Actor and lifelong Jersey City resident Ken Jennings could tell you the name of his first film, but then he’d have to kill you. He’ll only say that it’s a comedy written and directed by Rania Ajami, and the producers are keeping details under wraps, hoping to hit Variety with the use of a filmmaking innovation – the RED Digital Cinema Camera.
“We’re hoping to make a big splash with this technology,” said Jennings, explaining that the make-up of the shots looks “quite stunning” through the RED camera. “The few shots I’ve seen do look quite wonderful.”
With shoots in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the 1912 Italian renaissance revival-style Alder Manor (a popular filming location) in Yonkers, N.Y., the movie is capturing metropolitan locations through the lens of the RED camera.
Jon Sagud, of RED Digital Cinema’s marketing team, described what’s most significant about the self-contained camera that is easily mobile and requires no film processing.
“The quality of the recording has been likened to that of IMAX film,” Sagud said. “It would be four times the resolution of what people would perceive as a high-definition camera.”
And for indie filmmakers who think big but have small pockets, Sagud explained that this technology is a fifth of the cost of anything that approaches its quality. “An independent filmmaker can make a Hollywood quality movie with an independent budget, and this is going to open up an entirely new world for the filmmaking industry,” which Sagud called a revolution.
Jennings has witnessed this revolution firsthand.
“This is simply an independent film, but it’s huge,” said Jennings. “I’m shocked at the size of this thing. There are seven or eight principles, and about seven or eight supporting players, and the crew – there has to be a crew of 40 maybe. This looks like it’s a really big deal. It’s certainly not a tiny film in the least.”
After five weeks on set, Jennings finished filming his scenes Nov. 17. “This is my first film. It’s been a really great experience.”
It all started in Hudson County
Since his work takes him all over the metropolitan area, it’s a good thing Jennings lives in a convenient central location: Jersey City, where he was born and raised. He’s only left the place he calls home to go on tour with a show, when the 1979 production of the dark and daring Sweeney Todd went on the road. The trip took him to Los Angeles until he was invited to replace Nathan Lane in Present Laughter in New York City.
“My base has always been New York. It’s always been such an easy commute. It’s a hop, skip, and a jump.”
That commute has taken him to Broadway eight times for All God’s Chillun Got Wings, Sweeney Todd, Present Laughter, Mayor, Grand Hotel, London Assurance, Side Show, and Urinetown, not to mention A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden.
He considers Sweeney Todd and Urinetown to be true highlights of his career. Now, though, those bright lights Jennings knows so well have been dark due to the stagehand strike.
“I was with Urinetown when the last Broadway strike occurred, and luckily that only lasted four days,” Jennings said, explaining that during that musicians union strike, he was walking the picket lines with the musicians and other actors. “I might even be over there now if I wasn’t involved with this film.”
Jennings wondered how the Writers Guild of America strike might have affected filming if the script he loved hadn’t already been written.
“Just looking back, I’m really glad to have worked as frequently as I’ve been able to,” Jennings said, counting among the joys in his life his 5-year-old son, Brendan Gabriel. “It’s just wonderful to have Brendan backstage with me and to share this life with me.”
Flashing back to Jennings’ own upbringing, he attended St. Nicholas School, St. Peter’s Prep, and St. Peter’s College on dramatic scholarship. “I learned a lot [at St. Peter’s College] with old Roy Irving, who’s passed on now,” Jennings said of his former stage director.
St. Peter’s put Jennings on the path to his first paid acting job when he appeared in Roar of the Grease Paint – the Smell of the Crowd. Art Delo, artistic director of Jersey City’s Attic Ensemble, was preparing for Richard III when he saw Jennings in Roar and recommended him to the theater company, Halfpenny Playhouse in Kearny.
“He’s an enormous talent with a great singing voice,” Delo said, adding that Jennings has always been supportive of the Attic Ensemble, coming to see the shows, always enthusiastic and complimentary. “He’s the same person that he was the day I met him. You never get the sense that he feels what he does [on Broadway] is different than what we do in Jersey City … That’s rare. I guess it’s been about 40 years, and he’s still Kenny.”
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