Indie Film ‘Bert’ Portends Impending Promise For Mr. Bean-Like Scott Beehner

CHICAGO – Scott Beehner seems relaxed, confident and ready to conquer the world. This is a huge departure from on-screen character Bert Lozenge in his directorial debut of “Bert,” which showed on Sept. 8 at the Big Damn Film Festival in Chicago.


Director Scott Beehner as Bert Lozenge in the indie film “Bert”.
Photo courtesy of Scott Beehner
“Like so many of us, the character Bert Lozenge grew up thinking he would hit all the heights of success that life has to offer as an adult,” Beehner said in an interview with Dustin Levell of HollywoodChicago.com as he drove a rental car from the airport to a relative’s house in Chicago.

Beehner continued: “When the realization sets in that you’re not where you thought you’d end up and you probably never will, you basically have two choices: you can deny the hopes you used to cling to or you can deny the present by doing something to shake up your situation.”

It clearly sounds like he’s talking about his own life.

Beehner was born in Elmhurst, Ill. and grew up in Omaha, Neb. He left the Midwest to study in New York’s famed Actors Studio and was directed in Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown” and Sidney Lumet’s off-Broadway play “The Shawl”.

He left the east coast for Los Angeles. There, Beehner has spent the last seven years playing parts on shows like “Charmed” and “Jake in Progress” as well as the Jerry O’Connell comedy “Tomcats”. While success has been slow coming, just this year he was hired to the Groundlings’ Sunday Company.

“When I first moved to Los Angeles, I showed a short film I had written and performed in while in New York called ‘Crooks,’” Beehner said. “People liked it so much I decided to write another short about a man on the run from the cops.”

Bert does his fair share of running from the cops. And the mob. And a ticked-off clown. Everyone seems to have it out for this guy.

Bert Lozenge is a nothing-special everyman who spends his days at a boring office job and his evenings moonlighting as a bartender. Long having given up his dreams of being a song-and-dance man on Broadway, he has settled into mundane repetition.

It’s after being fired from his desk job that he gets suckered into a fake stock tip and owing the Omaha mob $50,000. Lucky for him, gangsters in the Cornhusker State have Midwestern hospitality and are willing for him to pay off the loan by doing one simple favor: rob a bank.

While on this chore, he runs into his high school sweetheart. She decides to become a quick accomplice. Now everyone is after him and the money.

A production with so many different locations and an ensemble of 105 speaking roles should have cost him several million dollars. Aspiring independent filmmakers should take note: Scott Beehner has found a way to make an inexpensive movie without sacrificing production quality.

Back in Los Angeles, Beehner was waiting tables at an Italian restaurant. He offered: “I asked the owner if I could film a scene there when the restaurant was closed. He told me he charges $10,000 a day.”

As the perfect solution, he decided to move the entire shoot to his hometown of Omaha. He placed an ad on Craig’s List and filled the cast and crew with mostly amateurs and first-timers eager to get their 15 minutes of fame in the movie business.


Jennifer Schemke and Scott Beehner in “Bert”.
Photo courtesy of Scott Beehner
Even so, shooting in a less show business-savvy town wasn’t without its pitfalls.

“We had the police called on us twice,” Beehner recalled. Some good Samaritans saw a scene where the mob throws Bert into the trunk of car and did their civic duty. “I guess they didn’t see the cameras.”

Ultimately, Omaha is no Los Angeles. While he might have scored all his locations for free, some eager filmmakers with Canon XL2 equipment and consistent August weather for the 28-day shoot, what he sacrificed was acting talent.

Beehner called on a couple friends he knew from Los Angeles and New York to take the leads. His love interest, Mabel, is played by DePaul University graduate Jennifer Schemke. She delivers the funniest line in the movie during the bank robbery.

A friend from New York and “Law & Order” regular David Raymond Wagner plays Ike and gives the most attention-grabbing performance in the movie. While the rest of the cast is rounded out by Omaha natives, be on the lookout for Chicago stand-up comedian Johnny Beehner as a sadistic clown.

Beehner, who penned the script, made himself the straight man in his series of outlandish situations. He carried every scene where an inexperienced actor was given a long monologue. He tacitly reacted.

From the “Keystone Cops”-inspired chases to Bert’s stone-face responses, Beehner’s comic ability ranks with Buster Keaton and the stars of the silent era.

For the shoestring budget, the production quality was impressive and often gave the feeling of watching Mr. Bean or another slapstick-based British comic.

Cinematographer Rob Williams balanced his work well with natural and hard lighting and Michael McGuire’s score complemented the action. Though filled with some obnoxious background noise and mixed unevenly, the inaudible sound problem that usually follows a low-budget indie wasn’t present here.

While the film overall was mildly amusing and the story was sometimes slow, it showed great promise for Beehner and his future projects even though he’s not yet sure what they will be.

“I’ve been so busy with the Groundlings and promoting ‘Bert’ through the Big Damn Film Festival,” reflects the actor turned director turned producer. If “Bert” is any indication, Scott Beehner will find a way to produce a film with worth that exceeds its budget.

By Dustin Levell
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com

© 2007 Dustin Levell, HollywoodChicago.com