Budding director makes first film on slim budget
BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer

WOODBRIDGE - Iselin resident Danny Scott Cerchiaro went Hollywood for the premiere of his first independent screenplay and feature-length movie.

"We had searchlights, wine, velvet rope, the red carpet," said Cerchiaro, whose movie "The Tree Behind the Church" was picked up by Comcast's Movies on Demand in July. "I said, 'Why not go Hollywood-style?' We went all out."

Cerchiaro, who owns Miracle Studios in Iselin, held the film's premiere at the Edison Valley Playhouse on Sept. 19. About 120 people attended the event.

"I spoke to a woman at Palm Video, which is the number-one supplier to Comcast Demand," said Cerchiaro. "Usually that doesn't work, but she was nice enough to watch the movie."

The woman called Cerchiaro back and said the president of Palm Video had to watch the movie before a decision could be made.

"It was the day before my birthday [July 25], and I told her to do me a favor and say they would pick the movie up," he said. "She told me not to hold my breath; if the president doesn't like it, then he doesn't like it."

The woman called Cerchiaro at 6:30 p.m. on July 25.

"She asked, 'Is it still your birthday?,' " Cerchiaro recalled. "I said yes, and she said, 'We'll run it.' "

"The Tree Behind the Church" will run on Comcast's Movies on Demand for four months, from Sept. 19 to the beginning of 2007.

Cerchiaro signed a contract with the owners of the then-abandoned Edison Valley Playhouse, Valley Playhouse Productions, so he and his crew could film the movie. They filmed for six weeks in April and May 2005.

"It was perfect," he said. "It was so spooky. There were items left behind from the 1960s and there were cobwebs. It was cool."

The playhouse was originally the Marconnier Chapel, which was built in 1895. The church's stained-glass windows were the only light source in the building.

The church was used as a playhouse and theater in the 1960s. The last film presented was "Snoopy" in 2001.

Cerchiaro's crew had only six weeks to film the 121-minute movie.

"The Valley Playhouse Productions received a grant to renovate the playhouse at that same time," he said. "We worked pretty much day and night, seven days a week, for those six weeks, and got it done."

Cerchiaro's inspiration for the movie's plot, which is part ghost story and part historical narrative, was an 1896 wedding announcement in the Westfield Leader, a local newspaper.

The article describes the bride and groom and the ceremony and the dancing.

"The dark doors opened up in my head," said Cerchiaro. "I thought, What would happen if the groom killed her?"

In Cerchiaro's version, the bride's new husband kills her on their wedding night because he finds out she was having an affair with a black man.

The film begins 100 years later, when five college students look for a place to rehearse for an upcoming university production.

They meet Leonard Nichols, the caretaker of the Whitestone Valley Playhouse. They decide the playhouse is the perfect spot.

But once inside the playhouse, the students start hearing voices. Before long, the church's ghosts take over the students.

Once the ghosts inhabit the students, their only way out is to act out the murderous events of the wedding night 100 years before.

The plot becomes more complex when the characters discover that the groom murdered his wife because she was having an affair with a black man. The tree behind the church is where the bride and her lover had met and where they are buried.

The actors include Kevin Kelly, Abi Kornet, Andre McSween, Suzanna Suazo, Bryan Taylor, Dan Petitt and Erik Doyle.

"Joe Conti is my assistant director, and he did everything backstage - lights, you name it," said Cerchiaro. "Dan Petitt, who plays Mr. Leonard Nichols, came to us without any acting background. We wanted an old man and he gave it a shot. Now his résumé has expanded even more since this play."

Cerchiaro is working on three more feature-length films.

"The movies are entirely different from this one," he said.

Cerchiaro has learned an important lesson from making his first film, which cost him close to $130,000.

"It's probably a good idea to have investors behind you," said Cerchiaro, who invested his own money. "Hopefully from the notoriety buzz I have received from this one, my other movies can attract investors."

For more information on the movie, go to thetreebehindthechurch.com.

Flick picked up

by Comcast's Movies

on Demand