Nebraska native returns home to shoot film about youthful days in Nebraska City | Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — A Nebraska native has returned house to movie a Nebraska story, largely due to a brand new state grant program for filmmaking.

Adam Rehmeier, now a Michigan-based screenwriter and director, has been capturing his coming-of-age comedy, “Snack Shack,” in his hometown of Nebraska Metropolis for the previous two weeks as a part of a six-week capturing schedule.

 The movie is predicated on Rehmeier’s youthful expertise working the concession stand at age 14 on the Steinhart Park Pool within the Missouri River group.

‘An actual win’

As much as 65 actors and crew members a day have been engaged on the movie. The crew has shot scenes on the Nebraska Metropolis pool, its movie show, the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha and Horseman’s Park in Omaha.

“It’s an actual win for Nebraska Metropolis. It’s good for the native economic system, it’s  good for the native individuals,” mentioned Rehmeier’s father, retired District Choose Randall Rehmeier.

“I’m glad Adam determined to do it right here,” the decide added.

The choice to shoot the movie, which has a $4.5 million funds, in Nebraska was aided by a brand new state filmmaking incentive.

Final yr, state lawmakers put aside $1 million in state grants for movies and TV productions that function Nebraska-based tales and locales, make use of the companies of Nebraska movie crew members and have budgets of at the very least $1 million.

Three movies obtained grants

Snack Shack obtained a $200,000 grant. A undertaking from Omaha-based producer/director Dana Altman, “Going For Two,” obtained $400,000. And the deliberate movie “I Am a Man” — concerning the trial of Ponca Chief Standing Bear that gave authorized recognition of Native Individuals as “individuals” — obtained $400,000.

State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who proposed the movie incentive laws, mentioned she is happy to see the funding “put to good use” — supporting the Nebraska movie trade and telling Nebraska tales “to the world.”

“That is precisely what I had in thoughts,” she mentioned.

Manufacturing of “I Am a Man” obtained an extra $5 million allocation of federal funds by way of an financial restoration invoice sponsored by Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne. Filming of that film is anticipated to start this fall.

Jordan Foley, the Los Angeles-based producer of “Snack Shack,” mentioned the film would have probably been shot elsewhere if not for the state grant, together with $50,000 in funding from the Metropolis of Nebraska Metropolis.

Rehmeier informed town council final month that movie incentives could also be higher in states like Georgia and Ohio, however Nebraska Metropolis is the place the movie “must be to make it particular,” based on Information Channel Nebraska. 

“These three movies will certainly be partaking and entertaining,” mentioned Laurie Richards, director of the Nebraska Movie Workplace. 

Locals solid in components

A number of Nebraska Metropolis residents have been enlisted as extras or for bit components. For example, town administrator, Lou Leone, was solid as town park director, and two Peru State School college students obtained roles as “occasion women.”

Leone mentioned his teenage daughter additionally obtained some profession recommendation from solid members about working as an artwork director for a movie.

“The city itself has been fairly upbeat about it,” he mentioned.

As well as, the filming will end in elevated gross sales and lodging tax income, Leone mentioned, and is sweet publicity for Nebraska Metropolis, a river city identified for its museums, apple orchards and annual AppleJack Competition. 

Some changes have been made in Nebraska Metropolis to show the clock again to 1991, when the Snack Shack was run by the filmmaker and his pal. Clothes and automobiles needed to match that interval, and a few indicators on the town have been altered to make it look like it was 30 years in the past. A brand new snack shack was constructed. And few cell telephones existed in 1991.

Father needed to log out

The elder Rehmeier mentioned he needed to “log out” on the proposal to town by his then 14-year-old son and a buddy to run the concession stand on the Steinhart Park Pool.

“To be trustworthy with you, we thought to some extent it was a joke. However they wished to make some cash,” Rehmeier mentioned.

“Adam has all the time been form of a right-brain form of individual — considering outdoors the field. He’s artistic and artsy,” his father mentioned. “He figured, ‘Why can’t we do that?’ “

He mentioned that he and his spouse and different mother and father assisted in working the concession stand, and the 2 boys made more cash than they might at different jobs, particularly within the first of two years.

A prolific author

The retired decide, who additionally served on the Nebraska Board of Parole and now does mediation work, mentioned he hasn’t learn the script of the film, considering his son desires to maintain that as a shock.

The producers of the movie are additionally not speaking about who performs the lead characters. That, Foley mentioned, can be launched later as a part of a publicity marketing campaign.

Adam Rehmeier, who was a prolific author as a youth, has achieved effectively within the film enterprise. He attended the College of Nebraska-Lincoln for 2 years earlier than transferring to Columbia School in Chicago, which makes a speciality of wonderful arts and cinematography.

He labored on low-budget, unbiased movies for a number of years and served as a documentarian for the jam band Phish. He composed the music for a 2011 film, “The Bunny Sport,” and was the cinematographer for “Jonas” in 2013.

He was the author, editor and director of the 2020 movie “Dinner in America,”  which premiered on the Sundance Movie Competition and received a number of awards at different worldwide movie competitions.

“He’s the actual deal,” Foley mentioned.

Lengthy hours

Rehmeier is working 12- to- 14-hour days capturing the film, and his crew was filming Friday in a home subsequent door, based on his father.

However his son was in a position to go to some on Friday, which was his forty sixth birthday.

Foley, a Minnesota native, mentioned the movie crew has obtained lots of “Nebraska good” whereas capturing right here.

He mentioned that if all goes effectively, the film must be prepared by subsequent summer time, when it will likely be proven at movie festivals in hopes of being picked up, as “Dinner in America” was, for wider distribution.

“Now we have to attend and see what is going to occur,” Foley mentioned.