La Grande, Christmas, community: The production of ‘Breakup Season’
Photo Courtesy of H. Nelson Tracey
H. Nelson Tracey’s “Breakup Season” — one of my favorite films I’ve seen this year — takes what may be an unconventional approach to a serious topic. The Christmas-set film tackles a tough break-up between its protagonists, but a situation that may seem to be dramatic and saddening is presented, at times, as wholesome and funny.
Perhaps that wholesome attribute extended to the actual production of the film, which occurred in La Grande, Oregon, a location discovered by Tracey — a class of 2015 film production alumnus and the film’s director — through participating in the Eastern Oregon Film Festival.
In traveling to La Grande, Tracey and class of 2014 film production alumnus Stephen Mastrocola were met with open arms. The film’s premiere in the city received a standing ovation, its screenings were extended by a week and the film made more money there than in Los Angeles. On The Oregon Film Trail — a trail of 43 signs listing movies made in the state — “Breakup Season” already has its placard, being enacted before the film’s release.
“We left LA to make this movie, and we made it in a place that had really no movies had been shot there… And so what started out as this blank canvas where we felt that we had no infrastructure, no support and all this stuff, it turned into just the opposite of that,” Mastrocola said.
He continued: “When we went into this community and asked for help and support in terms of locations, in terms of goods and services and financing and grant money and access to things and all this stuff, they showed up. Sometimes it was like pulling teeth, but they did.”
On Dec. 4, The Panther sat down with the two alumni to discuss the production of the film, which has been embarking on a festival run.
The sense of community Mastrocola talks about extends to what’s followed the two alumni’s time at Chapman. Chapman alumni have attended the premiere of the film purely from being told about it through the alumni community or remembering Tracey; at one point, some of his fraternity brothers almost provided financing when they realized he was asking for funding.
“I show up to the LA premiere, and somebody I went to Chapman with who I had not seen in nine years showed up because she saw a LinkedIn post and was like, ‘I remember seeing your bowling movie… and it was great, so I came and brought my boyfriend to come see your movie,’ nine years later, and it was just like, ‘This is special,’” Tracey told The Panther.
To Tracey, there are only a few film school students who truly obsess over watching every film they can. He and Mastrocola met through mutual friends in a group of students with that obsession.
“The film school at Chapman, I mean our idea of fun on a Friday night was hitting the DVD library and finding 10 things to keep us busy for the weekend, and Nelson and I were a part of all that,” Mastrocola said.
The two’s friendship matured across their time in LA, but outside of talking about movies and their goals, wasn’t professional. The two film production alumni truly reconnected on the production of “Breakup Season,” and they’re not the only Chapman alumni on the production. Class of 2015 theater alumnae Molly Welsh was the film’s production coordinator, while class of 2013 film production alumnus Almog Avidan Antonir edited the film.
H. Nelson Tracey and Stephen Mastrocola. Photo Credit: Dick Mason
“Breakup Season” follows young couple Ben (Chandler Riggs) and Cassie (Samantha Isler) visiting Ben’s family for Christmas — only to break up nearly on arrival. When Cassie is unable to leave and travel home to her family, she is forced to spend the holiday season with Ben’s family, in a film that’s dramatic, funny and extremely charming.
“I kind of made this movie for my 23-year-old self, and I think that first year out of college is really tough, and breakups are usually a part of that equation because it’s really hard to maintain a relationship post-grad with the person you met in college,” Tracey said. “I think the best compliments I get are about the healing process that comes with a breakup and that experience, and I love talking to people about that.”
He continued: “The message I guess is, ‘Breakups are tough,’ and I’m never gonna sugar-coat that, ‘but you will get through it,’ and this is a movie that’s meant to depict that sincerely.”
Tracey hopes that the film will resonate with, perhaps, audiences akin to future college graduates, people on the precipice of entering a new stage in life: what’s the dating scene like in that kind of sphere? He didn’t intend for the film to be Christmas-set, but found that holiday being the most heightened for this type of story.
“... It has to be Christmas because there’s no other high-stakes holiday, let’s be real,” Tracey told The Panther. “If this was Fourth of July, she would’ve been just fine. If this was Labor Day weekend, no problem… But Christmas is stressful… and there’s a weather component, and so I kind of fell into the holiday genre as a result.”
To both alumni, it’s important to just dive into production and keep moving forward.
“I think from there, one of the biggest things that I learned was, ‘Getting your movie made is a game of momentum,’” Mastrocola said. “There’s a lot of fear that disguises itself as progress, in terms of rewriting your script, getting notes from your friends and browsing through locations and all these different things that feel like you’re prepping your film.”
He continued: “But really you gotta put that start date on the books and just beg, borrow and steal until you get the resources that you need, which are not just money, but that everyone fixates on, but it’s the right crew, the right cast, the location that’s gonna work for your project creatively and logistically.”
A time in his Chapman experience that stood out to Mastrocola was the work he got to do on the set of Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” when he was a sophomore. When he became aware that the accomplished director was filming the project in LA, he coordinated with his friends to get onto the set.
“I remember I went into a class and Kevin, my buddy, said, ‘I’ll make some calls and see what I can dig up,’ ‘cause we had an IMDb Pro account…” he told The Panther. “By the time I came out of class, he was like, ‘We’re hired as interns, we start Monday.’”
He continued: “... I skipped a lot of classes to go and work on that set, and everything that I learned, it’s not about the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, ‘cause you get that at school, but what I learned was saying ‘yes’ to opportunities, even if they feel like they don’t make sense for you at a certain time, just always being open to venturing into unknown territories in film because the people that you’ll meet and the connections that you’ll make are what will propel you to that next thing.”
Mastrocola’s advice to take opportunities doesn’t just apply to professional work; he’s seen it prove beneficial within the Chapman sphere, too.
“I think that applies towards what’s within the film school as well, because we would go to every screening and make sure to shake hands with the guest speaker afterwards and be really engaged in all the Q&As that they would provide and things like that,” he said. “I know so many people got a really meaningful professional connection out of those kinds of events and experiences.”
With “Breakup Season” finished, Tracey thinks back on advice he’s heard about the “first feature.”
At a Sundance Film Festival, Dee Rees, the director of “Pariah,” conveyed to Tracey that he should make a low-budget first feature, rather than a series of shorts, to draw interest, as climbing up the short filmmaking ladder is time consuming. While he acknowledged the importance of short filmmaking, Tracey didn’t think they were extremely impactful in opening doors for him.
“The advice I give that’s very practical is, ‘Make some damn good short films at Chapman,’ because that’s the model, that’s what you’re gonna do, ‘but don’t expect those to be a calling card,’” Tracey said. “‘Use those to be thinking, ‘Ok, how can I most efficiently make feature number one?’’ because that’s what’s gonna open doors, that’s where you’re gonna get actual calling card-type emails and things like that…”
Mastrocola summed up this advice in one sentence.
“I would say for better or for worse, your first feature is the new short film,” he said.
Students can learn more about “Breakup Season” at the film’s website. The film is available for purchase or rental on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
