By STEVE OUELLETTE
ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. -- Jayson Argento wanted to act in movies, but he didn't want to move from Vermont to New York City or Los Angeles, where most of the movies are filmed.
Occasionally a film company would stumble upon Vermont when it wanted to shoot some bucolic footage, and Argento would find his way into the picture.
In "What Lies Beneath," with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, Argento worked on the crew "but in one scene my leg was in the picture," he said.
In Alan Jacobs' "American Gun," Argento worked with James Coburn and earned his Screen Actors Guild card.
"I'm the one in the beginning who might have or might not have shot Virginia Madsen."
Opportunities were few and far between, however. So if he couldn't go to the movies, Argento decided to make the movies himself.
His first effort, "Finding Providence," makes its world premiere Saturday at the Essex Cinemas. It's the result of three years of blood, sweat and tears -- and $1,300 in cold, hard cash.
"That's one of the reasons I don't move to L.A. or New York -- the people in this area will help you "¦ for free," said Argento, a Colchester native. "They find it new and exciting. It's amazing."
Argento is credited as writer, director, producer, editor and actor, and he also wrote and performed a song for the soundtrack (his band Nowhere Found appears at Higher Ground Sept. 6).
The story was one he'd had bouncing around in his head for years, since he worked as a clerk at Video World in Essex in the '90s.
"Basically, there was this guy who came into the store and me and another employee -- mostly him -- thought the guy was really weird," said Argento. "We used to joke about it, then make up stories "¦ eventually he dropped the ball and I just kept going."
In "Finding Providence," video store clerks Tom and Curtis becomes suspicious of a strange, silent customer (James Reid).
Obsessive and vulnerable, Tom -- still wounded by the decade-ago disappearance of his girlfriend -- wonders if the man is somehow involved in the disappearance of another young local girl.
With little to go on, Tom pursues his suspicions, endangering his relationship with both Curtis and a pretty young waitress (Logan Howe).
Argento held open auditions for the film, but couldn't find anyone just right for the two key roles.
"I didn't want it to be like some locally produced films you see, where you say, Wow, that was a great idea, but the actors really sucked.'"
He turned instead to Eric Ronis, a professor at Champlain College who he'd met once in an acting class, and assigned him the starring role of Tom.
For the supporting role of Curtis, he reluctantly tabbed himself.
"I always thought of Tom as myself, the whole time I was writing it," said Argento. "Curtis was stronger, smoother, kind of a ladies man "¦ the opposite of me. It's kind of funny he became me."
Ronis is outstanding as Tom, a nebishy everyman teetering on the brink of recovery and madness. His performance is nuanced and realistic, and there's a nice, believable chemistry with Argento's Curtis.
In lighthearted moments, it's impossible not to think of Kevin Smith's low-budget, mega-successful comedy, "Clerks."
"Everyone brings that up, but I didn't think of that at all," said Argento. "I mean, give me a break, no one can ever use a video store again? It's impossible to have things happen at a video store?"
The movie was filmed over 14 scattered days in July 2005. Argento then spent another year editing it, learning as he went along.
To give it a widescreen look, he simply added black boxes to the top and bottom of the print.
"That also covered up all the times the boom mike got into the picture," he said with a laugh.
Then there were re-shoots and pickup shots, to fill in holes. Eventually he sent the picture out on the festival circuit, "but I think I set my sights too high."
He tried to get "Finding Providence" into some of the world's most prestigious festivals: Sundance, Tribeca "¦
"I loved the denial letters. The first paragraph is always about how awesome your movie is. And then they tell you they don't want it."
The Vermont International Film Festival came looking for him, however. And Essex Cinemas agreed to host a world premiere.
"I'm biased, but I think this is a really good movie for people who like that style of film," said Argento. "If you like explosions and gunfire, you'll think it's dreadfully boring "¦ but there's some originality to it, and it has a lot of really good qualities.
"And I promise that the next one will be better."
Stoneworks Entertainment, a small group of cinematic Vermonters formed by Argento and his friends, has two more scripts under consideration for its next project.
"We started as a theater company, but when you do plays, you're left with a video that someone shot from the back of the room," said Argento. "When I'm done, I want something I can really watch. I want to do movies."
souellette@pressrepublican.com
