Petaluma flight attendant's film ready for
lift-off at the Lark
Friday, July 15, 2005
Helping kick off its second year of screening offbeat and
independent films, the Lark Theater will be premiering a new movie about the lives of flight attendants made by some homegrown
talent.
"Aviary'' was penned by Petaluma native Silver Tree, a
flight attendant based out of San Francisco who wrote the first draft of
the script while on a post-Sept. 11 furlough.
"I started out wanting to write a book, and I quickly
discovered that many flight attendants have already done
that,'' said Tree, 28. "Everyone kept saying, 'You should really try to
adapt this into a screenplay ... I basically read a couple of scripts and
figured out the format and said, 'I'll give it a go'."
The result is a romantic comedy directed by fellow Petaluma
native Abe Levy, and starring actors Lara Philips (of the movie "Road to Perdition"),
Rachel Luttrel and Claire Rankin (both in the cast of "Stargate:
Atlantis") and Josh Randall, formerly of the TV show "Ed," now
appearing on "Scrubs." The film also features music by Joseph Staples
of Santa Rosa.
The movie, produced for less than $50,000,
was shot in San Francisco and the North Bay, as well as in Paris, New York and
Chicago. The free flying benefits available to airline employees came in
especially handy for the production.
"In retrospect, it was an incredibly ambitious
project,'' Tree said. "I had no idea how any of this worked, and it was
reflected in the script. I'd think, 'She should wake up in Paris here,' and I
just wrote it that way, not realizing I'd have to get a crew to Paris to shoot
it ... A more realistic budget would have been $2 million."
Along the way, Tree learned how to use the camera and
filmed some of the shots herself during layovers. The actors, some of them
friends of the director, even paid for their own lodging.
Although the Lark is giving the movie its first public screening,
"Aviary" is also for sale on their Web site, and Tree said fellow flight attendants have told her it's very
true to life.
"It's not a view from the top -- it's what it's really
like,'' she said. "You're always moving. You're always on call. You go to
sleep in Pittsburgh, and you wake up in Paris. It's exciting, but it's also
really trying.''
Tree is now in the final stages of casting her next film
project, a drama about a couple trying to have a child.
"I kind of snuck into (the movie business), and now I'm just
running with it,'' she said.
Tree, Levy and some cast members will be on hand for the July 22 premiere, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. The event begins at 8 p.m. at the Lark, 549 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. The movie runs through July 28. For more information about "The Aviary,'' visit the Web site at www.theaviarymovie.com. For ticket information and additional information about the theater visit www.larktheater.net..