ENCINITAS: Filmmaker creating Hollywood by the sea

Group meets monthly to pursue love of making movies

By Renee Ramsey - For the North County Times | Sunday, November 16, 2008 4:36 PM PST ∞

ENCINITAS ---- An Encinitas filmmaker is determined to create a new Hollywood by the sea with a community of like-minded movie makers who want to pursue their craft outside Los Angeles.

"There are L.A. refugees who love the art, and they want to make it work," said Jeremy Saville, a veteran actor and director who is bringing Hollywood how-to expertise to Encinitas with a new group called SoCal Moviemakers.

The group meets each month at the Encinitas Library.

"The community really is embracing this," Saville said. "They're excited."

On Thursday night, famed art director and producer Michael Gross of "Ghostbusters II," "Twins" and "Dave" fame, spoke to a group of about 50 fans on the evolution of producing movies in a hotly competitive industry.

"You have to be very dedicated ---- you've got a lot more people doing it, but not a lot more people who are committed to it," said Gross, who has lived in Oceanside for the past eight years after retiring 12 years ago.

"It's very difficult," Gross added. "You have to want this more than anything else in life. If you don't want it that bad, don't even try."

Saville created SoCal Moviemakers this past summer after moving to Encinitas from Los Angeles.

Every second Thursday, a free presentation by an industry expert is preceded by a networking session and followed by a Q&A session.

On Thursday night, there were screenings of two comedy shorts by Saville, too, one of which featured extras from the previous month's meeting as an on-the-spot movie-making exercise.

Saville is convinced that filmmakers don't have to live and work in Hollywood to create worthy movies.

"I, personally, do not think it has to come from Hollywood," he said, adding, "I'm so driven, I left Hollywood to do it."

One of his goals is to launch the Encinitas Cinema Celebration, patterned after the highly successful Austin film festivals.

That Texas city was once considered an unlikely outpost for filmmaking, but today is a popular movie-making locale.

"There's a new paradigm ---- the decentralization of movie-making," Saville said.

Saville's group so far has attracted industry experts with top credentials to the monthly sessions.

Guests have included Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and screenwriter Dale Launer of "My Cousin Vinny" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."

For more information about SoCal Moviemakers and future meetings, visit www.socalmoviemakers.com.