A Lethbridge produced movie about a battle between a father and grandfather is sure to strike a ‘common chord’ with a lot of people.
 There is nary a zombie or murderer to be found in the locally produced and written feature film, “A Common Chord,”  according to director Deric Olsen. That makes it stand out from a lot of independent films being shot in Lethbridge.
The film shoots May 28-June 28 all around the city.

“ We have so much talent here, It’s about time we had something like this,” said Pete Seadon, who plays the grandfather Bill Alston. He has been in a variety of movies and TV series including Brokeback Mountain and Heartland. He has also appeared in the Matthew Perry movie “The Ron Clark Story” as well as “Boot Camp” which features Mila Kunis.

 Instead, it is a family drama about a young guitar prodigy who discovers how to be the father he never was to his young daughter, while butting he heads with his deceased girlfriend’s father as to how to do it.
“ The movie begins at my daughter’s funeral. She dies when the little girl (Teigan) is about eight years old and her father comes back to get involved in her life,” Seadon said.

“I was going to adopt  the kid (Kyle) who is a foster child, but he impregnates my daughter, so he has to leave,” Seadon explained.

That is where the action begins.
“But it’s a family movie. There’s no explosions or special effects. It’s about the characters and the story. It’s all about the story,” he continued.

“It’s very heartfelt. It’s a story that everyone can relate to. I just fell in love with the script and agreed to play the part,” he said adding Deric Olsen contacted him about it, having worked with Seadon on previous projects.

The full-length movie, written by Trevor Carroll and produced by George Gallant and directed by Deric Olsen, is about Kyle, a former foster child and talented guitarist, who must become the father he’s never been to his daughter Teigan ( played by Ashlin Malik) when her mother dies. Teigan’s grandfather, Bill, wants Kyle to be completely removed from her life. The pain and resentment these two men feel for each other blinds them to the love they share for the little girl who connects them. As they both struggle to win the approval of the young social worker assigned to Teigan’s case, their unwillingness to reconcile threatens to tear her away from both of them, forever. Their journey becomes an odyssey of redemption, forgiveness and commitment as they discover what is most important in their lives.

“It is very well written,” Seadon enthused.
“It is a very tender film. It is going to affect a lot of guys,” Seadon continued.
“He’s very set in his ways. He thinks things were better in the ’50s, ’60s and 70s then they are now,” Seadon said of his character. Seadon has a son about to graduate from medical school, so the theme of the film resonates with him.
“I don’t know what I’d do if a woman who hadn’t been in my son’s life for years, came back and tried to take him from me,” he said.

Seadon is excited to be part of a feature film, especially being on the set for three weeks.
“On Brokeback Mountain, I was only on the set for three days, so I’ve taken two weeks off work for the shoot. Hanna born Seadon has been acting for 20 years ever since a friend named Ewan McGregor (not the famous actor), convinced him to be in a play. He caught the bug and has since been involved in many community theatre productions as well as films and TV shows.
Calgary born, Vancouver based actor Jason Cermak, who is best known for playing the role of Lewis Gunner in Paul Gross’ First World War epic Passchendaele, is excited to work with Deric Olsen on “A Common Chord.”

“He’s been out of the director’s chair for quite a while. He was looking for the right project to be involved with,” Cermak said, adding Olsen saw him in Passchendaele, gave him a script, and contacted him about auditioning.
“ I sat down and had lunch with him last year and gave me the script.  I get a lot of scripts and my agent gets a lot of scripts. And there is a lot of really bad, superficial writing out there about zombies and with a lot of guns. But when I read this script I could tell it had been worked over a lot,” he said adding there were a lot of aspects of Kyle that he identified with. He was also impressed with how clean the script was.

“There isn’t a lot of obscene language or sex or violence. And sometimes that can be hard to come by,” he continued.
“He has a committee of fools talking to him inside his head telling him he’s awful. And he’s had a lot of painful things in his past that have caused him to interact with people in a destructive way,” he said.
“There is a lot of internal conflict in him as well as external conflict with the grandfather,” Cermak continued.
Cermak also played Chad Rogers, who teaches the character Caleb to ride bulls on the TV series Heartland. But he never met Pete Seadon on the set.

  Producers have spent months painstakingly choosing the right people to play the right part, there was a massive casting call at the Movie Mill, May 18-19 for  the numerous extras who will be needed for several scene and producers ever organized a special movie/ fundraising night at the movie Mill to raise funds for the project. They were auctioning off a variety of items including a guitar autographed by Paul McCartney and autographed photos of the original Star Trek crew and even an autographed Frank Sinatra album.

“A lot of people are doing a lot of things to get this project ready to roll,” said director and co-writer Deric Olsen following a massive production meeting  in the film’s north-side headquarters.
 He said the wanted to film in Lethbridge to utilize all of the  creative talent available here from actors to various technical people.
“There’s still a few things that need to be done,” he said adding principal casting has been completed .

“She’s so professional. She’s like a little  adult,” Seadon enthused.
 Olsen co-wrote the story with Trevor Carroll.

“It’s a wonderful story,” he continued.
“It’s about family, fatherhood and redemption,” Olsen said adding he adapted Carroll’s story for the silver screen.
“It’s a coming of age story about a young man who must become more responsible,” he said adding he has found the story very inspirational and poignant.

“Very few films today are about the value of fatherhood and what it means to be a father, yet  it is such a big part of society,” Olsen added.
“It has a lot of depth. It reveals an aspect of ourselves that I found very interesting,” he said.
Lethbridge songwriter Joshua Fritz is providing original flamenco music for the film.
 While it is not set in Lethbridge, Jim McNally, director of photography said to look for a lot of familiar locations as Lethbridge stands in for any anonymous city.

 He has  over 20 years experience as a videographer and cinematographer and has worked with producer George Gallant on several  projects.

“We’re going for the feel of some of the older neighbourhoods like London Road.”
“Lethbridge is supposed to stand in for an anonymous city,” he said adding they will also be shooting outside of town including in towns like Raymond.
“We don’t have a very big budget to go into people’s houses so a lot of  the locations are out of the goodness of people’s hearts,” he said.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

 A version of this story appears in the May 30,2012 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times