A.V. PLAYS VITAL ROLE IN FILM : `SLAM' DIRECTOR TURNS LANCASTER HANGOUT INTO SET.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

It was midnight and Mike Traina was preparing for seven more hours of filming - after sleeping only four hours and eating only one meal in the previous 24 hours.

Traina poured over his script, storyboard and shooting schedule. As director and co-producer of his own independent film, Traina must tend to dozens of details.

He consults with the costume designer over whether a necklace is too distracting, sends an assistant director to track down three actors who are due on the set, and settles questions about lighting and camera shots.

``There are thousands of pieces that have to come together to get to the center of it and make a vision come to life,'' Traina said.

Traina is trying to shoot his film in just 18 days - the length of his winter break from his job as a communication arts instructor at Antelope Valley College.

Called ``Slam,'' the movie is about four 20-something friends - Lance, Clay, Curt and Caroline - attending a poetry contest, or poetry slam.

``The theme is no matter how well you get to know somebody you never understand them completely,'' Traina said. ``It's a slice-of-life piece. It doesn't pretend to have great answers.''

The film is being shot at the Hang 'N Java, a popular Lancaster Boulevard coffeehouse. The filming is done from midnight to 7 a.m., when Hang 'N Java is closed.

``One-third of the set needs to be picked up and put back because we are in a real, working location,'' Traina said. ``Time is the biggest enemy - especially on a set with fixed hours of operation.''

Traina, of Lancaster, has directed theater, commercials and documentaries, but ``Slam'' is his first feature film.

Traina hopes to complete the film by June, then shop it around New York in September, with his goal being to get it shown in art theaters or by a theater chain.

``I hope it does well creatively and financially, and that it resonates with this (the Generation X) market,'' Traina said. ``Hopefully, the film speaks strongly to them.''

Traina, 26, was born in Houston and raised in Phoenix. The idea for ``Slam'' came while at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he earned bachelor's degrees in film communication and religious studies and a master's degree in mass communication theory.

In April 1995, Traina and ``Slam'' co-producer Mark O'Brien outlined the characters during a four-day trip to Ashland, Ore.

Traina, looking for a place where he could concentrate on writing the screenplay, took a job in fall 1995 as a full-time instructor at Antelope Valley College. And in three months he was able to flesh out the screenplay.

The casting started in October with ads in trade publications. Ten thousand actors sent in head shots and resumes, which Traina and O'Brien whittled down to a list of 360 to read for the 15 speaking roles.

Everybody is working on deferred pay: They get paid only if ``Slam'' is picked up by a movie distributor.

``Ultimately I would love for it to get picked up and get shown nationally,'' said Los Angeles actor Brian Gattas, 25, who plays Curt. ``Once you get showcased, people start biting. It's tough to get showcased.''

One Antelope Valley resident with a speaking role is Rodney Johnson, a stand-up comedian who has appeared on ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and on VH-1's ``Standup Spotlight.''

Johnson is coming off the disappointment of having read three times for a role in the Tom Cruise movie ``Jerry Maguire,'' only to see the part go to someone else.

``I'm trying to break out into acting. This is a chance to get some confidence back and get some credits established,'' Johnson said. ``It also prepares you for future auditions.''

Much of the crew of ``Slam'' are Antelope Valley residents with connections to the college or to Hang 'N Java. AVC art instructor Cynthia Minet is the art director and supplied many of the sculptures that will be seen in the film.

AVC English Professor Charles Hood wrote one of the poems that will be featured.

Java employees working on the project include Stephanie Birckel (costumes and an extra); Eric Mathias (lighting); and Billy Arthur (an extra). Another employee, Mike Coleman, is among the artists with works being used on the set.

An Antelope Valley band, Woodslide, plays one of its songs for the film.

``It's exciting the movie is promoting a lot of locals,'' said Julie Murakami Jones, who owns Hang 'N Java with her husband, Brian.

Brian Jones' brother, Dak, is a sound technician on the movie.

Changing the Hang 'N Java from a coffeehouse to a movie set involves removing food, beverage and coffee-making ingredients and machines.

Furniture is rearranged and production assistants, working with Polaroid snapshots, arrange props on tables to match their location from the previous shoot.

There are cords everywhere - cords for the lights, cords for microphones and a cord for the smoke machine used to give the set a smoky, nightclub look.

Actual filming is done in stretches that last a minute or two at a time. In one shot, a poet is introduced and she unties her pony tail as she approaches the microphone. The untying movement is too short, Traina said, and it is reshot.

And so it goes into the wee hours of the morning.

At the end of the shooting day, Traina will try to get a little sleep - ``a precious commodity,'' he calls it - and then he will be back tending to all the details again.

THE FACTS

Want to be in the movies? Inverse Productions is seeking extras for the final week of filming of the independent feature ``Slam.'' Those interested should call [phone] and leave a message.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Mike Traina reviews the shooting schedule of his independent feature ``Slam'' before filming begins at Hang 'N Java coffeehouse.

(2--color) Actress Cynthia Martino takes direction on how to play a scene before taping at Hang 'N Java. Antelope Valley artists, musicians and residents are being used to make the twenty-something drama that is being filmed nightly in Lancaster.

Jim Skeen/Daily News