No acting. Just be a New Yorker (14 photos)

For the people of the Sault who came out to be in a movie today, it was the chance of a lifetime.

"There are several things I want to do at least once in my lifetime," said Esther Gold. "I just wanted to say I'd done it, to see what it would be like and to have some fun."

Gold was one of about 120 Saultites who formed the audience in a shoot for DViant Film's dark comedy Longfellow.

The feature film is being shot mainly in Sault Ste. Marie and the opening scene was shot today in the theatre at St. Marys College.

"You know me, you've known me for a very long time in my head," Martin Donovan, director, writer and lead actor for Longfellow told the audience of extras.

"Remember what you're doing right now. No acting," he said as everyone quietly hung on his every word. "I want to try to develop exactly what we're doing here. A kind of intimacy."

The scene starts off with Donovan (shown) in bed and, well, we wouldn't want to spoil the plot.

The scene calls for audience members who look like they are attending an off-Broadway production in New York.

As the story develops, it becomes apparent that this audience is an integral part of the film.

"I've been writing plays for 20 years. I've been very successful," Donovan tells the audience. "But lately things have not been going so well. The last couple of plays have tanked."

The scene shot today at St. Marys College was the film crew's second scene of the day.

Crew members started filming this morning at 134 Simpson Street, known to folks in the Sault as Bishophurst, and then moved everything over to the school by noon.

Filming at the school began shortly after 3 p.m. and was expected to wrap up about 7 p.m.

The film will be shot at six locations around the Sault including St. Marys College, Bishophurst, Muio's Restaurant and three private residences.

"I don't think [the owners of the residences are] aware of what they're getting into, but I think they're very happy to be a part of it," said producer and location manager Srdjan Vilotijevic. "But it's set in L.A. so we're shooting all of it inside."

Vilotijevic said he heard the people of Sault Ste. Marie were very welcoming, friendly and easy to work with, so producers decided to write the Sault into the movie as its location.

He said Rosalie Graham of Tourism Sault Ste. Marie deserves kudos for her starring role in bringing the company to the city once the initial contact was made.

"She was the main instigator of the whole thing, she and Ian McMillan [executive director of Tourism Sault Ste. Marie]," Vilotijevic said.

The city pitched in some money for the project.

Money that has rented a bus to ferry the crew from shoot to shoot and back to their hotel.

Between this and other amenities that Vilotijevic said the crew couldn't have hoped for in another location, producers of Longfellow are singing the praises of Sault Ste. Marie to their colleaguesw in the film industry far and wide.

He said local shooting will be done by December 21, then the company will move to Los Angeles for a week of shooting then it's into post production.

Vilotijevic said the film is expected to hit theatres in June or July 2010.