The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/9/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Jeff Wick Clockwise from bottom right: actress Karen Berg, director Brandon Robinson, a 2006 Oregon State graduate in theater and business; actor Mark Maher; producer Kyle Cowgill; and sound mixer Tom Boykin, a 2008 OSU graduate in music, shoot Scene 15 from Robinson's "Egg Nog" in a Media Services office in Kidder Hall.

Former OSU students Brandon Robinson and Kyle Cowgill are going to Hollywood.

Robinson is working on a movie that he wrote about two guys who are at the worst points in their lives. They decide to start a Christmas tree lot to make enough money to further along their lives and real dreams.

"It is a documentary in the vein of 'Spinal Tap' meets 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,'" Cowgill said.

Robinson and Cowgill have been working on this project for about a year and it will be completely finished with post-production by June for the festival circuit entries.

"I wrote this story because I felt it was unique and a project that could be done cheaply. It was also something that I knew a lot about," Robinson said. "I run a Christmas tree business during the holidays where we bring trees from Oregon to California for sale. So our business was used during filming."

They hope that the film will be out in many Northwest film festivals and will distributed through DVD.

It is an independent project, so the pair is trying to find distribution once it's completed. Although it's difficult to do, they hope that because of its unique nature and strong humor, someone will pick it up and run with it.

The film will be available for viewing by October of this year on Web sites like openfilm.com and YouTube.

"We have been able to raise around $35,000 through private sources to fund production costs and are still trying to find another source for roughly another $5,000 to finish post-production as quickly and efficiently as possible," Robinson said.

Some filming was done in Oregon for parts of the film that they needed to re-shoot and get pick-up footage for. They needed a couple of specific-looking locations and decided that OSU would work out.

This film has a huge cast of mostly Los Angeles actors, but the main characters are Robinson and Mark Maher, both from Oregon.

"It's just a funny movie about bringing Christmas trees down from Oregon and selling them in L.A.," Maher said. He is also an OSU alumnus.

Robinson is the writer, director and the main character in this movie, along with Cowgill, who is also a director.

"It is rated R for all good reasons and it is an extremely comical view at something most people don't ever get to see," Robinson said.

"It's a film that you'll have never seen before. There will eventually be a Web site up for the film at eggnogthemovie.com."



Quanaje Hampton, staff writer

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231

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