‘Youngstown Metropolitan’ set to premiere downtown
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
“Youngstown Metropolitan,” the first feature film by Valley native Patrick Naples, will premiere Saturday as the season opener of the Youngstown Cinema series.
It will be screened at 8 p.m. on the third floor of the Knox Building, 110 W. Federal St., downtown, the new location of Youngstown Cinema. Admission is $10. Entrance is through The Federal bar and grill on the first floor of the building.
A cocktail hour will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Naples, a Youngstown State University graduate, wrote, directed and plays the lead character in the film. He describes it as a character study on manic-depressive narcissist Nathan Sanders.
Nathan attempts to rekindle his relationship with old friends to bring his latest screenplay to fruition. He struggles to keep his emotional attachments close to him, and becomes distraught in a dark reality where his compassion is replaced with ambition.
“Youngstown Metropolitan” was produced by Naples, Deanna Durse and Bill Burrows. Durse and Burrows also star as Nathan’s old friends, Deanna Durkin and Robert Hewes. Colleen Hagerty co-stars as Emmy Parsons.
The film is the first project from Exosphere Digitals, the production company that shot on location in the area.
Beehive Productions will host a warehouse afterparty below the theater. Admission is $10, or free to those who buy tickets to the film.
Naples shed light on his film:
Q. Did you base the film on your own experiences?
A. I wanted to make the film ambiguously meta, and have audience members consistently judge if the film is actually based on my life, or if I’m giving in to a certain perception of my character.
Q. How would you describe it in cinematographic terms?
A. I wanted the film’s cinematography to reflect Nathan’s moody personality, so I mostly used natural lighting to give it a grainy and clouded look. For the color scheme, I used black with navy blue.
The film is an erotic coming-of-age drama heavily influenced by themes of self-importance, privilege, self-medication and megalomania.
The story takes place throughout an entire year, so I got to capture Youngstown in all four seasons. The changing of the seasons helps represent the people that come and go from Nathan’s life.
Q. When and where did you shoot it?
A. It was shot on location throughout the Youngstown metropolitan area from August 2014 through December 2015. Nathan goes to YSU, so I filmed a lot of the film on campus and the downtown area. Youngstown has its own look that can’t be mimicked. You’ll see a lot of the businesses on Federal Street popping in and out of the film, along with a detailed look into some of the buildings on campus. My parents and friends let me use their homes for most of the scenes.