Photograph by Krista Sucher
Though the falling Twin Towers initiate the action in Joe Leonard’s new film, How I Got Lost, it’s not quite accurate to call it a 9/11 film; it’s more of a Northeastern blackout of 2003 film, and the resolution is brillant. Tell 28-year-old Joe Leonard that, and he’s all gracious shrugs. The Kirkwood native now lives in Los Angeles, where he edits shows like Nip/Tuck, but still comes off as modest Midwesterner. He’ll spend several minutes praising his cast and crew, then forget to mention how, in 2006, he won the coveted Richard P. Vague Film Production Award—and that the $75,000 grant formed the core of the film’s budget.
Of course, Leonard’s not just being polite when he praises his cast and crew. By calling on past connections from his days at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, as well as current ones in Hollywood, he assembled a cast that includes Jacob Fishel (Without a Trace, Medium) and Rosemarie DeWitt, the star of Jonathan Demme’s recent Rachel Getting Married (though you’ll also recognize her as Midge, Don Draper’s beatnik mistress on Mad Men). The crew included Mad Men costume designer J.R. Hawbaker and editor Sara Brosher (The Spiderwick Chronicles); an old NYU pal, Kaki King (Into the Wild) provided the music. Shorthand, Leonard compares his film to Garden State, “in that it’s about a certain generation of 27-, 28-year-old disillusioned kids, lost kids, who are trying to make sense of their world and their lives.
“I think it’s a story of a friendship,” Leonard says. “It’s about these two young guys who are talented … and lost. They go on this road trip to deal with the things they’re dealing with; they’re on this sort of meandering journey, where they find themselves in unexpected places.”
Like Labadie, Mo. And St. Louis. Last April and May, when the cast and crew rolled into Kirkwood, the director’s family and friends fed and lodged cast members, acted as extras and scouted locations, including T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon (home of the Rascals), St. Louis City Police Headquarters and Spencer’s Grill.
“We shut down a whole highway route in Labadie,” Leonard laughs, though still looking a little stressed over the ordeal. “We had to go before the Labadie City Council for permission. We hired off-duty policemen to shut down the road; we had to create a detour. We were shooting scenes inside the car, which is always difficult, so the camera’s in the car, and you’re driving …”
The technology added another layer of complication: Leonard used a RED digital camera, which is powerful enough to capture images at 4,096- by 2,304-pixel resolution, but requires delicate handling so as not to lose footage—forever. Because the footage was stored on hard drives, Leonard made the rough cut of the film in St. Louis, then did the sound, color correction and final edits in L.A. The director and his crew spent nearly the whole month of August without sleep, preparing the film for Sundance’s September deadline; word was still out at press time. But he’s not obsessing over it. He’s already at work on two new scripts. One, If You Loved Me You’d Leave Me Alone, is a romantic comedy. The other, Yellow Light, is set, once again, in Missouri.
“It’s a multicharacter story, a multigenerational story, about St. Louis and different areas of St. Louis,” Leonard explains. “It’s a drama. It’s sort of like a St. Louis version of Magnolia, in that it’s vignette-y. I’m interested in all the different neighborhoods and the sense of history that St. Louis holds on to.” He pauses, grinning. “That’s the one I’m excited about.”
Point your browser to howigotlost.blogspot.com for updates … including word from Sundance. For more information about Joe Leonard’s future projects, go to blatantlysubtle.com.
