YOUNGSTOWN Extras needed for 2 horror movies

More films will be made here this year than in Cleveland.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Monsters roam the empty floors of the former Southside Medical Center -- in the movies, that is.
A casting call for extras will be Wednesday for two independent feature films that were to begin production today in the Mahoning Valley.
Waterstreet Productions from Cleveland is making the horror film "My Soul to Take" and its sequel, "My Soul to Take 2," simultaneously, Richard Ouzounian, Western Reserve Film Commission leader, announced Monday during a press conference with Mahoning County commissioners.
Scenes will be filmed in unused portions of Oakhill Renaissance Place, which is the former Southside Medical Center on Oak Hill Avenue, and other locations, Ouzounian said.
Who's needed
Casting will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in the first-floor auditorium of the Ohio One Building, 25 E. Boardman St. The following are needed: 10 men, with fight experience preferred, to act as orderlies in a mental hospital; two or three men and women as doctors; five to 10 women as nurses, with fight experience preferred; and five to 10 women as mental patients, also with fight experience preferred.
Prospective extras must provide photographs, either original or photocopies, of themselves. Photos will not be returned. Extras will not be paid to appear in the movies.
Waterstreet has a distribution deal with Dimension Films, Ouzounian said. The budget for these films is estimated at $500,000.
The film's stars are Nick Mancuso of the films "Stingray" and "Under Siege"; John Savage ("The Deer Hunter," "The Godfather Part III") and Robyn Griggs (TV's "One Life to Live" and "Another World"). The director is Spencer Jay Kim.
"My Soul to Take" and its sequel will be the fourth and fifth movies to be filmed locally this year. That surpasses the number of film projects undertaken in Cleveland this year, Ouzounian said.
Local impact
The economic impact of filming this year on the local economy is about $3 million, he added.
Commissioners approved funding for the film commission last August, Ouzounian said. The office's $65,000 budget has helped him secure office space, buy telephones and computers and begin to work on a marketing plan for next year to attract more filmmakers.
"We have a product to sell that no one has," which is unused infrastructure, Ouzounian said. Empty buildings and an underused airport are attractive to filmmakers: "If it's not being used today for what it was made for, we're going to find another use for it," he said.
shaulis@vindy.com