Indiana-Made Movie, Ingenue, Lights Up Screenings

More Hoosiers are dipping their toes into the competitive pool of moviemaking. Noblesville native Kate Chaplin and Indy resident Amy Pauszek recently teamed up to produce sci-fi film Ingenue, the story of a human analog raised by a couple who teach her what it means to be human.

Fifty-nine Ingenue cast and crew members—“plus one mighty dog named Trinity”—produced the final film. Screenings to date have been popular, so much so that the 400 tickets sold out for their March screening at the IMAX theater in downtown Indianapolis.

These Hoosier cineastes don’t live in L.A. or New York, but Chaplin and Pauszek say that the Indiana Filmmakers Network is an invaluable resource to local moviemakers. IFN hosts monthly meetings of its chapters around the state that are open to anyone who wants to attend. Per Pauszek and Chaplin, the film has garnered positive feedback from both audience members at post-film Q&A sessions and filmmaking panels statewide.

See the trailer here:

Chaplin says the openness of the local film community to budding artists is a distinction between Indiana and the same industry in L.A., where she lived and worked for a few years. Here, she says, filmmakers are much more supportive, not nearly as competitive (read: cutthroat) as they are in Hollywood. In her experience, Chaplin says, another difference is that, in L.A., if one wants to film inside a restaurant or another business, an early question is, “How much are you going to pay me?” In Indiana, most business owners are excited just to have the cameras in their shops and eateries, making it much more affordable to film here.

That was the case with Ingenue, as local businesses and members of the community supported the filmmakers by appearing in scenes shot in Noblesville, something this duo couldn’t have done without, Pauszek says. “There is nothing that makes me more proud to be a Hoosier than to sit down and enjoy a movie that was filmed and made in Indiana,” she says. “Indiana is such a wonderful state to make and shoot films. We spend so much money on our Indiana sports teams and facilities, it’s time we put our hard-earned money and efforts into the arts.”

As for Chaplin, besides future screenings of Ingenue, she has written a book about an ex-circus strongman and a water spirit, Mythic Waters: Shoki’s Bag, about a fantasy-steampunk mythic quest to be released this fall. Proceeds from the book will be used to fund an accompanying movie to begin filming in 2014.

BONUS: See video here of Kate Chaplin’s talk at the 2013 River Bend Film Festival in South Bend.

Film still image courtesy Ingenue

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