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    Award Winning Ohio Filmmaker Brings New Satire Home

    Columbus gets one chance to see Ohio filmmaker Jeff Rosenberg’s hilarious satire OJ: The Musical on the big screen. This Tuesday, June 17 – the 20th anniversary of the Bronco chase – Rosenberg screens his new film at Lennox Town Center (777 Kinnear Rd.).

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    Rosenberg received his BFA in playwriting from Ohio University. By the time he’d graduated he’d already earned several major awards, including a Student Emmy Award and MTV’s Best Film on Campus (judged by Gus Van Sant, Allison Anders and Joel Schumacher!), as well as the best narrative award at the Columbus International Film Festival.

    oj-the-musical-02Since leaving OU, he’s worked extensively in film and television as an assistant director. His credits include The League for FX, and films including Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. He took a couple minutes to talk about the film with Columbus Underground.

    Columbus Underground: What got you into filmmaking?

    Jeff Rosenberg: When I was 8 years old, I saw a screening of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and ever since, making movies has been the only thing I’ve wanted to do with my life.

    CU: You won the Silver Chris for your first feature-length film as writer/director. Was it particularly meaningful to do so well with an international award based here in Ohio?

    JR: I’m incredibly proud of the fact that I’m from Ohio, and that award was such a great moment at the early stages of my filmmaking career.

    CU: You’ve worked on dozens of films – from high end blockbusters to low rent B-movies. When you do something that’s all you – directing, writing, producing – which is the stronger sense, that it’s freeing to have total creative control, or that it’s nerve-wracking to be in charge of so much with so many people riding on your work?

    JR: While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the many diverse projects I’ve worked on as an assistant director, nothing beats having creative control over something of your own. To know that a film will fail or succeed based on decisions you make is an amazing rush and the ultimate goal of any filmmaker.

     CU: How did your experience on those different projects prepare you for owning the whole project?

    JR: My experience working on film sets was essential to being able to make “OJ: The Musical” happen because I know what it takes to put a film together and how to simplify a production to the bare essentials necessary to tell a story.

    CU: One of the film’s greatest charms is the way it pokes fun at theater people without being mean spirited about it. Your background in theater really shows.

    JR: This was very important to me from the beginning. As someone who majored in playwriting and loves the theater, I wanted to be very careful to not present caricatures of what people expect from “theater people”. I love the fact that we show an Othello monologue in its entirety for our audition scene, as opposed to the expectation of something goofy you’d usually get in a comedy.

    CU: What inspired the story?

    JR: I was studying Othello in college and was overwhelmed suddenly by the realization that the story is basically the exact same as the OJ Simpson saga. I immediately ran to my dorm room and started writing musical numbers, even though I knew nothing about music. Eventually I realized the most interesting story was not the OJ musical, but the story about the guy who wanted to actually make an OJ musical. Enter Eugene Olivier, played brilliantly by Jordan Kenneth Kamp, my college classmate and regular collaborator.

    CU: How did you go about casting for the film? 

    JR: There was no standard casting director on the film, as everyone is either a friend from college, someone I’ve worked with in LA or a connection through a friend. This allowed me to write the characters to the actors’ voices and have a level of comfort on the set that I wouldn’t normally have.

    CU: How does Orrville, Ohio figure in? Did you choose the location because the film’s lead, Jordan Kenneth Kamp, is from there?

    JR: Not only is that Jordan’s actual house in the movie, that is his actual grandmother playing Eugene’s grandma! He likes to joke that she gave the second best performance in the film.

    Tickets to OJ: The Musical are available at www.tugg.com/events/9320. In case of a sell-out, though, fear not. OJ: TM will be released on iTunes and all other leading Video On Demand platforms. You can preorder beginning 6/17 at itunes.apple.com/us/movie/oj-the-musical/id879872510 .

    A full slate of movie reviews (including a review of OJ: The Musical) is available on my website www.maddwolf.comYou can also follow me on Twitter @maddwolf and like me on Facebook at facebook.com/MaddWolfColumbus .

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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