Local writer/director set for DVD release of movie filmed in the Garden State

BY SUZANNE POPADIN

PANTHER VALLEY, N.J. -- What would you do if you were filming a movie with a plot that goes cross-country but a budget that only goes as far as the Raritan River?

For Panther Valley resident Steven Kampmann, the solution was easy: film almost entirely in his home state, with locations chosen for their ability to imitate settings from here to the West Coast, and wait for the sparks to fly on Valentine's Day.

Kampmann and Matt Smollon co-wrote the feature film "BuzzKill,'' and the independent movie's DVD release is set for Feb. 14.

Kampmann also directed and appeared in the absurd comedy -- starring Daniel Raymont, Krysten Ritter and Darrell Hammond -- about a struggling writer who becomes famous when a serial killer steals his car and his latest script.

"Buzzkill,'' the first film in 40 years branded by The Second City -- the legendary improv-based comedy theater -- won the People's Choice Award as Best Feature Film at the New Jersey Film Festival at Cape May in 2008, Best Feature Comedy at the Big Easy Film Festival in New Orleans in 2009, and Kampmann was named Best Director at that festival the same year. The movie kicks off its cross-country odyssey in New Jersey. From Hoboken in Hudson County, to Paterson and Totowa in Passaic County, to Boonton in Morris County, to Hackettstown and Allamuchy Township in Warren County, Kampmann and a film crew based in New York City criss-crossed the northern Garden State finding a myriad of backdrops to mimic locations all across the USA.

"What costs so much is housing cast and crew. So, simply ... our crew was based out of New York and we picked them up in vans and drove to locations in New York and New Jersey and at the end of the day drove them back,'' Kampmann said. "That ended up being the most cost efficient way to produce it.''

Sites in Allamuchy and on Route 46 outside Hackettstown, as well as a motel on Route 80, all were used to portray areas in Ohio. There's a bar scene filmed in Panther Valley (Warren County) that's also meant to be Ohio in the film, and "Colorado'' scenes were shot in Hoboken and nearby Harriman (N.Y.) State Park, which was also used as a stand-in for Utah. There were drive-by scenes at a motel off Route 287 and on Route 611, and through a director's keen eye and a camera's magic lens, a diner in Boonton was transformed into a roadside restaurant in Missouri.

When the film comes to its conclusion in California, we find the film crew in Manhattan, where an apartment building on 48th Street represents Santa Monica. In all, Kampmann says, 75 percent of the movie was filmed in New Jersey, with 15 percent filmed in New York and 10 percent shot on the Left Coast.