The award-winning screwball comedy, Adam’s Package, brings together a model, a questionable hitman, a vindictive ex-wife, a h***y neighbor, a pair of feds, a ghost, and Jesus into the home of a good-looking ex-con on house arrest named Adam (Andrew Rogers). Why? An alien conspiracy, of course.
Filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte reflects on the effort it took to pull together Adam’s Package. This emerging writer/director learned his chops at an early age. “My father was a neighborhood photography in Brooklyn,” he says. “At an early age, he put a Bolex 8mm in my hands and said, ‘shoot this wedding, and we’ll see if we can sell it.’ He gave me a shot list of 90 odd obligatory moments to catch, and I really had to move fast to get it all. In a manner of speaking, I’m still moving ‘fast’ chasing those images.”
Adam’s Package grew out of an opportunity that any indie filmmaker couldn’t pass up. Chiaramonte states, “My co-writer, Emmett Alston, and I had access to a principal location—a townhouse in Marina Del Rey, and it developed from there. Several themes presented themselves – 1) friendship and the bonds that bind, even at the cost of pain and suffering; 2) the possibility of an afterlife; 3) the possibility of aliens – real live ones; government secrecy and brutality to protect secrets that the-powers-that-be think the population couldn’t live with and shouldn’t know about.”
“…a model, a questionable hitman, a vindictive ex-wife, a h***y neighbor, a pair of feds, a ghost, and Jesus...”
Filming in a townhome…and townhome complex had its own set of challenges, “we had strict rules on set regarding noise and anything that might disturb the neighbors—who would have been able to have us shut down easily. We rehearsed long and hard and worked to achieve a naturalness even in those rare moments of what was almost slapstick comedy.”
Special effects were once believed to be impossible or too expensive for low-budget films. The opera-singing ghost, played by Shay Denison, was a challenge to pull off. as she is transparent throughout the film. Thanks to editor and EFX-guru Eliot Gurrin, he was able to pull the ghost effect in a way far superior to traditional green-screen effects.
Filmmakers have to make films, and nothing can stop the truly dedicated. Passionately stated, “At the end of the day, Adams Package’s completion is a miracle of execution and great luck. There could have been any number of factors that might have shut her down, but Adams made it through to the finish and is now available to delight or anger or put a smile on faces (if they are so inclined) as it winds its way around the world in this new protocol of global streaming.”
Adam’s Package is available on all major streaming platforms: YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, AppleTV, and Vudu.
