New Concept in Indie Filmmaking
By Susan Morse

HAMPTON - New Boston filmmaker Bill Millios is out to prove regional movie-making can be a creative and financial success. Millios released "Old Man Dogs" seven years ago, distributing it statewide by the crew of Back Lot Films Inc. driving it to cinemas from Keene to Concord.

	Director Bill Millios, center, looks over the movie script for "Dangerous Crosswinds" with actors Larry Jay Tish, left, and Don LaBranche.

Millios doesn’t want to put a price tag on the latest film he’s directing, "Dangerous Crosswinds," set in Hampton. He’s financing it. He and his crew have finessed the marketing and will release it regionally, the same way they did "Old Man Dogs," in January 2005. Millios actually believes he’ll make money from ticket sales, a new concept in independent filmmaking.

"I really think there’s an audience for independent film in New Hampshire," he said. "I’ll gladly compare this to Hollywood doing the same type of story."

The story is that of Harry Toland, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York City journalist who returns to his Hampton roots and revives a friendship with his former college roommate, now editor of the Hampton Eagle. He enters a pact to do a mercy killing of an Alzheimer’s’ victim, except he finds later the woman he killed never had Alzheimer’s.

Millios was inspired by film noir when he wrote the story years ago, that of a nice, ordinary guy who makes one drastic mistake.

Millios is shooting in Lee, in New Castle, Rye, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, at Brown’s Lobster Pound in Seabrook, and in Hampton Beach May 17-19. Extras are needed. If interested, write dangerouscrosswinds@yahoo.com.

One of the film’s stars is Don LaBranche of Stratham, who also starred in "Old Man Dog."

"Dangerous Crosswinds" is being shot on 24P, a progressive digital video that looks like film for a fraction of the cost. Now, everyone can afford to be a filmmaker, Millios said. "It’s insane," he said. "The tools of filmmaking have come down so low, it will kill a lot of the procrastination."

The hard part is after the shooting ends. "The lure of the shoot is so intoxicating," he said. The goal isn’t Sundance - not that it wouldn’t be nice - but feasible, regional filmmaking, which includes a dedicated crew working on a stipend.

"One of the things I learned so far, you can (shoot) anywhere," said co-producer Karen Sampson of Peterborough. "Bill is trying to set the stage for future films. We’re not depending on anyone else. No one is watching over our shoulder, saying you have to do it this way. Bill feels strongly he has a vision to do it in a certain way."

Millios graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1988, but considers himself a self-taught filmmaker. He bought a video recorder and began taping weddings. He started his own business, Back Lot Films, producing corporate and nonprofit documentaries, such as his recent "Insights Into Industry," involving interviews with those working in New Hampshire-based companies.

For more information, visit www.backlotfilm.com.