THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601170104
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Cecil Reid, a 39-year-old Camelot resident, runs a successful landscaping business - CR Landscaping and Lawn Care - during the spring, summer, fall and early winter months. But during the cold, ice, snow and scant grass of the winter months, the Athens, Ga., native turns his attention to his true love: script writing and film making.
He recently completed a script about a group of characters who meet daily and train at a local gymnasium. Reid said he first started out to make a simple fitness video but soon a story line popped up.
``The idea for the screenplay came out of my passion for fitness,'' Reid said. ``It started out as a fitness video, but I wanted to do something different from all the ones that are out in the market today. I put in a story line, characters and dialogue. Soon it changed from a fitness video to a story that takes place in a gym.''
Tentatively titled ``Gym Rats,'' Reid's film project has financial backing through a limited partnership he set up. Upon completion, Reid said he hopes to get this film directly to video.
``I want to get my feet wet,'' he said. ``We hope to get this film directly to a distributor and to the video market.''
Reid said the story concerns several main characters who train together at a certain gym. Each character has his or her own background, motivations, likes, dislikes and foibles.
His characters include Flex Wheeler, a gung-ho body builder who will stop at nothing, including using steroids, to achieve his goals. Wheeler's gym buddy is a guy named Ce' who eschews all types of drugs and steroids. Also included in this mix are a couple of female characters: Carla, a body builder who turns heads, and Rachel, who runs the gym.
``I've tried to develop characters with depth,'' Reid said. ``I don't want one-dimensional characters. I want these people to interact with each other, and I want to present real dialogue and situations.''
Reid said he has a film crew ready and has scouted out several sites around the area for location shooting.
He said he may even build his own gym.
``It may be too much to film at a real gymnasium, with all the equipment and lights,'' he said. ``Filming could disrupt the regular daily routine of a real working gym, so I'd like to either build my own or build a mock-up of a gym in some warehouse or sound stage setting.
``I once shot a video in a real gym, but it all seemed so rushed. We had to set up all of the props, cameras and lights, and we had to shoot as quickly as we could so we wouldn't interfere with the gym's daily business. And that was just for a quick video shoot. You can imagine what it would take for a film shoot.''
Why fitness?
``When I was living in New York City I tried out for this modeling job,'' he said. ``They needed someone who looked fit, who looked like a bodybuilder so I began to train to get the job. Soon I began lifting weights, one thing led to another, and I was hooked into it.''
Before moving here eight years ago, Reid had lived in New York City for 10 years. While living in New York, his passion for script writing and film making grew.
``I've always loved films and been interested in writing and making movies,'' he said, citing Ron Howard, Forrest Whitaker, the Hudlin brothers, Oliver Stone and Spike Lee as big influences.
``I also took some film making and script writing classes at the New School, a university in New York City. They teach everything there about film from the creative side to the economic aspect. Film making isn't all glamour and fun, either. There's a lot of hard work, tedium and waiting that goes on. I think I learned enough to know what I'm doing and how to go about it.
``I came here to raise a family,'' he said. ``This is a friendlier place, and I like its laid-back attitude. Here in Chesapeake you don't have to watch your back all of the time. I've been very happy since I moved here.''
Reid now has two small children he dotes on, and he runs his own successful landscaping business. Now, he thinks it's time to renew his writing and film making passion.
``The film-making bug bit me again,'' he said with a laugh. MEMO: If you're a body builder, into fitness and would like to act in a drama
that takes place in a gymnasium, contact Cecil Reid at 523-0015.
by CNB