| The Black Sheep was shot entirely in Manasquan, New Jersey. Produced for ten thousand dollars, the farcical comedy is another example of efficient, no-budget filmmaking under the Native Pictures slate.
The week long shoot took place during a helicons nor'easter. Needless to say, the production was in a constant battle with mother nature. "Manasquan is a small shore town sandwiched between the ocean and the bay. And when it rains, it floods, so we had to make a lot of adjustments to our shooting schedule. Long story short, the weather finally broke and we were able to get our exterior shots," comments Botti. In fact much of the interior locations were shot night for day. "Thank God for Christos Kostianis (Director of Photography) and Dan Eriksen (Sound & Lighting), who gave us daylight when we had none." What was supposed to be a nice spring shoot turned out to be a bitter-soaked nightmare...at least that's what the cast thought. |
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| Casting began with the addition of Giampiero Judica (Ettore). Botti fondly recalls the casting session, "We were coming back from lunch and saw Giampiero wearing these raggedy clothes and this crazy looking black hat. He was the only one dressed in costume. I thought he was a complete lunatic. But then he auditioned, and blew me away." |
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| Reflecting on working with Giampiero, Botti feels fortunate to have had him in his film, "I'm lucky we found Giampiero. It was great to work with an actor who had genuine emotions. And for me, that's the most important quality an actor can bring to a role. Giampiero is just awesome. He's sure to have a great career." Fortunately, the production had secured a talented lead actor who also helped out with the wardrobe, "The costume Giampiero wore on the audition is the exact one he wears in the film," notes Botti. Lou Martini, Jr. was the next find. "He was the first one we saw the night of the audition, after that, it was all down hill. I hate to sound redundant, but Lou nailed it. The rest of the night felt like a waste a time because we knew we had found Morris," says Botti. |
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| The rest of the cast just fell right into place, including Botti's parents, who are in one of the funniest scenes in the film. "Chalk it up to nepotism, but nobody could react to a bare ass like my mother. She's the reason the shower scene is my favorite," concludes Botti. | ||||||||||||
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