American Cinematographer - December 2000 - 34

Just

recently, Bryan Sipe and Ben
Carney, two young men who hail from
another suburban New Jersey town,
used Smiths example as a source of
inspiration. Despite their complete lack
of filmmaking experience, the duo
managed to bring a heartfelt coming-ofage tale to the big screen.
After finishing their featurelength screenplay for A Million Miles,
Sipe and Carney subsequently raised
$55,000 by soliciting donations from
family members, friends and local busi¬
nesses

in and around Toms River, where

the two (then 22 and 21 years

respectively)

were

been to film school

old,
raised. Neither had

or even

made

a

short

film, and they realized from the start that

they needed an experienced hand behind
the

camera.

New York-based filmmaker

Patrick J.

Donnelly, who served as the
project's cinematographer, says the pair's
screenplay resonated with his own expe¬
rience
he grew up near Toms River,
-

and like the central character in A Million

Miles, he had also struggled with the
Above: Selected
scenes from A

decision of whether

Jersey Guys
by Eric Rudolph

Million Miles, a

hometown

Less than 10 years ago, a young

tale set in New

cinematographer
Patrick J. Donnelly
and director/co¬
writer Bryan Sipe.

film-school

dropout named Kevin Smith
pawned his comic-book collection to
augment the tiny budget of his first
feature, Clerks, in New Jersey. Since that
film's success, ever-younger aspiring
filmmakers have been reluctant to let
lack

of

connections

or

a

experience

prevent them from making first features.
32 December 2000

not to leave a

girlfriend to attend school in

California.

coming-of-age
Jersey. Top right:
Setting up a shot,
from left, are 1st
AC William Miller,

or

When

Sipe and Carney saw
Donnelly's short film Crashing by Design,
which was shot in the decaying Jersey
Shore resort town of Asbury Park, they
knew they'd found a filmmaker who
shared their vision. Notes Donnelly, "They
liked the way the short made the town
partly a character and captured the feel of
a

deserted seaside resort in the winter."

A
screened

Million Miles, which was
twice
at
this
year's

Independent Feature Film Market in New
was directed by Sipe. The plot
follows Jim Gordon (portrayed by
Carney) and Ford Weston (Ray Jarrell),
two men in their early twenties who are
already being ground down by the
predictability of their lives. The film's
wintry seaside universe seems particu¬
larly grim. When Jim is accepted by a
York,

school in California, however, he is hesi¬
tant to leave his

hometown,

a young

with whom he has

just begun an
uncertain relationship, and his longtime

woman

friend, Ford.
When

Donnelly signed onto the
cinematographer and agreed
to defer payment, he didn't realize that
his comparative wealth of filmmaking
experience would lead Sipe and Carney
to name him supervising producer as
well. (Although A Million Miles was his
first feature as a director of photography,
Donnelly has long worked as a key grip,
gaffer and camera operator on commer¬
cial and indie-film productions in New
project

as

York, and he has also shot and directed
short films.) "I took on production duties

by default," Donnelly explains. "Bryan
were very young, and they had
no producer." However, taking on the
above-the-line job had its advantages for
and Ben

the

with

man

behind the camera; he notes

laugh that serving as supervising
producer "helped me get what I needed
[as cinematographer] more easily!"
Meanwhile, Sipe and Carney
a

Productins.

E8ocx2uirfttesy
Phot s
American Cinematographer - December 2000

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