CARLSBAD — Three Carlsbad High School grads are celebrating a recent deal with Amazon Prime to debut their latest film, “Reception.”
The trio of 25-year-old former CHS classmates, Jackson Shipman, Allan Weedman and Nick LaMarca, have gone from the small screen of CHS TV to growing their production company Hot ‘n’ Tedious Films and landing on the bigger screen at Amazon.
The film production company has connected with six other CHS grads to produce four films, including “Guilt Trip,” expected to be released in the coming months.
Shipman said the Amazon deal is a potential game changer for the company, especially after the 83-minute-long “Reception” won three indie film awards and was nominated for a fourth. The film was shot in North County, including the Moose Lodge in Oceanside and spots in Carlsbad and Encinitas.
“I don’t expect to make a bunch of money,” said Shipman, a writer, actor and producer with the company. “For a small Carlsbad company, it’s a big deal to be out. It’s a lot easier for us to get interest with a movie out there that’s actually watchable and not a YouTube thing or a short we made in high school.”
During their senior year at CHS, Shipman, Weedman and LaMarca produced their first film, “Noose,” which won the All-American High School Film Festival.
Shipman, Weedman, and LaMarca co-founded Hot ‘n’ Tedious, employing former classmates Andrew Ferriera (cinematographer), Ricardo Campos Molina (gaffer), and freelancers Charlotte Forward (producer), Kyra Badiner (art director) and Erica Schobert (production designer).
“We got serious about (Hot n’ Tedious) toward the end of high school,” said Weedman, who is an actor and editor with the company. “We won the film festival, and that gave us a boost to take it even more seriously. We really put the nose to the grindstone and made a couple of other films.”
In addition to films, the company produced several music videos for local bands and a short film, “The Fat.”
As their catalog grew, the filmmakers needed distribution. Eventually, the group landed a deal with Chase Crawford, owner of Cincinnati-based Four by Three, an independent film production and distribution company, who helped land the Amazon deal and is currently shopping “Guilt Trip.”
Another former CHS student, Alex Hrisanthopoulos, remastered the film on his own, telling Shipman “Guilt Trip” was his favorite movie. Hrisanthopoulos is now an editor for the company.
“He remastered it and made it way better than we could’ve made it when we were 19,” Shipman said. “So, we took it down, and he fixed it, so we’re going to re-release it.”
Hot ‘n’ Tedious is also producing “Abby Baddy,” a film by former CHS student Patrick Van Zandt, and plans to circulate the film on the indie film festival tour once released.
After locking in the Amazon deal, the goal for Hot ‘n’ Tedious is to secure more funding and broader distribution in hopes of working with a major studio to secure a theatrical release. Shipman, Weedman, and LaMarca are confident in their team’s abilities and talent to transition to the Silver Screen successfully.
