‘Play The Edge’ Diary: That’s A Wrap!

 “Play the Edge,” an independent crime thriller, wrapped principal photography on Saturday after a month-long shoot of overnights primarily at the Chatham Orpheum Theater. The last week was a truncated four-night shoot instead of the usual five.

 “This has been the most difficult set I’ve ever directed before,” said writer/director Peter Horgan on the penultimate night of shooting. “That’s because it’s the biggest scale I’ve directed, but it’s also been the most satisfying. It has been absolutely incredible working with all these professionals.”

Horgan acknowledged the rough weather that plagued the middle weeks of the shoot, including the blizzard that kept cast and crew isolated across the Cape. “It feels like every time we try to shoot anything outside, we get the worst possible weather for the day. Our guys have been troupers, and we’ve made our way through it. We’ve figured out a way to make it all happen,” he said.

The efficiency of the crew was praised across the board, including by Executive Producer Ian Brownell. 

 “It’s always great to work with people who have worked together before, because there’s a shorthand and an ease when it comes to communication,” he said. “Even when it’s the middle of the night, they’re still going strong.”

Brownell also served as second assistant director on the film. He came to the project after a chance encounter with producer/star Josh Koopman, who had previously starred in Horgan’s first film “How to Rob,” which Brownell had seen and enjoyed.

 “I got to know him a little bit, and was really interested to learn that he was not only an actor, but also a producer,” Brownell said. “He also had this life as the [co-]owner of a pizza restaurant, and the more he told me about the Pizza Shark location in the basement of [the Orpheum], I was thinking that it sounded great, like a premise for a movie. And he told me, of course, that there was already a script.”

The next day, Brownell met Horgan at a party, and the rest was history. 

 “I don't produce that many films, maybe one every four or five years,” said Brownell, who also co-owns the Somerville Theatre. “I had been on the lookout for one, and I loved the fact that it was written around a specific location. That’s always a good thing for a low-budget movie.”

Filming this past week began on Wednesday, with an early shoot at the Chatham Liquor Store for multiple scenes where Koopman’s character, Cam O’Leary, buys and attempts to cash a lottery ticket. The crew then moved farther down Main Street, with rain and mist providing a unique backdrop for those scenes. “It’s perfect for a horror movie,” joked camera operator Aram “Spike” Bauman.

The crew returned to the Orpheum for the final days of filming, which brought back cast members Anthony Firicano and Gene Ravvin, who play the two criminals hired by Cam to rob the Orpheum. New additions to the cast this week included Richard Dinkins Jr., Charlie Farrell and Anna Rizzo. Notably, a scene involving two drunk Santa Clauses (played by brothers and real-life professional Santas Fred Sullivan Jr. and John Frederick Sullivan) brought some extra Christmas cheer to the holiday-themed set.

Costume Designer Nicole Cook was also on-set every day for the final week. After her brother put her name into an industry temp agency, Cook’s first costuming job was on the 2016 film “Manchester by the Sea.” She has since gone on to work on films like “Don’t Look Up,” “Madame Web,” “Hocus Pocus 2,” and television series like “Daredevil” and “The Walking Dead: Dead City,” which shot in Worcester. In addition to “Play the Edge,” her upcoming projects include the Anthony Bourdain biopic “Tony,” which shot in Plymouth County last year.

 “I’ve always loved fashion, and I had a dream that I was going to make movie posters or credit sequences for film and TV,” she said. “So working in the costume department made me realize how perfect of a fit that was for me.”

Cook was excited to design for a crime film, a genre she has not gotten to delve into before. “We get to do interesting things like blood work and multiples, and it’s great to work with a smaller, more intimate cast. You’re really able to paint those pictures creatively and better match who these characters are with intent, because there are less of them than there would be on a bigger film.”

As production came to a close, thoughts inevitably turned to an eventual premiere, which would inevitably take place at the Orpheum itself. 

 “It’s always fun for people who live in a small town where a movie gets made, especially if it’s made in a place they know well,” said Brownell. “A local institution, whether it’s a bar, a school, or in this case, a movie theater. In some ways, a theater is ideal, because you can actually screen the movie in the place where it was shot. As long as you don’t wear out your welcome and become that horrible film crew that everybody hates, it’s a lot of fun.”

Though there are months of post-production work to do, the conclusion of shooting marks a bittersweet moment for Horgan. 

 “I’ve been preparing for this film for years,” he said. “I wrote it over three years ago, so I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. Still, there were times where I came on set and was surprised by a couple of things. That’s inevitable, and it never changes. It’s all been an incredible learning experience.”

The release plan, said Horgan, begins with a film festival rollout sometime in 2027, with a Christmas season release either that year or the next one. 

 “Either way, we will be screening it at the Orpheum,” he said. “The community here has done so much for us. Businesses helped us out, so many people stayed very late to be extras, and there’s been an overwhelming amount of positivity from the Chatham community in general. We owe it to the people who helped make it possible, so we will be bringing it back here to celebrate it with them.”