INTERVIEW: Mancation director Frank Vain

In anticipation of this week's test screening at the Troc, Mancation director Frank Vain, a native of Haddonfield, N.J., sat down with City Paper to tell us more about the film.

options

INTERVIEW: Mancation director Frank Vain

POSTED: Monday, March 5, 2012, 3:00 PM

Filed Under: Interview | Movies screening

Vain (right) with actor Steve Medvidick

Las Vegas will always have The Hangover, but what about Atlantic City? Say hello to Mancation, a locally produced buddy-adventure romp minus the blackout. The film stars Matt Kawczynski as Vince, who finds his wife in bed with another woman right after his wedding. This prompts his buddies, one of which is played by Joey Fatone, to take him to Atlantic City for a weekend of bro-bonding and tail-chasing. But unexpectedly Vince runs into an old crush, played by The Wonder Years’ Danica McKellar.

In anticipation of this week’s test screening at the Troc, director Frank Vain, a native of Haddonfield, N.J., sat down with City Paper to tell us more about the film's creation process.

City Paper: How did this film come to be?

Frank Vain: The story is a concept I’ve had for a little while. I hired a friend of mine to write the actual script. My group of friends has pretty much been working on indie films in the area for the last couple years, so everyone came on board to produce it together. This is the third one we’ve done as a group in the last three years. Each one goes a little bit bigger, and we bring in bigger named talent and get a little more money in the budget.

CP: When and where did you shoot the film?

FV: This one features a lot of Philly and the Jersey Shore. The story itself takes place in Atlantic City but we shot all over the shore. We shot during last March and April. One of the parts of the movie involves a flower show and we went into the one in Philadelphia last year to do some behind the scenes shooting. We shot about 25 percent of the film in Philly.

CP: What are your prospects for distribution looking like?

FV: Right now, because we just finished it, we’re sending out fliers. And we’ve got a lot of buzz from different companies and film festivals contacting us directly. In the last week we sent the film to some distribution companies and film festivals and are still waiting to hear back at the moment. The film has Joey Fatone and Danica McKellar. I think some of these distribution companies are curious to see what these folks are up to.

CP: How did you end up casting some of the roles in the movie?

FV: We always knew we wanted to cast the larger roles with some bigger-name talent. One of our producers has a lot of entertainment contacts and sent the script to the managers and agents he knew. One of those was to Danica. I thought it was funny that she’s a two-time New York Times-bestselling author, and we are sending her a comedy script. Luckily she came back and said it was really funny, and that it was fresher than anything she had seen.

CP: What was the budget, how did you raise the funds?

FV: The budget was $300,000. We hit the streets, friends, family and business associates who had seen our other stuff. As we are growing we want to get bigger and bigger. We put the script together and showed it to people and got a lot of excitement behind it. There are a lot of people believing in this projecting, wanting to see it succeed.

CP: As you get bigger and bigger, does that mean a future in L.A. and leaving Philly behind?

FV: We have a huge place in our hearts for Philly. A lot of our best times were spent here, and it is really cool to do these movies that feature places that mean a lot to us. There is always somebody who says you guys should go to L.A. and do this and that. Down the road we might venture out that way, or expand and shoot a film set somewhere else. While it has been a lot of fun to do it in this area and getting a kick out of it being freezing cold and pretending it is really warm for a shoot, we’d love to go shoot in Brazil where it is really nice out.

Thu., March 8, 8 p.m., $10, Trocadero Theater, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-6888, thetroc.com.

(al.harris@citypaper.net) (@journalismo)

Posted by Al Harris @ 3:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comments (0)

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
What we're trying to do this weekend
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Indian fare rules, Dunder Mifflin lives on, Tom Jones is a god
Bradley Cooper promises he's not an asshole
Q&A with Goon’s Seann William Scott
CITY PAPER WRITING CONTEST 2013: Send stories! Send poetry!

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: