GREENFIELD — News reporters are accustomed to seeing their names is print. It goes in the byline, typically below a subheadline. But scrolling up a screen in the middle of film credits? That’s a different story.
And it’s going to be a possibility in the next several months, as the Greenfield Recorder newsroom is slated to be used Monday for a scene in “Cryptid,” an upcoming independent low-budget thriller from 221 Films set to be released in the spring.
Director Brad Rego explained the film is about a journalist and his photographer partner investigating a series of animals attacks in their small Maine town. Because one particular scene is set in the main characters’ fictitious newsroom, Rego reached out to newspapers in Western Massachusetts, where he is already filming, and Recorder Editor-in-Chief Joan Livingston responded immediately.
“(It was) a little bit of dumb luck,” Rego said this week. “The Recorder got back to me right away and said, ‘Hey, this sounds really cool.’”
Livingston said it would be business as usual Monday, getting out the next day’s paper, but the film crew working here will be a fun addition.
“When Brad Rego reached out that he was looking for an older small-town newspaper to be a part of his horror flick, I thought the Greenfield Recorder would make a great setting,” Livingston said. “He agreed after I emailed him photos.”
The original plan was to “dress up” Williamstown Town Hall as a newsroom but Rego understood when staff members became uncomfortable with this idea once the pandemic was in full swing.
The director said filming on Monday should take approximately three hours and consist of a skeleton crew of six or seven people. He mentioned he will probably be able to work in anyone in the newsroom who wants to be an extra on screen. He said the crew is following strict COVID-19 protocols, including having a COVID compliance officer to enforce sanitary measures such as testing, masks and gloves. The studio is also fully insured with to $2 million of commercial liability insurance as well as workers compensation.
And Rego said the Recorder will get a credit at the end of the movie.
He explained the film is a mystery/thriller blend. He completed the script’s first draft in April 2005. The movie will be simple and practical, with no computer-generated imagery. Rego, 44, described it as “a creature feature.”
“It’s very ‘throwback,’” Rego, 44, said, adding that the film will resemble the horror movies he grew up watching in the 1980s.
He said the idea stems from the feeling one has while standing alone in the woods in the rain and “how creepy that vibe is.”
“That imagery got in my mind and I couldn’t really get rid of it,” Rego said, mentioning that the flick’s mysterious antagonist hunts its prey in the rain.
Rego, who attended New York Film Academy, also works as a freelance cinematographer in New York City. He grew up in Taunton and now lives in Brooklyn. He explained not having major studio money means filming must take place in several locations, and they have to be selected based on safety, accessibility and effectiveness.
“We have to find little places where we can shoot for little or no cost,” he said.
Rego and crew members recently filmed in the Williamstown Police Department, the North Adams Public Library and McCann Technical School in North Adams.
He said the film’s $250,000 budget (extremely low by industry standards) is funded mostly through private investors. Much of the money has been generated through StartEngine, which Rego said is a crowdfunding platform similar to Kickstarter, except it is for equity instead of donations. The profile page is available at bit.ly/3ijveOM. A trailer can also be found there.
“The beauty about film is its collaborative nature,” he said.
Other films Rego has directed include “The Killing of Jacob Marr,” “Boundaries,” “Cabin 11” and “The Assemblage of the Crystal Sphere: A D&D Story.”
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.