Payoff - The Movie

What would YOU do for $320 million?

Finding the Cast and Crew

Since MTV and Amp'd wanted this movie done pretty quickly, I didn't want to have to spend days reviewing résumés and holding auditions. I have known almost all the cast members for at least a few years.

	Derek Nelson...............................................Jack Reiser I met Derek a few years earlier when I was directing a play called "The Good Doctor" for Pensacola Little Theatre. I cast him in that play and found him to be very reliable and a nice person to work with. He was one of the first people I called for "Payoff". Derek recently completed shooting scenes as an extra for Tyler Perry's new feature, "Meet the Browns."
	Carol Kahn Parker..............................Paula Davenport Carol is a great powerhouse in local theatre; not only does she act in a lot of shows, but she maintains a website called Carol's Curtain Call and puts out a newsletter that covers all the happenings for actors and technical folks. I knew right away that I wanted her for Paula.
	Maria Kerrigan..........................................Penny Reiser Maria Kerrigan was one of the first people who came to mind for the movie, too, but at the time, she was living in Orlando, playing Belle and Ariel in musical shows at Walt Disney World. I didn't know if I could pay her enough to make the trip worthwhile. Then I mentioned to my husband that I wasn't sure who I was going to get to play Penny, and he said, "What about Maria?" So I e-mailed her mom and asked how to get hold of her, and she traveled up here to make the film. After shooting "Payoff", Maria left Walt Disney World to fly high as another beloved character, Peter Pan, in a production at Daytona Beach's Seaside Music Theatre. She earned rave reviews: St. Augustine Record Daytona Beach News Journal
	Michelle Kerrigan...............................................Martha Speaking of mom, Michelle and I and three other theatre majors all lived together during college at a house known as "Bob the Actor's House of Acting." So that's how I knew Michelle and Maria.
	Shane Camp.......................................................Man #1 During the casting process, I went to see a production of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" at Pensacola Little Theatre. As it happened Carol Kahn Parker was in the cast, along with a young man who looked like an excellent choice for a hired killer who needed to masquerade as a law enforcement officer. That was Shane Camp and I got him just in the nick of time; we shot the movie just days (hours, really) before he moved away. Man #1 was one of the hardest parts in the film to cast. I first sought out a guy I met during production of a TV special on Pensacola in the movies. He'd been in a reality show, had his own band, and was trying to make it as an actor. Turns out he's moved into a career in journalism as a TV news reporter and he's no longer in the area. Then I asked a co-worker at my TV station, who'd also done some acting, but he was busy the weekend of the shoot.
	Geoff N. Davenport...........................................Man #2 For Man #2, I asked an experienced theatre actor that I knew, but he said he was way too busy with other projects. Then it occurred to me that one of the camera and audio operators at my TV station had a great look for a hit man, and I thought he'd done some acting. That's how Geoff Davenport got involved.
	Lisa Bell....................................................News Anchor The news anchor was easy to cast. As I've mentioned, at the time I was making "Payoff", I was a local news producer, and with the permission of my news director, I was able to use Lisa Bell, one of my station's weekend anchors. We also shot those segments on the actual news set. Lisa moved to Orlando just a few weeks after we shot the film.
	William D. "Bill" Hahn.........................Dan Davenport When Martha mentions her sister's late husband, Dan, I wanted a photo to illustrate the comment. I snapped this photo of my dad the day before we shot that scene. It was February 24, 2007. He died of cancer exactly two months later, the same day MTV uploaded my finished film to The Stew website.

Lining Up the Crew

One of the other big decisions involved getting a camera and choosing a director of photography. I considered buying a really good pro-quality camera, but Rich encouraged me to rent one instead. I also wanted someone behind the camera that I could really trust. I called a couple of places for prices, then it occurred to me that I knew the perfect person.

Liz Watkins.............................Director of Photography
Liz and I were in the Communication Arts program at the University of West Florida at the same time. She'd gone on to start her own freelance video service, from which she's semi-retired, but she still has all her gear. I got in touch with her, explained the situation, and she was excited to be part of the project. We went over her availability and set the dates for filming for February 24 and 25.

Liz brought to the project Stan Bohnhoff, a crew member she'd worked with before, to record the audio.

Devon Green......................................Assistant Director
I met Devon Green in 2004, when I cast her in "The Good Doctor", the play that I directed for Pensacola Little Theatre. Around the same time, she'd applied for a job at the TV station where I worked, so I put in a good word for her, and she got the job. She started as a camera operator there, then moved into video editing. She's an aspiring filmmaker, too, and said she'd help me with "Payoff" in any way that I needed her to.

James Roy...................................News Segment Director,
Grip & Gravedigger

I mentioned that James Roy was one of the first people I told about the contest. I brought him on board as technical director of the news segments. He also created the on-screen graphics you see in those segments (the "huge jackpot" graphic you see over the anchor's shoulder and the full-screen board listing the lottery numbers). He was also on the set both days of shooting, doing whatever needed to be done.