For the very first time, a feature-length motion picture will be filmed in its entirety in the town of Clinton — and it is the brainchild of one of its residents.
Mark Zhutianli, the owner of Citispot Tea & Coffee, has written and is set to direct a film tentatively titled “The Red Mill." The movie, which will be filmed at various locations in Clinton including the famous site for which it is named, centers on the friendship of three teenagers and their struggle to eliminate a ghost that haunts the Red Mill and threatens the safety of the town.
“This movie expresses the spirit of the town of Clinton,” Zhutianli said. “It’s about love, it’s about courage, and then we have the Haunted Mill as the (location of) the enemy in the story to create a conflict.”
As roughly 40% of the movie takes place on the premises of the Red Mill Museum Village, Zhutianli originally intended to have the film coincide with this year’s Haunted Red Mill experience. But, because the ongoing coronavirus pandemic forced the event to be shifted to a virtual format, filming has been pushed back to next fall.
Zhutianli has already created multiple documentaries about the town of Clinton, including “Living in Clinton,” “The Great Fire of Clinton” and “The Story of the Clinton Music Hall.” But, this film marks the first he will seek to sell for distribution rather than upload online for free.
This objective has the support of Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach, an executive producer for the film. Kovach serves on both the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission and Hunterdon County Film Commission, co-founded and produced the 2017 and 2018 River Town Film Festival, and enjoys a number of studio contacts in Los Angeles and France.
“This is something that the (Hunterdon County Film) Commission will promote," Kovach said. "Our goal is to showcase Hunterdon and obviously Clinton as an ideal film location, whether it’s for short term projects or long-term projects — whichever it may be. So the commission will definitely benefit from Mark’s work.”
Kovach’s primary involvement in the film will be to “raise the level of who sees it and where it gets to" — a goal that she expressed her confidence in achieving.
“It’s a campy horror film, and you don’t think much about them, but think of something like “The Blair Witch Project” — which I think cost less than $100,000 to make and has continued to see huge success — I’d like to see something like that for Mark," Kovach said. "He really has a passion for this and this is his true love, to be a filmmaker. So anything I can do to help him with that, and promote my town at the same time, it’s a double win.”
A GoFundMe page will be launched on Oct. 30 to raise funds for production costs of the film, Christine Groth, head of the film’s production team, confirmed.
“Right now, all of those production costs are coming out of Mark’s pocket," Groth said. "You have to make sure, to make it really quality, that it’s the right lighting for each shot that you’re doing, and that the sound equipment is correct so you’re able to pick up what you want. And all those little things, especially lighting and sound, that go into making the movie pop ... are expensive.”
“Obviously the more you can spend, the better quality you’re going to wind up getting because you could put it into pre- and post-production," Kovach echoed.
Despite this essential funding, the entire cast and crew of the movie — already comprised of more than a dozen New Jersey and New York residents — are working on a purely volunteer basis. Moreover, groups including the Clinton Fire Department, Clinton Police Department, the Clinton First Aid & Rescue Squad and the staff of the Red Mill Museum Village have also agreed to volunteer their time to the film.
“In general, people are very enthusiastic about helping the community — they’re like that,” Zhutianli said. “In Clinton, there’s so many people that have talent and are willing to use this talent to create something that we’ve never had done before. I hope people realize that, and when they realize that, I hope they’ll actively get involved — like they always do.”
Echoing Zhutianli, Groth said the production team will be continually seeking to grow its number of cast and crew members — a feasible goal to accomplish given Clinton’s community spirit.
“It reminds me of a small town where my grandparents live in western Pennsylvania; you walk down the street on any day and you can be saying ‘hello’ to multiple people that you know,” Groth said. “It’s just that feeling, and everybody wants to be involved."
"They just feel an ownership to Clinton; they belong, and it’s theirs,” she added.
Paul Muir, executive director of the Red Mill Museum Village, said the new film represents “a great opportunity” for both the museum and the town.
“I think it’s a cool concept, and I think it’s a great way to celebrate Halloween and that small-town feel for Clinton,” Muir said. “And we appreciate working with Mark. He’s done a few documentaries and the Red Mill provided some of the research for him, and some of our staff and trustees have appeared in them, but this is his first fictional piece — and we’re looking forward to seeing what he does with it.”
While production for the film is still a year away, the production team launched a social media blitz to promote the movie using the TheRedMill.WLB Facebook page and Mark’s2020Cinema Twitter and Instagram pages on Oct. 1. This blitz will reveal fragments of a teaser for the film through to the PumpkinFest on Oct. 30, on which day the full length of the teaser will be screened in front of CitiSpot Tea & Coffee.
Beyond these efforts, the production team will continue to promote the film at similar events in the town that doubles as the ideal location for this one-of-a-kind movie.
“It’s such a bucolic neighborhood, and it’s just the kind of place people want to go to and see," Groth said.
“When you think of teenage campy horror, it’s usually around a small town, around a community. Almost all of them have that common theme. So Clinton was the perfect setting for that, and the Haunted Red Mill just adds to it,” Kovach echoed.
“Why Clinton? I am part of Clinton. I’ve been around for over 20 years,” Zhutianli said. "So this is home ... and I just feel attached.”
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Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com
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