Eric Troyer on WITNESS INSECURITY

Posted September 28, 2011 at 11:31am by James Nix

Eric Troyer

When Eric Troyer set out to turn his book “Insecurity” into a movie, he needed to look no further than his own back yard.

The Landis-based family practitioner brought Hollywood talent to Rowan and Cabarrus counties to film “Witness Insecurity.” He even used his own office building as the  production offices and for several scenes in the movie.

The film tells the story of Johnny, played by Edward Furlong, an adopted underling in the Torino crime family who sees a lot of the bad stuff going on, but never actively participates.

Johnny is torn between his conscience and his loyalty to his family and helps put his adoptive brother Anthony in jail for a cold-blooded murder and is placed in the Witness Security Program along with the District Attorney.

After Anthony escapes from prison, he and his goons try to track down Johnny and all those who crossed him.

"Witness Insecurity" will premiere at Modern Film Fest on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.

MFF
How did you come up with the idea of this story?

Troyer
This was based on an episode of Law & Order, interestingly enough. I was watching it one night and they brought back one of the District Attorneys they’d killed off a couple seasons before saying she wasn’t really dead, they just put her in the Witness Protection program because one of the guys she was prosecuting came after her. I wondered how often that really does happen, if criminals take it personally when the DA is aggressive in the prosecution and then try to come after them. The book almost wrote itself. I had started two or three others, but when I sat down with this one I flew right through.

MFF
Did you do any research into the witness protection program?

Troyer
I did as much as I could. I tried to speak to the Marshall’s office on several occasions and they weren’t really forthcoming, which was good since it gave me a lot of creative license where I could make up whatever I wanted to.

MFF
How did you go from writing the book to producing the movie?

Troyer
I was bored one day and got online and took one of those little Internet quizzes on what you’re supposed to do with your life. Four or five answers game back after I answered 20 questions and the ones that jumped out at me were directing and producing. I figured that I’ve got a book, so I’ll go ahead and turn that into a movie.

Screenwriting is a different type of writing. Fortunately with a novel you can tell what people are thinking and planning to do and go into all this description. With a screenplay, it’s just dialogue and action, that’s the only two things you have to convey a story. I went through that with a consultant for a while and we finally got to the point where we felt it was polished enough to actually do something with. I thought about shopping around, but I knew that would take years if a studio did show interest in buying it. I’ve been blessed, and there are Christian themes in the movie which was a motivation to just go ahead and get it done. I went ahead and got the big loan and mortgaged everything I own. I worked with people out in California with casting and ended up with Meat Loaf, Edward Furlong, Ed Asner and some other good names and put an ensemble cast  together. We made plans to begin shooting, hired the local crew and went for it.

MFF
Why did you film it in Rowan and Cabarrus County?

Troyer
When we first started there was talk about going out to Los Angeles to do it. The tax incentive helped keep it here locally, but it is just my home turf. I could find locations and I knew there would be a lot more excitement about it here.

I thought about going to Chicago, because that is where the book is actually set. As far as the Gem Theatre, in the book the big murder scene toward the beginning takes place in the Field Museum in Chicago. We tried to adapt that to a local location and the Gem just worked out very nicely as far as a place that is very spacious and attractive on the inside and the outside.

MFF
When people see this film, they’re going to see places they know. Where are some of those places.

Troyer
The Gem Theatre is one. Whitleys funeral home, Be Bops Dinner, Gianni’s Restaurant in Concord, the Lexington County Courthouse in Davidson, a couple different churches and lots of different homes and houses I’m sure people have driven by.

MFF
These are recognizable names in this film, how did you get them to sign on?

Troyer
Meatloaf was kind of a lark. When the casting director called and said Meat Loaf was interested in playing the part of Dan, my first question was how’d he even know about it. She had sent it to him and I guess things like that somehow get around out there. Edward Furlong apparently came in and interviewed and liked his role. Meat Loaf mainly did it because he liked his role. He apparently turned down a Mel Gibson movie because he didn’t like the role and bases his decisions on the character he gets to play and the depth of that character. Rather the being a bumbling sidekick, he’s one of the main characters.

He’s a real nice guy. We thought we had him for six days, but it turns out we only had him for five and had to do some rewrites. When he saw those he said “I’ve got to be in this scene you took me out of.” We agreed but didn’t have the time so he actually said he’d fly himself back to be in those scenes. He took a day off as they were getting ready to go on tour, gave his band the day off and flew back to shoot the scenes with us. He was very good to work with.

Ed Asner plays an aging Mafioso. He’s not exactly the first person you think of, but we did want a big name in that role and he’s the one.

MFF
What was it like having these guys from Hollywood in Rowan and Cabarrus County?

Troyer
It was interesting. For the most part they behaved themselves. We had them in one of the local hotels under presumed names. Some people came up to Meat Loaf between takes for autographs. I was a little star struck and of course had to get autographs.

One day we were filming outside the Church of God in China Grove and Meat Loaf was driving an 18-wheeler, he was pulling into the parking lot and there was a light pole beside the parking lot. He was nervous about it and had worked with one of the drivers to tell him how to swing and everything, but sure enough he pulled in there and hit the light pole. We lost a reflector off the truck. The next take he nailed it.

MFF
What did you learn from this?

Troyer
Don’t do it (laughs). It’s fun and it’s a challenge. You have to be able to change things at a moments notice that you’ve planned for weeks, including the script and location. I learned how the whole process works and how to be flexible throughout the entire process including post production. We had kind of cast our main character one way, and that was the way it was played throughout the entire thing but then in post we realized it wasn’t going to work so we played it a different way. Instead of being one type of personality, he ended up being another type. I knew nothing about post production before, but it is a very interesting process. That’s where you take a 180 hours of footage and whittle it down to two hours down to an hour and a half. There are some very painful cuts. I can’t describe everything I learned. I knew nothing about this going and now feel like I could potentially do it again.

MFF
Was it worth it?

Troyer
Yes. Even it I don’t end up making a dime off it, which I hope is not the case. That is not the main reason I did it. The main reason I did it is because I’ve been blessed and wanted to put a story out there. The Christian films out there, I feel like are candy-coated and predictable that you know exactly what is going to happen ahead of time and are more or less a Sunday School lesson put to film. Which is fine, I go see them myself. Then you have the other films with this word, that word every other word. I wanted to have a good story that wasn’t offensive, that you didn’t have to through in a bunch or words and a bunch of sex scenes gratuitously to try and get people to come and see it. Something the religious audience, or any audience, could go enjoy seeing. That was the motivating factor behind this. It was a huge leap of faith, but it will either work out or it wont.

MFF
Is this Christian film or a film with Christian themes?

Troyer
It’s a film with Christian themes; Faith, restoring a lost faith, redemption is probably the biggest one. It’s about somebody who has not done the right thing their entire life and then turns that around. For the most part, I feel like the movies are about the star and the people in the movie. This has a story. It has a lot of twist and turns.