Program notes as they appeared for the Premiere of The Game

The Game is about two College Students, Mitchell Balentine and Lou Perricone, who on a lark make counterfeit money. They spend it with success until they are discovered by the mysterious Laney Rodet. She blackmails the two of them into a ever growing con game in which their counterfeit money is to be used as a replacement for a very large sum of real money; money that is part of a mob deal. By the time they realize this, it is too late to get out. Every turn in the situation is like a larger hook in the two men until they are so thoroughly involved that the only way to get out alive is to play the game as ruthlessly as she. In the end, not everyone can survive.

Ideas that would eventually become The Game began taking form as a script on New Years eve of 1991. It was written with the intent of being produced as a low budget feature film. After many different versions and drafts of the story, The script was considered complete in the late summer of that year.

In November of 1991, an initial investment was made by Tony Martin and Edmund Roel for the purpose of financing a trailer film of the movie. The purpose of this example film was to show what we were intending to do on a larger scale. It was a tool with which we were able to raise a large part of the capital necessary to shoot the actual film.

Several people were invited to join the collaboration that has become A&B PRODUCTIONS. These were people that had worked together before and had experience in independent film making as well as commercial and corporate ventures. Primary casting for The Game was completed in January of 1992.

The serious search for the right investors took place between April of 1992 and January of 1993. In early January, enough money had been raised where it was felt that the film could move to the next step; preproduction. This became a period of time in which rehearsals, recasting, deal making with equipment brokers, location scouting, etc. became a full time job. All the tiny details that can make or break a film were ironed out to the best of our ability.

Primary filming of The Game began May 2 of 1993. We shot for the scheduled three weeks, successfully coming in on schedule and on budget. In these three weeks we shot 12,000 feet of film equaling approximately 5 hours of raw footage.

Editing of this footage began immediately and by early July, we were able to present a cut of the scenes shot. It was with this that we went searching for the additional investments necessary to get the movie into serious post production. A brutal summer of searching, pleading, cajoling and begging finally got us to the point where we were able to resume shooting. In October of 1993, principal photography of The Game re-commenced. Shooting went for another 3 weeks at which time, another 14,000 feet of film had been shot. It was with this that we felt we were out of the woods in terms of shooting the film.

In Mid November an 8 plate flatbed was brought back to complete editing of the principal photography. It was known that additional shooting was going to be done, what was not known was what kind of winter lay ahead.

It was not until Mid March that shooting could continue and that the film could resume its trek toward completion.

Throughout April, May and June of 1994, post production continued in a frenzy that can only be described as insanity. Music, Sound effects, continued shooting, titles, mixes, negative cutting... all of these things converged at one time... jobs divided among merely 6 people. Needless to say, sleep was not something that was well known at this time.

On July 5 1994, three and a half years from the beginning of writing, one year one month and 3 days from the beginning of principal photography, The Game was complete... ready to go to the labs for its first Answer Print.

I look back at this trip and am amazed. So many people were involved at various points. People who would shuck sanity and invest in the project with their money... with the idea of perhaps making money, but usually more because of a big heart and honest want to help... Professionals in the business who took off from their "real jobs" in order to be brutalized by the 16-30 hour shooting days... people who allowed us to enter their homes and business like an insane traveling carnival and wreak havoc upon their everyday lives... some for weeks at a time...

Every one of them had their doubts at one time or another for one thing or another, but most kept sticking in. This film could not have been made without them. The following list of credits are these people. I think that making a feature film on this level is one of the most difficult things that can be attempted and I thank from the bottom of my heart all the people involved because without them, this would still be a nothing more than words on paper.

Stefan Avalos