"The Musician:" Trailer From Once Upon A Time's Mark Schimmel

“The Musician”, starring Anne Harris and Reese Harley is a journey of giving, forgiveness and inspiration. As the long line states, “Transforming lives one song at a time.” Themovie begins with a ragged violinist street musician, played by Harris traveling into the city via water taxi. Finding her playing spot on the Clark Street Bridge, she begins to share her music with tourists and commuters. After a brief encounter with a security guard, the musician is distracted and a small child played by Reese Harley steals her violin. Without giving away the entire movie (no spoilers here), the musician catches up with the child and the two find a common ground through the gift of music.

“The Musician” was written, produced and directed by Mark Schimmel. This also marks the third collaboration with Chicago cinematographer Bill Nielsen, known for Chicago Fire, Sirens and over a hundred feature films. Normann Pokorny (Patriot, The Exorcist, Sirens, Chicago Fire and other known films and shows) and editor Mark Voss are Co-Producers.

Anne Harris (Chicago based), has been crafting her unique sound over countless performance in the US and abroad. Her collaborations, live and in-studio, span a large and diverse group of artists, including Living Colour, Anders Osborne, Doyle Bramhall
II, Jefferson Starship and a long time collaboration with multi-Blues Music Award winner, Otis Taylor. Her uniquely expressive performance style has made her an audience favorite, as a side person or as an artist in her own right, at numerous festivals including Telluride Blues and Brews, Philadelphia Folk Fest, The GRAMMY Festival at Sea, Summerfest, and North Sea Jazz (Netherlands) to name a few.

The child, played by eight-year-old Reese Harley, is her first entry into the film-making arena. During the past few years, Reese has been modeling for print, catalog and at NY Fashion week. She is also a competitive ice skater and her mom; Rachel Harley is a professional model.

“The Musician” is Schimmel’s third short film over the past three years and will hopefully help earn him a position as a director in episodic television or a feature film. The script was written during his ongoing pursuit of his Masters degree in Film withVCFA – Vermont College of Fine Arts. Schimmel, an established commercial director, wanted to push his creative limits by conceiving a story that would explore all aspects film making without the use of dialogue. Once the script was locked, he approached cinematographer, Nielsen and Voss and asked them if they wanted to, “have some fun making some really cool art?” Voss introduced the idea of approaching Anne Harris. Once she and Schimmel met, they agreed to move forward with the project. One of the greatest challenges was finding a child who could play next to the charismatic Anne Harris. One morning while Schimmel was struggling with casting the child, he received an Instagram request from Rachel Harley, Reese’s mother. The next day, Schimmel met with the Harley family and knew that Reese was the best choice for the role.

The second challenge was finding the right locations that would be visually stunning for a music based only movie. One very hot June afternoon, Nielsen and Schimmel walked miles, scouting the Riverwalk, Lake Shore East and Chicago bridges. At the end of the day they decided to permit the park at the Planetarium, Ward Park, the Clark Street Bridge and shoot interiors at the Athenaeum Theatre. According to Schimmel, “the Chicago Film Office and the Park District bent over backwards to help permit the locations”. During the tech scout, it was Nielsen who had the idea to film Harris on a water taxi. The idea was to offer a different perspective of the character and film the city from a different perspective. The Wendella Boats agreed to allow Schimmel, Harris and his camera crew on the water taxi for the production.

With an expected running time of 12 minutes, the production took three, eight-hour days to complete. The movie was shot with an Arri Alexa from KESLOW CAMERA Chicago, Gig Rig offered up a motor home for a day and an all Chicago crew such as, Paul DeMarte, Tom Cicura, Sal Torrison, Emily McClaren, Denise Scruto, Connor Townsend, Justin Franklin, Jeremiah Baffour-Osei and others. Film veteran, Steve Hiller (over 57 feature credits) offered to shoot a behind the scenes video for the promotion of the
film. The immediate next steps for Schimmel and his producers is finish the film by October and start submitting to festivals. Until then the trailer can be seen on the Facebook page. In early August, Schimmel and Harris will release a music video based
on one of Harris’s songs used in the film.