Alison in Wonderland (2012)

Alison in Wonderland

2012, HD (2.35:1), Drama/fantasy/horror/comedy, color.

Cast
Kendahl Light (Alison Wright), Jacob Schwartz (The Mad Hatter), Rebecca Howland (Molly), Aria David (The March Hare), Eamonn McGrail (Dad), Brina Healy (Mom), Brad Gentges (The Ace of Hearts), Jason Hubbard (Sid the Executioner), J.L. Carrozza (Pippyn the Hunchback/The Caterpillar [voice]), Ray Boutin (Mr. Good), Megan Cox (Kim), Peggy Wang (Servant Girl), Ray Florent (The Two of Hearts), Jeff DeBiase (The Three of Hearts), Alexander Hauck (Torturer #1), William Bloomfield (The President)

Crew
Producer/Director/Writer/Director of Photography/Editor/Special Effects/Sound: J.L. Carrozza, Producers: Nancy Carrozza, J.L. Carrozza, Assistant Director: Rachel Prentki, Fighting Instructor: Jeff DeBiase

Official Website

This long standing and consistently troublemaking pet project began life after Dream House as simply Alice in Wonderland. I've had ideas for an Alice in Wonderland movie since I was a kid and ironically, Little Red Riding Hood and Alice in Wonderland were the two old school children's tales I was always the most attracted to when I was young. A decade later, when, after Dream House was less well received, I decided to go back once more to more fantasy-based fare like Little Red Riding Hood. I began planning for it during my uninspiring days at a poor, overpriced corporate art college. The script and its concepts were a bit stale, the inspiration just wasn't there and in the end the project blew up in my face. The actress I had cast walked off set after an hour of filming, everybody else was kind of resistant and by that time, I was so overwhelmed I decided to just give it up. However, a good story seldom lets go of a tenacious filmmaker and I decided to go back to the project with some fresher ideas and approaches. I retooled the script, revamped the concept and changed the title to Alison in Wonderland. The film will no longer be just a slapstick comedy like Little Red Riding Hood but has been retooled with more of a politically satirical edge. I've expanded upon the concept with a basic theme akin to Guillermo Del Toro's fantastic Pan's Labyrinth: a young person escaping a harsh reality and finding their true selves in a world of fantasy.

The film changes the character of Alice from a little English girl to an overstressed modern day American high school girl named Alison and the setting from 19th century Britain to late turn of the 21st century, Bush-era America. I like Lewis Carroll's novel more for its motifs, aesthetic and imagery than its story, which is quite simple and uncohesive. It succeeds beautifully as a dream-like fable to entertain children but as a story it's been done to death. I could only think of one way to make it seem fresh: filter it through the modern zeitgeist. Though I try to be hopeful that we are headed toward better times, the Bush Administration years are something I'll never forget. Alison in Wonderland contains a lot of subtle references to the world we live in and the politics of today, it will be my most political film to date and I'm trying to make a more multilayered, subtextual film than my previous works. In this kind of morally ambiguous environment, how must one rise above it? How does someone find their sanity in a world gone mad? I'm taking Lewis Carroll's iconic concept of a world of where only nonsense and madness exists and meshing these themes with a more modern zeitgeist. In that spirit, Alison in Wonderland will be a fun mix of old and new ala a twisted Star Wars. Lewis Carroll's novel is really used as just a basic springing board for this bigger picture: Wonderland is ultimately sort of just a grotesque metaphor for the madness of contemporary America.

The first incarnation was still at short film length with 15 and then 30 page scripts, but the final incarnation, with a 75 page script, is to be my first feature length dramatic movie. For its technicals, the film is being shot on low cost digital video, alternating between various HD and DV formats depending on the mood and needs of the shot. Depth of field has more attention paid to it than in previous films of mine and the wardrobe, special effects and overall feel of the film is shaping up to be far more elaborate. It is a film completely locally shot with entirely New England based locations but with a scope far exceeding it's minimal resources. Of course the biggest aesthetic influence on this film is my previous Little Red Riding Hood. With Red Riding Hood, I sort of invented a type of a movie that people seemed to respond positively to: a "fractured fairy tale" film with an offbeat, grotesque quality, lots of pop culture influence and a ferociously macabre sense of humor. After you have invented a concept, you can then really fool around with it and create an expanded yet also more refined and perfected version of it. That is my biggest goal with Alison in Wonderland.

Aesthetically and tonally however, it is more a dramedy than the slapstick of Red Riding Hood, it is more deadpan but still retaining a strongly comic vibe. The original Alice concept was more like just a rehash of Red Riding Hood, too often filmmakers and producers find themselves simply trying to repeat and regurgitate their past successes instead of expand and evolve them. No progress is ever made without a little experimentation. Alison in Wonderland is more like an evolution of Little Red Riding Hood, both are similar narratively, thematically and spiritually but Alison, completed, will boast more sophistication in every respect. It will be longer, it will be even more violent and sexier, it will have a better story and more realistic, well developed characters with subtler plot dynamics, it will look much better visually and have better FX work, it will be more mature and socially conscious and so forth. On some level it will be sort of the ultimate low budget Carrozza film and Gen-Y Films production with many of my previous films' motifs: an epic of teen angst, classical music, talking puppets, midieval swordfights, politics and twisted hermetic pedophiles with gay sex slaves. With much influence from both my own life and peculiar obsessions, it is shaping up to be my most personal film to date.

In July and August 2011 Alison in Wonderland finally began shooting after a tough and trying six months of pre-production. The casting process and the challenge of finding the right people in a finite amount of time with no assistance, which I was ultimately unable to, particularly took its toll with me. On Alison in Wonderland's making there is good news and bad news. The good news is that I had the pleasure of working with several very talented and professional actors. Kendahl Light, Alison's actress, is particularly doing a stupendous job. I am also very happy with the quality of the most of the footage I've gotten, it is by far my most polished and professional looking movie to date. The bad news is that a variety of logistical difficulties and human error has forced me into retreat for the year, Some of these were foreseen obstacles I simply could not rise to the challenge of and others were unforseen. Too many crises raging at once caused me to run out of time and I was unable to fulfill my goal of having the shooting finished by fall like I had wanted and this has been very frustrating. Also in my haste to get the film going and then in the can I made a few mistakes and misjudgements that cost me highly. However, a good filmmaker is undeterred no matter what and learns from his oversights and in that spirit I will continue shooting Alison in Wonderland into summer and fall of 2012 and with more time I will attempt to make an even better product than would have been achieved initially. Perhaps it was too much work for one person in too little time. Stay tuned to my above blog and the film's Tumblr page for frequent updates and there will be YouTube production diaries as the film continues to shoot.