Hollow Whistle's New Feature Film ``What Goes Around'' Resumes Post-Production After 90-Day Delay Caused by a Film Lab's Bankruptcy.

Business & Entertainment Editors

HOUSTON--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2002

Post-production on the new feature film, "What Goes Around" began in September 2001, after having wrapped up filming the previous month. The romantic comedy feature film screenplay was written by James Macnab, who is also the film's producer and director. The film is a production of Hollow Whistle, L.L.C., a Houston feature film production company. The executive producer is Joel Seidner. After filming wrapped up in August 2001, Macnab along with Director of Photography Steve Huber began transferring the 35mm negative to Beta tape for editing. However, there had been a delay until now of about 90 days caused by a film lab's bankruptcy that affected about 20% of the film's negative.

The first 12,000 feet of film of the movie, about 20% of the total exposed footage, was sent for developing to WRS, Inc. which was a film lab in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WRS, Inc. did business under the trade name of WRS Film Lab. The film was sent to WRS after the first week of filming in late July 2001. In late August 2001, the owner of WRS and the WRS Film Lab went to bankruptcy court. "WRS was unable to return to us our 12,000 feet of developed negative until November 2001," said Seidner. "And thanks to our east coast attorneys we were able to retrieve the 12,000 feet of our negative at WRS without going to court." The two east coast attorneys representing Hollow Whistle are Mitchell Cobert of Morristown, New Jersey, and Roy Leonard of Leonard & Dively in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"The WRS bankruptcy took a few odd turns during the brief period of time between our delivery of the 12,000 feet of exposed film to WRS for developing in late July 2001 and our getting possession of it from WRS in November 2001," Seidner said. "In early August 2001, before WRS went to bankruptcy court, WRS and its biggest creditor, a Canadian bank, agreed to appoint a receiver for the orderly liquidation of WRS assets," Seidner continued, "And shortly thereafter, the principal owner of WRS, Jack Napor, took WRS along with him into bankruptcy court." The WRS bankruptcy records in the Pittsburgh Federal bankruptcy court also indicate that General Motors had a large amount of exposed film at WRS at the time of the WRS bankruptcy filing, and General Motors had to put up a $500,000 bond in order to retrieve their film property from WRS. Seidner said that the other 42,000 feet of exposed film of What Goes Around had already been developed at Technicolor-East in New York City when filming wrapped up in August 2001.

"Macnab and Huber transferred the 42,000 feet of the 35mm negative developed at Technicolor to Beta tape for editing and added the sound track, and we did not want to start editing the Beta tape until the 12,000 feet of negative from WRS was in our hands," said Seidner, "So, between September and November 2001, we continued development activity on our next feature film project, until the WRS negative was delivered to us at the end of November 2001," said Seidner. In December 2001, Huber began to transfer to Beta tape the 12,000 feet of 35mm negative that had been at WRS. "We expect the rough cut on Beta tape to be completed in April 2002," said Seidner. "And once we have the Beta tape editing completed with sound, we will cut the 35mm negative."

What Goes Around is about life, love, lust, dating, romance, intimacy, friendship and weirdness among young adults in their early twenties. Some of the characters have just graduated from college. Complications arise when they notice something extremely bizarre and very weird about their dating relationships and romantic activities. The characters each try to fix the weirdness in their own way, and that is when the laughs begin. "This film is a romantic comedy about neotenic, neoteric, neogenic and neolytic young adults," said Seidner. "We call these kinds of neo-young-adults the 'NYADS'." Seidner stated that Macnab has written and directed a comedy masterpiece about NYADS(TM). Neotenic and neoteric are in the dictionary, and Seidner created the words neogenic(TM) and neolytic(TM) to describe NYADS who experience change through creative or destructive processes. Neotenic means a person who is young and has adult characteristics or a person who is older and has juvenile characteristics, and neoteric means a modern person.

Seidner suggested that What Goes Around could be sequelized or re-told in companion films from different characters' points of view during the same time period, or in prequels or sequels. Seidner hopes to sell What Goes Around to a major studio for distribution to theaters. "I would like to see the characters in What Goes Around appear in other films about NYADS and perhaps in a television comedy series," said Seidner and he mentioned that films about NYADS can be made for modest budgets. Such films, Seidner believes, appeal to the core movie-going market of teenagers and young adults, and he is presently writing the story of the prequel to be called What Senior Girls, which takes place in a high school setting. He says that the filming of What Senior Girls could begin as early as August 2002.

What Goes Around is Macnab's 35mm feature length film directorial debut. It's also Huber's first feature film as a Director of Photography. Macnab and Huber were classmates at NYU Film School where they both completed their undergraduate course of study last year. Macnab is from Houston and is now based in Los Angeles as a feature film director. Huber, who is from Long Island, is now based in New York City doing cinematography for feature films and music videos on the east coast. Huber recently returned from a three week filming assignment in Pennsylvania. Seidner is a motion picture executive producer, film production executive and attorney in Houston whose goal is to make one to four films a year with film school students as a source for screenplays, actors and crew members. "I was pleasantly surprised with the technical knowledge, creative ability, and management skill to get things done on time and below budget that was demonstrated by the cast and crew of What Goes Around," said Seidner.

Macnab invited several of his NYU Film School classmates to Houston to take part in the filming of What Goes Around last summer, and many of the cast and crew were from Houston and Austin. Quite a few of the cast and crew developed their talent through participation in the drama program at Stratford High School in Houston.

Starring in What Goes Around are Alexander Herron, Kristin Lotta, Matt Wahlquist, Kristy Freidell, Todd Collins, Amy Schwab, Emily White and Meredith May. In addition to Macnab and Huber, the supervising crew members include Eric Hendricks (sound), Susannah Barry (casting and wardrobe), Katriona Macnab (film editor) and Sam Austin (musical composer). Wahlquist and Herron also assisted Macnab and Huber with pre-production.

Companies in the feature film production, acquisition and distribution business include: Miramax, Disney (NYSE:DIS), the Warner Brothers division of AOL (NYSE:AOL), Sony Pictures (NYSE:SNE), the Universal division of Vivendi, Fox (NYSE:FOX), MGM, Viacom (NYSE:VIA), Lions Gate, Artisan Entertainment, Revolution Studios, DreamWorks, Family Room Entertainment Corp., Stereo Vision Entertainment Inc. and Prophecy Entertainment Inc.

NYADS(TM), Neogenic(TM) and Neolytic(TM) are trademarks and service marks of Hollow Whistle, L.L.C., which makes NYAD, Neogenic and Neolytic feature films.