Chill-type weekend-with-friends dramedy filled with pop culture references.” I wanted to do none of these.

Steven Peros (center) on the set of “Footprints” with director of photography Adam Teichman

However, the valuable piece of real estate to which I did have “access” was Hollywood Boulevard. It was walking distance to my home plus I was friendly with people at the American Cinematheque, which owns and operates the historic Egyptian Theatre. If they said yes to my shooting there, could I build a story around the boulevard and utilize the Cinematheque’s kind participation to convince other locales and proprietors to also allow us to shoot?

First — I had to find a story.

A woman wakes up at dawn on the handprints and footprints of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and has no idea who she is or how she got there. That single image was the genesis of the film that would become “Footprints.” From there, armed with a digital still camera and notepad, I walked the boulevard at different times of day — sunrise, high noon, sunset, late night — exploring the places I had walked by in the past, staring at the faces of the people at whom I had previously only glanced. I also put on my producers hat: Could the tale take place from sunrise to sunset so we would have minimal need for lights, and thus save set-up time? Could I write some roles for actors I already knew so that we had friendly cooperative faces around us?

With its juxtaposition of Chinese and Egyptian Theatres, its rearing-up elephants — inspired by D.W. Griffith’s 1916 “Intolerance” — atop a shopping plaza, its sidewalk paved with stars, Hollywood Boulevard seemed liked the ideal setting for a tale equal parts “Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland” … with a little bit of “Mulholland Drive.”

After broadly piecing it together, I set out to write, spending about six weeks to get to a first draft. But I vowed that I wouldn’t make a film “just to make it.” I would make this film only if people responded to the script. Fortunately, they did. From there, the Cinematheque said yes to shooting at the Egyptian. Mann Theatres kindly reduced their fee for us to shoot at Grauman’s Chinese. Hollywood & Highland followed suit. Small-business owners like Shelly Café, Hollywood Book & Poster and Snow White Café also let us shoot at their establishments. Fees were waived or reduced as long as I provided insurance, which I did. The rest was shot on the street by a crew and camera so small that even tourists didn’t bother to gawk.

And so we set out to tell the story of a dream from the point of view of the dreamer, an amnesiac young woman (Sybil Temtchine) who wakes up on the footprints of the Chinese Theatre. Her yellow brick road would be Hollywood Boulevard. Her “guides” — both physical and metaphysical — would be the denizens of the boulevard who exist so close, yet so far, from Oz. Her goal would be the truth to her identity, the reason for her return and the choice to begin again. That choice would come down to the peace of death or the delirious anguish of life. I was lucky enough to have two stellar veterans in my ensemble: H.M. Wynant (Sam Fuller’s “Run of the Arrow,” classic “Twilight Zone”) and Pippa Scott (John Ford’s “The Searchers”).

Steven Peros (center) with Adam Teichman and Cat Woman (Catherine Bruhier)

I set out to balance a lyrical dream with a narrative mystery. Hitchcock achieved this in “Vertigo,” Cocteau and Lynch countless times in their masterworks, Guillermo del Toro with “Pan’s Labyrinth.” But, despite the uncomfortable existentialist moments in the film, “Footprints” is ultimately a fable of hope, of survival and of changing gears from passive to active. Much, I guess, like I did when I said enough is enough and made my own movie.

Photo (top): Sybil Temtchine as “Our Gal,” who searches for clues to her identity, and H.M. Wynant as Victor in “Footprints”

Steven Peros is the author of the play and screenplay for Peter Bogdanovich’s “The Cat’s Meow,” starring Kirsten Dunst, and is a twice-published Samuel French playwright. He has just completed post production on “The Undying,” his second feature as director, a ghost story starring Emmy-nominee Robin Weigert and “Avatar’s” Wes Studi.

Festivals/Awards
STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL, 2009 — nominated for Emerging Filmmaker Award
METHOD FEST Independent Film Festival, 2010

Special Sneak Preview, Cast/Crew Q&A, Champagne Reception
http://www.americancinematheque.com/archive1999/2010/Egyptian/specialevent_APRIL_ET_2010.htm#FOOTPRINTS
Wed, April 28th 2010, 7:30PM
The American Cinematheque at The Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
$11 (general), $9 (students/seniors), $7 (Cinematheque members)
Tickets: www.fandango.com

TRAILER LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEves9kYs_g

Official Website:  www.footprintsthefilm.com