Filmmaker explores his dark side in short
By CHRISTINA YOON Special to the Daily Press
MAIN STREET A few hours of wrangling bumper-to-bumper traffic and handling the questionable etiquette of fellow drivers on Los Angeles streets would drive anyone to entertain fantasies of roadside vigilantism.
“Check Brights,” a short film by Santa Monica actor and director Barry Levy, takes these vehicular frustrations and manifests them onto the screen. The film plays for the first time in Southern California at the Action On International Film Festival this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Laemmle Theater in Pasadena.
Levy, who directed and starred in “Check Brights,” lived through the consequences of unsafe driving firsthand. In 2001, Levy was the victim of a serious hit-and-run accident that sent him sailing through the air and gave him a serious concussion and major whiplash; for the next two years, he also experienced short-term memory loss.
“I don’t even remember my first date with my wife,” Levy said.
After going through the difficult process of recovering from his injuries and suing the insurance company involved in his case, Levy found that he had lost himself in the unfortunate events of the accident.
“You tend to forget the bright side,” he said.
Then Levy came across the script for “Check Brights,” written by fellow Canadian Jason Young. The mild-mannered actor and director felt a connection to the film’s narrator and only character, “The Driver,” a hardened, chain-smoking traffic monitor who stalks and punishes those who violate such traffic rules as dim-ming not their brights as they pass other drivers, speeding through school zones and making turns without signaling.
“I was fascinated by this transformation that occurs as soon as we get into our cars,” Young said of his screenplay. “What if there was someone that held us accountable for our actions?
“I wouldn’t say I’m a hard-core peacenik but I come pretty close,” Levy said. “But I was also in pain for a long time and it’s hard not to plot revenge. I would never carry that out but in a lot of ways the film was an exorcism.”
Levy made “Check Brights” on a budget of approximately $25,000 over three years. The entire film was made in Levy’s home, using his own vintage BMW. He used cinematography tricks that he picked up as an actor on the set of a Stephen King movie several years ago.
“I would leave it and come back, leave and come back,” Levy said. “I don’t think I had all my problems solved. There was still some residual pain while filming.”
The film is set to a soundtrack featuring music from electronic duo The Crystal Method in the form of a car CD player as the lead character makes his rounds. The music was a choice Levy said he never thought would come to fruition.
“I said to myself, ‘I’ll just use it because I’ll never get the rights and then replace it.’ But then I realized I can’t change it. It took months of phone calls and e-mails.”
Levy hopes that the film’s success in the film festival circuit will lead to a feature-length version of “Check Lights.” He recently optioned another screenplay written by Jason Young, along with co-writer David White, which Levy describes as “the werewolf story that’s never been told.”
“Check Brights” will play at the Action On film festival, opening for Kevin Keresey’s comedy feature “The Rat Thing.”
The festival runs from July 25-31 in Pasadena, and will end with a black-tie dinner and awards show featuring actors Michael Madsen, John Savage and Jason Statham.
Although “Check Brights” has helped Levy to work through the unresolved issues that came along with his 2001 accident, he has had no shortage of bad driver’s luck. Recently, he was involved in a serious crash caused by a drunk driver on Main Street, crushing his car into the back of a bus. This time, however, he came away from the accident unharmed and the perpetrator was arrested immediately. Still, Levy’s negative experiences have not driven him even close to the lengths of his psychopathic main character.
“I love driving and I’ve always loved driving,” he said. “People always say your stuff’s all so dark but you’re not. It’s a way of getting that stuff out.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 26, 2008. Read the original PDF.