A Bad Guy Who Was Also the Boom Operator

Sometimes, all it takes to get a sense of the bootstrap nature of a super low-budget indie film production is a quick glance at the credits. Who are these people? What did they do on the movie exactly? And so on. In the case of Lights Out Rowan, a kiddie thriller premiering this weekend in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina, the guy that stands out is James Filanowski.

In addition to playing lead bad guy Dr. Ravenen, a mysterious boss messing with the physics of darkness and light, Filanowski is also credited on the crew side as “Sound Mixer, Recordist, and Boom Operator.” A relative, perhaps even his wife, Mary, handled make-up. So here's an aspiring actor, in front of and behind the camera, although presumably never trying to hold the boom while also attempting to deliver his lines.

Another reason the focus in this case falls on Filanowski is a demo tape he's got up at YouTube. Unrelated to the film, it's just shy of the impressive 10,000-views mark and showcases his moving-mouth impressions of some recognizable characters and standard ethnic stereotypes. The compilation was apparently submitted to some cartoon networks:

 

So here's to you, James Filanowski, hustling on YouTube and on both sides of Lights Out Rowan. As today's poster boy for the DIY film world, here's hoping you keep successfully adding shorts and indie feature credits to your IMDB page.