It's not unusual anymore when a full-length movie is shot in Utah County. What is unusual is when the film's actors are mostly inexperienced young adults from Utah County and the vicinity.
In April, Candlelight Media filmed a modern-day twist on Alma the Younger's story from the Book of Mormon called "Turn Around."
The film features several locations in the Provo-Orem area, and young adults from Utah and Salt Lake valleys appear in the film.
A brief synopsis of the film: Colton Pratt, played by Jordon Sorenson, of Orem, is a wayward Latter-day Saint teen. He and his friends are sour on people, family and church. They are bad boys and bullies. Sara, played by Jaci Twiss, of South Jordan, is an aspiring tennis player. She is active in school and church, chooses good friends, and is the brunt of jokes made by Pratt and friends. Pratt's parents believe their son's only chance at changing is through divine intervention.
For a cast of fairly untrained actors, these young adults have done a great job in getting out a very important message, according Brittany Wiscombe, screenwriter and co-producer.
Director/producer Brian Brough says he has worked diligently to "portray" evil in the film without "doing" evil in the film.
"How do you show evil for the LDS market?" he asked. For this director, the Motion Picture Association of America rating of PG means you've swapped real beer cans for red plastic cups. Brough says choices like these make the film more appealing to its actors and the market.
"Why should we go to (Los Angeles)? The youth (here) are easier than adults. Many of them have training," Wiscombe said.
According to Elisa Brough, president of Candlelight Media, actors in Los Angeles come with a hefty production price tag because union membership in the Screen Actors Guild is almost always required.
"Here they (the actors) have jobs and do this on the side," she said.
That is why Candlelight Media can continue to produce clean stories with important messages without huge budgets and with actors that really want the opportunity to work in a wholesome film environment.
So what are these young aspiring actors doing when they aren't filming? They are certainly different than many of their Hollywood peers.
Twiss, 20, is a graduate of Bingham High School. She lives in South Jordan and works for an orthodontist. She says she is passionate about acting, but there are very few clean movies to act in.
"This is my first big movie," Twiss said. "Right now I'm not looking at another script, but I would like to do this again."
Jason Osmond, 19, a graduate of American Fork High School, plays Blake and says he is the baddest of the bad boys in "Turn Around."
"Blake is a bad boy who doesn't care. He parties and gets drunk and is second in command (to Pratt)," Osmond said.
Although he has done a few commercials and modeling gigs, this is Osmond's first feature film. On the side, Jason, son of Jay Osmond of the original Osmond Brothers, has been helping his dad with an Osmond 50th anniversary production, plays in a band called Set in Stone with his brother Eric and cousins Alex and Tyler, and he is preparing to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Sorenson, a graduate of Orem High School, entered the LDS Missionary Training Center two weeks after shooting wrapped up on "Turn Around" and is currently serving in the Prague Czechoslovakia Mission.
Candlelight Media's staff has built a distribution and film production company focusing on family-friendly titles that are meant to entertain and inspire.
Other Candlelight titles include "Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-day Tale," "Everything You Want" and "Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration," currently showing at the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. This fall it will release "Emma Smith: My Story."
If you go . . .
"Turn Around" premieres tonight at 7:30 at Jordan Commons, 9400 S. State in Sandy, Sept. 17-20 at Spanish Fork 8 Cinemas, and Sept. 21-27 at the SCERA Center for the Arts, 745 S. State in Orem. Following a few weeks of theatrical release, the film will go directly to DVD for an October release.
E-mail: pugmire@desnews.com