We are fortunate to live in a community that is vibrant with music, great food, hiking, numerous festivals, a caring and supportive volunteer food pantry, and an occasional unique film company shooting scenes on location.

Such is the case with Happy Birthday Charlie, a film by Nina Martinek.

A road trip film about a mom who tries to do right by her teenage daughter, but winds up doing everything wrong.

The film is written by Nina Martinek and Boris Frumin. Martinek is the director, and the film is being produced by Michael Manaserri and Boris Frumin.

Pre-production was done in June 2021, with principal photography in July. Post production will take place in September.

June and her teenage daughter Charlie live in a trailer in a small town in New Mexico. June works as a nurse at the local aged care facility. She deals with a gambling boyfriend, an unreliable car, and a growing dependence on opiates.

When June is caught stealing medication from her patients, she must escape town. June and a reluctant Charlie pack up their belongings and hit the road. With June’s dependence on drugs, she makes a series of bad decisions that directly affect her daughter.

Nina Martinek is a filmmaker, originally from Australia. Her short films The Dock and Pulpville have been screened at festivals around the world.

Shooting on location at Roy’s Last Shot in Gilpin County was a sight to behold. I watched with owners Roy and Barb Stewart as this kind of action does not occur often in our neck of the woods. The 14 member crew arrived at approximately 8:45 a.m. to unload the truck of equipment and left the location around 10:15 p.m.

I spoke to two of the data managers with some general questions and was informed that they are doing a 19 day shoot at various locations across Colorado. The crew hails from various cities from around the country including Los Angeles, New Orleans, Boulder, Vail and Nashville.

I stood with Barb behind the bar and watched for approximately an hour for a shot to take place. The shoot took around six takes. The eight actors included a couple playing pool, two customers seated at a booth, a guitar player, a guy dancing to the music, and a couple entering the restaurant.

Barb and I discussed the opening shot, taking about two hours to set up, rehearse, adjust camera angles, adjusting the couple at the booth focus and placing their elbows on the table, and all the time watching the director view the scene on her monitor.

All this works for about 5-8 seconds of film. I told Barb not to blink or she would miss seeing this scene in the film. Roy was commenting on the amount of equipment and the size of the crew. I do believe he went into a business mode trying to imagine how much the overhead must be in terms of salaries.

The shooting involved a motivated coordination between the camera, sound, and actors. There was a great deal of concentration required to make all the pieces flow smoothly. After each take, the director would make changes and the process was repeated. Careful time staking details are certainly on display.

PHOTO BY DR. CHARLES SMITH Roy’s Last Shot is in the movies The film crew work together to coordinate the camera and the sound. Scenes from the movie Happy Birthday Charlie were filmed in Gilpin County.[/caption]

How exciting to see film making taking place in a local hangout in Gilpin County.

Check out the website at http://www.happybirthdaycharlie.com/ for more information!