BY MEGAN SULLIVAN / City News Editor
Dark comedy opens at Newark Cinema
Cussing, screaming, flirting with disaster and doing whatever it takes to stay sane and have fun – all in a day ‘s work. The life of an independent filmmaker alone can be complicated, but even more hectic when it involves working alongside a sibling. While working together in hopes of reaping success, Wilmington natives Gordon and Greg DelGiorno have to remind themselves not to kill each other in the process. Founders of Film Brothers Productions in 1999, the brothers hope their new film “Getting Even” will take them to the next level and earn more credit than just another crappy indie flick.
The brothers wrote the screenplay, along with Patty Blanchfield of Wilmington, and share roles as director and producer. The movie premiered March 25 at the Newark Cinema Center and was shown again last night. “Getting Even” follows a group of fed-up senior citizens who seek revenge on people who have disrespected or forgotten about them. “It should raise some eyebrows,” Gordon says. He describes the film as bizarre and twisted, but cute. The feature-length comedy segues back into the brothers’ beloved comedic style, without going overboard with explicit language and vulgarity.
Initially, the duo ambitiously attempted to morph Delaware into a mecca for tasteless humor. Inspired by John Waters, who has successfully written, produced and directed independent films (“Hairspray” and “Serial Mom”) shot within his hometown of Baltimore, the brothers want to keep their biz in the First State. Shooting all their scenes at various Delaware locations, the brothers include as many state natives within the cast and crew of volunteers as possible. Surprisingly, the brothers never took a ny acting or film classes. Gordon, 36, studied sheet metal, and Greg, 34, studied welding, both at Delcastle Technical High School. They learned through trial-and-error and surrounded themselves with people with film making experience. “I always believed,” Gordon says, “that when you get into a field, you have to get beat up a little bit to really learn anything.”
Although Gordon typically carries out odd jobs to make fast cash, and Greg owns a successful moving and hauling business s, they hope to get their act together soon and concentrate solely on filmmaking. “We want to get to a point where filmmaking is our full-time job,” Greg says. From waiting tables to building sets, Gordon claims he has done it all. He also recently worked as a gopher on the set of the 2003 film “School of Rock” starring Jack Black. Unlike typical mundane jobs, he sees filmmaking as a constant experience and challenge. “Just when you get cynical about your life and you think you’ve done it all and it’s boring,” he says, “filmmaking is the kind of thing that will stimulate it constantly.”
He recalls an electrifying experience that heightened his desire to get out of the norm and into a more creative field. While on the job as a sheet metal mechanic, he was electrocuted when he drilled into a unit that the electrician never turned off. He closed his eyes and saw the image of his X-r ay, just like in the cartoons. “I had 277 volts go through me. I screamed from the bowels of hell,” he says, imitating his booming howl. Luckily, he still had enough electricity surging through him to j ump-start his film career in 1996. His first movie idea stemmed from personal experiences with bizarre roommates. From a retired couple with strict rules to a neurotic old lady, Gordon met enough weird characters to compel him to write a screenplay. “1 had the roommates from hell,” he says. ” I moved four times literally in one month. It was just disastrous.”
He and his brother began writing the feature comedy in 1996, and “Franks and Wieners” debuted in November 2000 at the Newark Cinema Center. The movie, which the brothers produced together, was released on video (independent sale) soon thereafter and is currently being re-cut and re-scored for DVD. Gordon, who also took on the role as co-director, bluntly explains how “Franks and Wieners” has a lot of in-your-face humor and bashes all stereotypes. Frank, the main character, meets a lot of “wieners” during his journey to find normal roommates. The movie takes a robbery caper twist when he joins bad-girl Jackie, after she holds him hostage, in a robbing spree of Delaware stores and restaurants. “We were all over the map in ‘ Franks and Wieners ,’ “Gordon says. ” It pushes the lines of good taste, but what is good taste?”
Gordon received a few hate e-mails from disgruntled “Franks and Wieners” viewers, but he did not let it faze him. In one e-mail, a self-proclaimed straight woman complained the movie was extremely offensive to gays. The brothers agree the gay character, Jasmine the flamboyant queen, was over the top. They insist, however, they received compliments from gay viewers who enjoyed the character, despite the exaggeration. Most of the viewer complaints involved the gratuitous vulgarity and tasteless humor. Regardless, the brothers simply hoped to catch people’s attention. And they succeeded. “It struck a vibe,” Greg says.
Just like any other first-time filmmaker might experience a few disasters on the job, Gordon and Greg admit that disaster strikes daily.
Gordon recounts a heated disaster that took place on the set of “Franks and Wieners.” The scene took place at Cafe Verdi, and the owner, Sylvio Garbati, allowed the brothers to film within the shop after hours. “The big pizza oven was on, it was 650 degrees and it was on a Sunday,” he says. “So I’m thinking, man, the place could burn down. So I turned the oven off.” He never thought that turning off the oven would cause the pizza dough to rise. Garbati came to work only to discover giant pizza pies and a cold oven. “l thought he was gonna go ‘Soprano’ style,” Gordon says. “I thought I was going to end up in the river or something.” Gordon and Greg admit that working together as brothers isn’t always easy. “Siblings together are generally clashing,” Greg says.
Gordon agrees: “It ‘s the one person you can depend on the most, but you also want to kill each other at times.”
Greg, the creative energy of the duo, credits his ability to pack a punch with classic one-liners to years of performing skits and jokes on his tape recorder growing up. “I’ve always had a fl ashy way of doing things,” he says. “I always had to put on a show.” Gordon admires his brother’s ability to take the script up a notch, but be li eves he functions as the driving force to keep the project moving. Although the brothers occasionally have their mismatched moments, they remain grateful for having such complementary personalities.
The raunchy zest of their first movie lingered just long enough to create “The Franks and Wieners Show.” These two half-hour b1ts debuted in November 200 I on Com cast and were comprised of goofy skits, a Ia “Saturday Night Live.” Gordon and Greg acted in the skits as well. Once again, they received mixed opinions regarding their work.
One particular segment, “The Wife Beaters Club,” generated a lot of controversy despite its disclaimer asking viewers not to take it seriously. · The skit, which appeared to encourage spousal abuse, offended many viewers, including Gordon and Greg’s mother. They even lo st one of their show ‘s sponsors, a local law firm.
“If the world was a perfect place, it would be pretty boring.”
~ Gordon DelGiorno
Gordon explains how domestic violence occurred within hi s family before. He realizes how awful it was while it happened, but they came out of it with grace. He sees comedy as
the best outlet to overcome tragic experiences in life.
“Comedy gets us through to the next day,” he says. “That’s why we’ re not nuts.” After hooking a video camera up to his computer, the brothers play clips from the crude but humorous television show.
“Some of [the skit s] are awful,” Greg says shaking his head. Gordon simply laughs and agrees. “I know.” The brothers, sitting on the edge of their chairs, stare at the screen with wide eyes and ear-to-ear smiles and laugh as if they are seeing the show for the first time. “It’s some of th e most fun we’ve had,” Greg says. Although they had their fun, the brothers realized it was time to take it up a notch while they had their audience’s attention. “We rea ly wanted to make a tighter project than ‘Franks and Wieners,'” Gordon says.
Their last film, a 30-minute black-and-white drama titled “Routes,” premiered in November 2002 at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and recently won third place for best short out of 39 shorts at the 2003 Wilmington Film Festival. Contrary to their first t wo projects, “Routes” took a completely different time from their initial tasteless humor kick and gave more credibility.
“Routes,” written by Whalie Reinhard of Philadelphia, focuses upon free will and making choices. Gordon played an extremely active role as the movie’s producer, director and a loud actor. Greg stepped down from the project because he had to focus on his moving and hauling business. The film reflects experiences Gordon.and Greg have had with their brother Christopher, a 32-year-old Born-Again Christian. Gordon describes his character Tony as angry at life with views conflicting with those of his co-worker Tom. Tom lives life through God and constantly tries to convince Tony that his life will not change until he changes himself.
Growing up in Wilmington, Gordon and Greg, raised Catholic, learned from their father to have faith and live a good life on earth. Christopher developed stricter convictions and has never viewed any of his brothers’ films because of his beliefs. Although he supports Gordon and Greg, he does not support the material within their films. “God has given me a se nsitive con-
science,” Christopher says, “and I can’t partake in things that are unholy. Christopher says he struggled when his brothers tried convincing him to watch “Routes” because he realized the film, bad somewhat good intentions.
On the night of the premiere, Christopher told Gordon he would be glad to see the movie if the cursing was taken out. Gordon says. he sees Christopher’s requests as somewhat arrogant because he believes the cursing makes the film realistic, and without it, the integrity of the film would be lost. “If the world was a perfect place,” Gordon says, “it would be pretty boring.’
Greg and Gordon did not bother pushing Chris to see “Getting Even” because they knew it included some edgy content he would pot approve of. “Chris lives another life that he is happy
with,” Gordon says, “so we are happy with that.”
The brothers hope “Getting Even” will take them one step closer to Hollywood success. In two weeks, Gordon plans to meet with a production manager he knows from Paramount Pictures to present him with a copy of the film to see how far Film Brothers Productions can go.
The brothers also received offers from the Wilmington Drama League and Three Little Bakers Dinner Theater to present “Getting Even,” but nothing has been decided yet. They would like to have the film distributed on DVD and VHS, and hope they will get distribution on other than the Delaware area.
No matter what, this ambitious Delaware duo plans on making their mark, even if it comes only in the form of J one-hit wonder.’ “We’ll have an impact,” Gordon says. “People may not like the film, but we’ll grab their attention. They’ll remember us.”
Getting Even