#174: Keith Gerchak & Marisa Guterman (Lost & Found In Cleveland) — The Making of a New American Fable on Hope & the Post-Industrial American Dream in the Industrial Midwest

AI-Generated Transcript

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Keith Gerchak [00:00:00]:
We really kind of embrace that idea of, this this post industrial American dream, and ask the question, does the American dream still exist? Can it exist for this cross section of Clevelanders that represent as a microcosm of America, in modern times? Does it still exist? Does it exist for everybody? And we said emphatically, yes. It exists for everybody, and it exists in Cleveland. And Cleveland, we there's a quote that we start the film with that is a Tennessee Williams quote that says, basically, America has 3 cities, New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Every place else is Cleveland. And he may not have meant it as a compliment, but we reappropriated that concept and said, yeah. Cleveland is this placeholder, and it represents the rest of the country, everything that isn't basically the coasts. And it is that earnestness. It is that wearing your heart on a sleeve.

Keith Gerchak [00:00:50]:
It is a city that rises like a phoenix from the ashes every time, and it's a town of purpose. And these folks or characters are are, people of purpose as well that are they represent the very best of the neighborhoods in which they live as well.

Marisa Guterman [00:01:03]:
And I think for us, you know, little did we know that we would find our own American dream in Cleveland through the process of making this film.

Jeffrey Stern [00:01:17]:
Let's discover what people are building in the greater Cleveland community. We are telling the stories of Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurs, builders, and those supporting them. Welcome to the Lay of the Land podcast where we are exploring what people are building in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern, and today I had the real pleasure of speaking with Keith Gurchak and Marissa Guterman. This is a truly special episode. I always love exploring the parallels between entrepreneurship and of art. And in our conversation today, we get to explore the fascinating journey behind Lost and Found in Cleveland, the upcoming feature film and brainchild of Keith and Marissa, which brings the captivating magic of antique appraisals to the big screen through the powerful narratives of 5 individuals in the quest of the American dream, all grounded in the post industrial landscape of Cleveland, Ohio. The film showcases a diverse set of historical Cleveland locations and boasts an all star cast including Emmy and Golden Globe winner, Martin Sheen, Golden Globe nominee, Dennis Haysbert, Oscar nominee, June Squibb, Golden Globe winner, Stacy Keach, Independent Spirit Award winner, Yvette Yates Redick, and Tony Award winner, Santino Fontana.

Jeffrey Stern [00:02:35]:
In our conversation, we dive into Keith and Marissa's upbringing, the intersection of their professional past, and the creation of their production company, Double g Films. We then spend the bulk of the conversation though on the decade long creative process to bring this film to life. From creating, directing, fundraising, casting, and beyond to the unique role that Cleveland plays both in their art and in their personal lives, the tactical challenges of making a film, the power of storytelling, and a whole lot more. So please enjoy my conversation with Keith and Marissa after a brief message from our sponsor. Lay of the Land is brought to you by John Carroll University's Boulder College of Business, widely recognized as 1 of the top business schools in the region. As we've heard time and time again from entrepreneurs here on Lay of the Land, many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University, success in this ever world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technologies and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen, all qualities nurtured through the Buhler College of Business. With 4 different MBA programs of study spanning professional, online, hybrid, and 1 year flexible, the Bowler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA track including online, in person, hybrid, and asynchronous. All to offer the most effective options for you including the ability to participate in an elective international study tour providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.

Jeffrey Stern [00:04:19]:
The career impact of a bowler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University's Buller MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu. The bowler college of business is fully accredited by AACSB International. The highest accreditation a college of business can have. So I I was thinking about where the the best place to start would be. And I remember, you know, a few years back when when both of you had reached out explaining that you've been, you know, working on this cinematic love letter to your your hometown here in Cleveland. Yeah. And we we met up at Phoenix Coffee over in Ohio City, and we had a conversation along the lines of the 1 that I hope we can have with a broader audience here today.

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:13]:
You know, we exchanged some Cleveland stories, told me about your lives, how your paths crossed, the realities and challenges of of making a movie, particularly oriented around fundraising at that time. But all grounded really in this, you know, authentic desire to tell this Cleveland story that that needed to be told. And so I hope we can capture a bit of that story behind these stories today.

Keith Gerchak [00:05:37]:
We'd love it. I mean, that's that's our favorite story to tell.

Marisa Guterman [00:05:40]:
First of all, we just wanna thank you for responding to probably what was a crazy email or could have gone directly to spam, but I think that really highlights the spirit of Clevelanders. And I think what Keith and I have actually appreciated, though, fundraising is a lengthy process is the openness of Clevelanders to listen to a good idea and to take people seriously at face value of their taking their project seriously. So, you know, we we reached out to you specifically because you have become this tastemaker for entrepreneurialism and like a real voice in the city. And so this kind of a project requires people who think a little bit outside of the box, and I think inherently that is part of the requirement of being an entrepreneur. So a lot of our fundraising came from people in the city, and we thought, you know, why not go to the guy who kind of has his finger on the pulse of what's happening?

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:46]:
Well, that is very kind of of of you to say, and I I do appreciate it. But it, to me, just felt like a a kindred story. You know, part of of why I love doing this podcast in the first place is to tell, you know, Cleveland stories that I I think should be told. And so, you know, just kind of by design, the nature of what you're doing, resonated very much. And so I'm excited to to chat about it today.

Keith Gerchak [00:07:10]:
We are too.

Jeffrey Stern [00:07:11]:
So I I think the story starts with, you know, both of you individually. And so I I'd love to start there. If you could tell us, you know, a little bit about who you are, where you're coming from, what inspired your journeys respectively into the world of art and theater and performance, and and then ultimately, you know, how you came to to join forces?

Keith Gerchak [00:07:32]:
Well, I so I guess, probably easier to start with me because I'm the native Clevelander. So I, born and raised in Cleveland, and I was a I was a child actor at Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival back before it was Great Lakes Theater Festival. And my first season with them was the 1st season that they were at the Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square. And they had not renovated any of the theaters at Playhouse Square at that point other than the Ohio. And the back, upstage wall of the state theater was gone. We would, like, climb onto the stage and look at this kind of empty abandoned theater and imagine what it could all be. But, back then in the early eighties, nobody would go to downtown Cleveland to go see Waiting for Godot from Samuel Beckett. I mean, it just was not the audience wasn't there.

Keith Gerchak [00:08:21]:
Nobody understood why why the theaters were being renovated. And so there would be, like, 4 people in the audience and 5 of us on stage. But they would bring in the actors from New York, and the actors would say, kid, you should really get a backup to acting. This is a tough business. Tough industry.

Jeffrey Stern [00:08:35]:
Okay.

Keith Gerchak [00:08:36]:
So I, my parents and I went cross country after 1 of the shows, for my 13th birthday. And as we were driving across the country, I was sketching in my notepad, all these different skyscrapers and different buildings I would see. And I said, oh, you know what? I kind of like the idea of architecture. So I actually continued acting in Cleveland, and then I went to Tulane for an architecture degree and, also continued taking acting classes while I was there. And then when I came back, I, kind of fell into this pattern of becoming an architect and working for 3 different firms in town. I started with Bill Morris, who was a residential architect, and then I went to Biolloski and Partners, which did every imaginable building type, was there for 8 years and was the institutional studio director. And then I went over to Westlake Readliscoskie, who were specializing in performing arts centers. So I kind of fell into this niche of designing and renovating theaters, and Playhouse Square ultimately became my client.

Keith Gerchak [00:09:34]:
So I had gone from performing on the stages to then renovating. I eventually, kinda woke up 1 day and said, oh, I'm on the wrong path. I was supposed to be on stage, not behind the the curtain. So I packed my bags and I put my house up for sale or for rent. And then I moved to New York. And I was an actor in New York, and then I moved to LA and was you know, doing more on camera work than I was on stage. And that's where Marissa and I met, was in LA as actors.

Marisa Guterman [00:10:04]:
I picked him up in the waiting room at an audition. That is our true Me Too story. A very romantic spot, and we kind of fell in love there, but I asked him out for a cup of coffee. He said, I'm spoken for. I said, well, what about writing together? And he said, well, it depends. And I said, I have this idea to write something about antiques roadshow, but from Los Angeles, and I really, you know, don't need to see a film about antiques roadshow set in LA. I'm from LA, kind of born and bred. There are 5 of us.

Marisa Guterman [00:10:43]:
The industry is kind of in my blood. I started acting when I was 6. And for me, this idea of Antiques Roadshow was something kind of sacred. I watched it with my dad religiously, and what I was so drawn to were these real people, which for me was so exotic with their most treasured objects, and they're they're sharing their stories through the appraisal. And I was really enamored with that and kind of hungry for authenticity. And so when I approached Keith with the idea and, you know, taking the roadshow as this vehicle to tell a lot of different stories, Keith said, well, I'm from Cleveland. And I I laughed. I thought that was funny because, you know, all I knew was what I was fed through the zeitgeist, which was the mistake on the lake or, you know, the mayor's hair catching on fire, the Drew Carey Show.

Marisa Guterman [00:11:42]:
It wasn't a great portrait, but it felt like a comedy. And Keith kinda stopped me pretty quickly, and he was like, well, you can't knock Cleveland until you try it. And I have become what I like to call a Cleveland Jewish evangelist. I have absolutely fallen in love with the city. To me, it it kind of satisfies this thing that's aching for me that I've had my whole life of real genuine people and authenticity and, you know, drive the first time I ever went to Cleveland with Keith, it was in a snowstorm, and I thought he had bought the city for me because it felt like it was caught in a snow globe. It was magical. You know, driving through the flats, I was so just awe inspired by by the power and majesty of these buildings and these structures that felt like temples to industry, and I was so connected to really the American spirit. So the thought of the film originally had been, well, this is a comedy.

Marisa Guterman [00:12:42]:
But the more we talked about the film and the more I got to know Cleveland, the earnestness and the sincerity of the dreams of the people who live in Cleveland just became vital for us. We didn't we didn't wanna add to that narrative of how Cleveland has been treated in the media. We really wanted to tell these stories of real people and their dreams and lives. And then, Keith, you took your mom to the William McKinley Presidential Library Museum in Canton. That kinda kicked off.

Keith Gerchak [00:13:14]:
It did. Well, I I called Marissa from the parking lot, and I said, the irony here is that William McKinley didn't write anything. So the presidential library was empty. Empty shelves. There's a planetarium. There's a dinosaur exhibit. There are 2 animatrons of William McKinley and his wife just to go to the Pan American exposition where he was assassinated. So there was a, you know, there was a quirkiness, and definitely an earnestness to the museum that tonally felt absolutely right for the film.

Keith Gerchak [00:13:43]:
But it also had an exhibit about The Wizard of Oz. And it said that The Wizard of Oz was an allegory about the American dream and that it had Cleveland connections, and that blew our minds. And it said that Dorothy represented the common man and Tin Man, the factory workers and Scarecrow, the farmers, that, Oz stood for ounce because the yellow brick road was the gold, gold standard, and that McKinley was the wizard. And the guy behind the curtain was Marcus Hanna, who was the Cleveland politician, whose house is 1 of the 3 that are still on Millionaire's Row, and he had been the campaign manager for William McKinley to run for president and, supposedly was pulling the strings on a puppet president. And we said, this is absolutely fascinating. What if we rather than doing a best in show, mockumentary style, what if we are telling a modern retelling of the, of Wizard of Oz? What if this is about the American dream in post industrial America? So instead of scarecrow and Tin Man and Dorothy, we would have a retired steel plant worker. We would have a mail carrier who lives in Hough. We'd have this little boy, and his mom who's a modern American factory worker working at, you know, Ali's Chocolates.

Keith Gerchak [00:14:51]:
And where, you know, they live in a little blue house that's under the Hope Memorial Bridge where there's this symbolism of this kind of hearkening to a past civilization of these art deco gods that are offering gifts like objects to the wizards, that are in the sky, but kind of feeling like it was a past time. The this what time period are we in? And you kinda swoop down, and there's this gorgeous little blue house that has a panoramic view of downtown Cleveland that felt like Dorothy in the poppy field, that the locations even kind of lent themselves to that. And there was a symbolism behind the Hope Overpass, the that Hope was kind of bypassing, this child and his mom that are living in this house. And if they could just reach across the bluff of the Cuyahoga River and reach out to downtown Cleveland, it was this land of promise and opportunity in front of them. And so it it we really kind of embrace that idea of, this this post industrial American dream, and ask the question, does the American dream still exist? Can it exist for this cross section of Clevelanders that represent as a microcosm of America, in modern times? Does it still exist? Does it exist for everybody? And we said emphatically, yes. It exists for everybody, and it exists in Cleveland. And Cleveland, we there's a quote that we start the film with that is a Tennessee Williams quote that says, basically, America has 3 cities, New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Every place else is Cleveland.

Keith Gerchak [00:16:15]:
And he may not have mentioned as a compliment, but we reappropriated that concept and said, yeah. Cleveland is this this placeholder, and it represents the rest of the country, everything that isn't basically the coasts. And it is that earnestness. It is that wearing your heart on a sleeve. It is a city that rises like a phoenix from the ashes every time, and it's a town of purpose. And these folks or characters are are, people of purpose as well that are they represent to the very best of the neighborhoods in which they live as well.

Marisa Guterman [00:16:44]:
And I think for us, you know, little did we know that we would find our own American dream in Cleveland through the process of making this film.

Jeffrey Stern [00:16:53]:
What do you mean by that?

Marisa Guterman [00:16:54]:
You know, the the journey of making the film, when we set out to do it, I don't think we we kind of had the blissful naivete that every entrepreneur, I think, needs to blindly walk in with. And I and I really feel that Cleveland gave us the space for the vision to make this film, that I don't Los Angeles really rejected the film, and Keith and I kind of bootstrapped and almost, I wanna say, disrupted how independent film is done and brought it to Cleveland. And that's that's how it was made, through the people, through the spirit of the city that it kind of emboldened us, that no task, however, herculean was impossible to achieve, that no person was out of reach, no no location, no cast member, and and I really feel that I don't know that any other city would have embraced this in the way that Cleveland did. And I don't know. Hollywood's not looking to make films like this. They're they're ignoring the audience. And I think that's why you're getting a lot of cookie cutter films or films that speak to a certain aspect of the population but aren't catering to the rest of the country. And and I think that having the freedom to come to Cleveland and tell the story authentically for us as people allowed us to make it and for us as artists helped us make this film.

Jeffrey Stern [00:18:26]:
Yeah. I think the the parallels between the whole creative process that that both of you have underwent in in the creation of this film and and traditional entrepreneurship, there's a lot to to unpack there, and I I'd love to Obviously, there there's no substitute for, you know, really watching a film. And we we hardly have, I think, the the richness of language to relay just through the medium of audio the kinds of stories that that you tell in the movie. But to to help paint a picture for for those tuning in, and to add some color to what actually transpires, you know, over the film, maybe some behind the scene experiences that, give a a glimpse into what actually takes place over the course of this film, and we can then talk about, you know, how it is that you actually pull it together and and make 1.

Keith Gerchak [00:19:19]:
We we like to say the making of the film is, almost, not quite, but almost as interesting as the film itself. There there we had a colleague, when we started this process that said, you are going to get a master's degree in independent filmmaking by by taking this on. And at this point, we have a PhD. We, have gone from teaching assistants to actually teaching the course, and now we are writing the book. We actually we probably wrote the book, and we're on to the second volume. It is fascinating, the, process. And sometimes I ask myself, gee, if I had known 10 years ago when we started this, because it has been a 10 year journey, would I have done it exactly the same way with Marissa? Yeah. There isn't a single step in this process where we we may second guess ourselves and go, oh, was that the right move? And then we look at it.

Keith Gerchak [00:20:09]:
We say, you know, would've done it all over again. Would have done it exactly the same way. So to to talk about the story itself, it is, 5 story lines as a cross section of of the city, which truly is a cross section of America, that we have all all different kind of lenses. And it it's a film inspired, like Marissa said, by Antiques Roadshow and the fact that you are seeing in the in the PBS series, people for 2 minutes. And they tell this kind of very intimate story of their lives through the object that had they have either collected or has been handed down to them. And then we move on to other people, and you never quite know where they come from and where are they headed in their lives. And this, taking the 2 hours to do that to explore all that backstory and the promise of the future and and their American dream. When we talked to Antiques Roadshow, they said if there was ever gonna be a movie about our series, it we would want it to be lost and found in Cleveland because you have tapped into what that series is, which is it is the American dream.

Keith Gerchak [00:21:10]:
What does the American dream look like? And it looks differently for everybody. It's not always the monetary value. That, ultimately, is what the wizard tells scarecrows the what the film is. These objects are replacing, the harder brain.

Marisa Guterman [00:21:29]:
We were really intentional about the objects that we picked. Each object, like Keith was saying, is emblematic of the neighborhood that the character is in or what their personal arc is that they're going to go through in the story. Marty, for example, is our mailman character who Dennis Haysbert so beautifully plays in this film. We can't wait for everyone to see his performance, but he's a mailman in Hough, and we often say, how how well do we really know our mail people, our mail carriers? You know, they're carrying dreams of their own, and so Marty collects a glass face collection, which is incredibly a metaphor for how he walks through life kind of invisibly.

Keith Gerchak [00:22:14]:
But there is a poignancy to that, to a lot of the storylines about legacy, about loss. At the end of the day, it is a holiday film, but this is not a Hallmark film. This is this is It's a Wonderful Life. This is that idea of that there is a poignancy. There's a bittersweet quality to the holidays. They are a time of remembrance. They're a time of reflection. There are people that were in our lives last holiday that are no longer in our lives.

Keith Gerchak [00:22:44]:
So this is not Hallmark where it's all, like, wrapped up in a bow, and it's not Moglen either. I mean, it is, it's the kind of film that our test audiences have said that they're laughing and crying at the same time, And that's very true of I was watching, they have this 1 video on YouTube of people watching It's A Wonderful Life for the first time, and they watch the last 5 minutes of the film. And to watch, Gen Zers who are seeing this classic film and the buildup that that you are so emotionally invested in George's life in a way that he wasn't. And then you find out, god, if he hadn't been born, what an impact a single life can have in the world. That it is that kind of level of intimacy, but also a level of impact. And when we say, the idea of hope and earnestness that we try to tie into emotionally in this film. And that YouTube video is showing all of these young people watching for the first time and bawling, like, laughing at themselves at how much they are bawling and emotionally invested in this kind of true, wonderful, classic storytelling. And there is a timeless quality to the film that there is a timeless quality to Cleveland as well that people will watch and go, is this contemporary? Is this, is this a period piece? It's not a period piece.

Keith Gerchak [00:24:07]:
This is this is what Cleveland looks like today in in 2024. And that's I think a lovely thing about the classic films is that they do feel perennial. And you want that in a holiday film as well, that you want to be able to watch it next year, 10 years from now.

Marisa Guterman [00:24:22]:
Speaking of It's a Wonderful Life, Jon Lovitz plays the mayor of Cleveland, and he's doing a wonderful kind of Jimmy Stewart transatlantic voice. It's it's really iconic. Can't wait for everyone to see it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:24:35]:
Let's talk about the oh, go ahead.

Keith Gerchak [00:24:38]:
I was just gonna say, you know, talk about the, in general terms, the other characters that, Stacy Keach and June Squibb are an older couple. June Squibb having a a moment, right now in Hollywood at 94. Stacy Keach giving an Oscar worthy performance, but, you know, his character entering dementia and the idea of this couple that have been married for 63 years and, you know, you know each other, but do you know each other? And neighborhood's changing around you? They live in Slavic village and becoming a relic, much like the relics that we own and not knowing the world as it's changing around you and being able to speak to that. And on the flip side, having this 10 year old, who lives with his mom, who's a single mom in that little blue house under the Hope Memorial Bridge and being our kind of Dorothy character, and the quest that he goes on, that each 1 of these characters are are in their own personal odyssey, their own personal quest of, yeah, self worth self worth and and who they are, self identity. But, yeah, Liza Weil, plays the wife of a Cleveland Clinic doctor, professor, Santino Fontana, Tony winning actor, and Esther Povitsky, who just had, at Drugstore June that, was out in theaters this year, playing a couple that live in the Heights as well. He's a professor at Case. We have the appraisers of Antiques Roadshow, Jeff Hiller and Rory O'Malley. Rory O'Malley's a a clevelander.

Keith Gerchak [00:26:05]:
Christie's appraisers, Loretta Devine, icon playing, an appraiser as well. Dot Marie Jones, who is the the producer for the series, our fictional series of lost and found. And we have, Mark Wahlberg, but not Mark Wahlberg with an h, Mark l Wahlberg, who is the actual host of Antiques Roadshow, playing the host of our fictional series Lost and found. And we kind of run with that, joke of everybody always confuses him with the other Mark Wahlberg, so we've called him Tom l Hanks, in the film. Because Tom Hanks also had his start at Great Lakes Theater Festival, Shakespeare Festival, the season before I did at the Ohio Theatre.

Marisa Guterman [00:26:42]:
Did he mention Martin Sheen?

Keith Gerchak [00:26:43]:
Oh. 0, yeah. Right. Martin Sheen is, basically the wizard himself, the, the granddaddy appraiser, the patriarch of lost and found who, is a specialist in glass faces. So Dennis came on board 48 hours before we started filming. We had another actor in that role, and, this is kind of like how hard is this to make a film? We had another actor in the film who had to drop out because, his personal family issues, And we were trying to find a replacement that whole day. This was a Thursday. We had just had our production meeting, big passionate speech about making films in Cleveland, and we wear our hearts on our sleeves, and then there's an email from the agent saying, unfortunately, never a good sign when an email starts that way.

Keith Gerchak [00:27:29]:
We spent the day trying to find a replacement cast member, and our choreographer, Martine Clevelander, hadn't done a film before. There's a big dream ballet in the film for this character, of the male character. And he, had been texting all day saying, I'm working on the choreographer. I texted back and said, we lost our actor. Don't know what we're gonna do. He texted a half hour later and said, what about Dennis Haysbert? And I said, well, of course. That would be wonderful. That's who we wrote the role for.

Keith Gerchak [00:27:54]:
And he said, you have him. And I called, and I said, what are you talking about? And he said he had called his best friend. His best friend was on the phone with Dennis, when he got the news. And Dennis, they had a 3 way call. Dennis said, this is crazy. Send it to my, manager. Marissa and I called the manager 11 o'clock at night, sent the script. She said, give me 12 hours.

Keith Gerchak [00:28:12]:
12 hours later, Dennis had agreed to do it. And he showed up Sunday afternoon for his wardrobe fitting, starting filming 6 AM, Monday morning.

Marisa Guterman [00:28:19]:
I mean and we told him then, you know, Dennis, you've been the dream for us for 10 years in this role, but we had a casting director who said, you'll never get Dennis Haysbert. So we didn't approach him this go around for the film. And I think he was devastated by that. And he said, well, how would she know what I wanna do? Why would she make that assumption? And then, Keith, you were talking to Dennis and Martin while we were filming, and Martin kind of shared a similar story.

Keith Gerchak [00:28:53]:
Yeah. Dennis had shared with Martin, how he came into the film. And Martin had said, this is your your first film, you and Marissa. And I said, yes. And he said, You know, my wife had read the script and she said, You'd be crazy not to do this. And I called my agents and said, I'd be crazy not to do this. And he said that Hollywood doesn't write scripts like this anymore, and it was just a wonderful they just leapt at the opportunity, both he and Dennis, to have a a well written script that has something to say that's trying to say something bigger than just a story. This is not just like boy meets girl or what have you.

Keith Gerchak [00:29:31]:
There's a bigger message to be taken from it that is universal that everyone can get on board with. And the man has specialized in, giving, monologues. Right? So to be able to give an 8 minute appraisal about the meaning of life, there was nobody better for that role, and he knew that he could knock it out of the park. And it was in that moment when he comes and he says, hey. Do you mind if, Merson Keith, if I rehearse with Dennis right now? And we said, by all means, Martin. This this the set is yours. And he starts to do the scene with Dennis. And I swear to God, everybody on set is crying.

Keith Gerchak [00:30:09]:
The the cinematographer who shot La La Land, Babylon, Don't Look Up, the man's credits are outrageous, Devin Slinger. He said it was the single greatest moment he had ever had on set was the rehearsal of Martin Sheen and Dennis Haysbert because everybody just I don't know. There was something it's intangible. You can't quite explain what is this magic that feels like he like you're part of something special. It always felt the film always felt bigger than the 2 of us. And it was in that moment that I kind of had a realization 10 days into filming of, oh, wow. We we pulled it off. We did it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:30:48]:
Right. This 10 years in the making is is happening.

Keith Gerchak [00:30:51]:
Yeah. It truly was that moment. I think we were so you know, when when, you hit the ground running, when you start filming that you don't have a second to breathe and take in what it is that you're actually accomplishing in the moment. You're just trying to just trying to get through.

Jeffrey Stern [00:31:09]:
Well, I

Marisa Guterman [00:31:09]:
think it was a sprint for us too. You know, we went from 10 years of 1 1 iteration of thinking we were moving forward with the film, having everything really fall apart, which we'd love to get into, kind of embracing what was going on with the pandemic then kind of gearing back up again, and then raising money to, oh, wow. We're really actually making this film. So the film, even though we had been working on it for 10 years, came together in a matter of months, and it's a sprint to the finish. So I think we still, at this point, are pinching ourselves that we really pulled it off because not only is it a miracle to really get all the pieces there in the first place, to get the financing, to get the cast, to get the crew that you want, but while you're on set to make the film that you actually wanna make. So we stand here with a film that was from script to filming to editing. Our exact vision of what we've carried for the last 10 years is something kind of remarkable that we pinch ourselves over. I have to I have to watch it to really know that it actually happened.

Keith Gerchak [00:32:17]:
I think that's true. It's always a good reminder.

Jeffrey Stern [00:32:20]:
Well, let's talk through some of the the trials and and tribulations over this creative process in reflection on the last 10 years from

Marisa Guterman [00:32:28]:
love a drink. Yeah.

Keith Gerchak [00:32:31]:
It's not too early. Right?

Marisa Guterman [00:32:32]:
It's notcha. It's notcha. Yeah.

Keith Gerchak [00:32:36]:
Boy, I don't even know where to start. We did not originally, start out directing this. We wrote the first version of the script, which truthfully is at at its soul the same script that we've shot. The essence of it has always been what it is. And, actually, as I think of the last cast member, Benjamin Steinhauser, who is 10, the little boy, we found him on kids baking championship. We realized he was conceived, probably the month that we wrote the script. So I think we had to wait the 10 years for it to just be it almost felt like that some divine intervention, like, no. No.

Keith Gerchak [00:33:12]:
The film's got its own mind of when it's gonna happen.

Marisa Guterman [00:33:15]:
So good in this movie too. Everyone is going to fall in love with this character.

Keith Gerchak [00:33:20]:
Yeah. And he was on he was on kids' baking championship. That's how how we found him. My husband was obsessed with him. And when they it looked like everything was falling into place. I had texted his picture to Marissa, and I said, I think this is Charlie. And she said, we have to find him.

Marisa Guterman [00:33:35]:
Our meet cute story with you, Jeffrey, it happened over a very ice cold email.

Keith Gerchak [00:33:42]:
To to the school. To the principal, say, hey. Can you let the parents know we're you know, just let them know that we're, doing this film, and credits to Mandy and Brandt, his parents, because they said, you know what? We'll hear you out.

Marisa Guterman [00:33:56]:
See how crazy these people are. And, honestly, they've become like family to us.

Keith Gerchak [00:34:01]:
Yeah.

Marisa Guterman [00:34:01]:
The whole family. We couldn't be luckier. And Ben just it was, like, tailored for him. And this child has monologues. This is not, like, a casual role. This is a 40 year old trapped in the body of a 9 year old and messing a play face around.

Keith Gerchak [00:34:19]:
Yeah. He I mean, he's he's a suit wearing, suitcase carrying child, who he just gets, like, borscht belt humor. I it it like, he just came out of the womb fully realized. It it was truly amazing. Can't say enough nice things about him. But when we wrote the script in a month, it was right before Sundance that year, and we said, oh, let's let's fly ourselves out to Sundance, and we'll go find somebody to produce this thing.

Marisa Guterman [00:34:45]:
I'll let you do.

Keith Gerchak [00:34:46]:
Yeah. So we did. We we went to Sundance. We found a financier, and, he said, hey. It's a $3, 000, 000 film. And we said, great. Here it's right here. Here.

Keith Gerchak [00:34:57]:
And he was like, what are you talking about? But he gave breadcrumbs to his credit of, well, you know, what you gotta do is you gotta start to, like, put feelers out for for cash. You gotta start putting feelers out for raising the money. You have to get all your paperwork together. And so we just started to pull these elements together and then 1 day realized, oh, we're really producing this ourselves.

Marisa Guterman [00:35:18]:
He wasn't gonna give us any money, but that took us time to figure out.

Keith Gerchak [00:35:22]:
It did. But, you know, when, when the financing fell apart the first time around and we were very honest and we gave the money back to, our existing investors, first go around, who is truly Cleveland is so lucky to have her. She is visionary. She is a unicorn. And she said, when are we getting the band back together to make the film? And we said, would you really do that? And she said, yes, but you guys are directing. Right? And we turned to each other and we said, yeah. Yeah. We are.

Keith Gerchak [00:35:59]:
And we realized that the vision that we had been, sharing with investors was so strong that that was the concept. That was the proof of concept and that there wasn't anybody else that could truly execute it in the way that we had envisioned. We wrote it in the script. It was on the paper. We already had done all the location scouting over the years. We knew where we wanted to film. We knew what we wanted it to look like. And we had a very good, colleague and friend who was a director who said 85, 90% of the job is human resources.

Keith Gerchak [00:36:30]:
You cast the right people, you hire the right people, and you have a very strong direction, that's why you're a director, of how you want it to unfold. And you, set a tone, and a culture from the top down. And it was true, and that was, really how we ended up moving forward on that.

Marisa Guterman [00:36:46]:
But I think there's gap between when we started raising money and to where the second iteration of the film is. So we left off where we thought we had found this investor in at Sundance and that things were magically going to just come together at that point. And Keith and I, you know, we were actors. So we've been in the show part of the business, but we hadn't done the business part. And that was a real education for us. And we got our PBM together. We were an LLC, all of the stuff that was kind of foreign, and we really didn't know about raising money. We just had we had our pitch for the film, and we were used to rejection.

Marisa Guterman [00:37:29]:
I think as actors as actors and entrepreneurs, that's something that you, you'll learn. But, you know, the first person that we pitched the film to, we raised a $150, 000 And so we said to each other, well, this is easy. This is I can't believe it. And then it took us 6, 7 months before we raised our next unit. But, originally, we went to Hollywood because we thought, well, that's the organic process. And Hollywood just it kind of turned its back on a story about the middle of the country and this it was too ambitious. It was too big and too small at the same time. And Keith and I really appreciated that we were gonna have to go outside of the system to do it.

Marisa Guterman [00:38:21]:
And we were really fortunate that Keith had such a wonderful standing history in the city that we kind of started from there. And I remember we were having we were having coffee at the union club. This was 1 of our first meetings. And then Yeah. We were sitting there, and the guy was lovely that we were talking to, but it was the chance encounter with Liz Falco, who has been a friend. She's a wonderful advocate in the city. She's the daughter of Art Falco, who came over and said, I couldn't help but listen to what you're talking about. I'm I'm moved by it.

Marisa Guterman [00:38:57]:
Like, how how can I help? How can I get involved? And that was kind of the kickoff point where there were people in the city who, even though they had never invested in the space, they were invested in Cleveland and changing the narrative there. So, you know, it didn't happen all at once, and we had other sources come in. There's a whole Chinese money component that is that that really is the, double shot story, where we were getting, you know, a substantial amount of money out of China. We worked with the the US commerce department in Shanghai. We cleared 2 levels of Chinese government to pull it out only to have our broker on the deal then put the money into cryptocurrency. So, you know, we we've had every version of, a fundraising mishap that you could probably have throw in a pandemic. But I would say it was it was the people in Cleveland, the investors in Cleveland, entrepreneurs there who, when it was really, really hard to raise money, gave us, like, the go ahead to keep pursuing this. And I think we really fed off of that, like Keith was talking about when we were at the Cleveland Museum of Art with that particular investor.

Marisa Guterman [00:40:17]:
But this go around, we were lucky enough. I was at the restaurant Toast on the west side, which I think was

Keith Gerchak [00:40:22]:
Oh, right.

Marisa Guterman [00:40:22]:
Is closing now. Sad. But I went I I was having dinner with my husband and there was this group of women, like, 10 women, and they were so interesting, and they were talking about their projects and what they were involved in in the community and how they could help each other. And I said to my husband, I was like, if I don't go over there, I'm gonna kick myself. So I just I interrupted their dinner, and I was like, I'm I'm sorry. I just have to introduce myself. I sat down with them. It actually turned out to be a book club, and that book club has become 1 of our most supportive investing groups, and it's a bunch of women who are just really motivated to support the city however they can.

Marisa Guterman [00:41:10]:
But that's the kind of thing I think that could only happen in Cleveland. It if I'm going up to a a coffee shop in LA of 10 people, like, yeah, the door's that way. You know, people aren't willing to hear you in the same way that they are in Cleveland.

Jeffrey Stern [00:41:26]:
Lay of the Land is brought to you by Impact Architects and by 90. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio, Impact Architects has helped hundreds of those leaders, many of whom we have heard from as guests on this very podcast, realize their own visions and build these great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love. If you 2 are trying to build great, Impact Architects is offering to sit down with you for a free consultation or provide a free trial through 90, the software platform that helps teams build great companies. If you're interested in learning more about partnering with Impact Architects or by leveraging 90 to power your own business, please go to ia.layoftheland.fm. The link will also be in our show notes. It it really does feel like starting a company from the vision setting, recruiting and building a team, the product development, iterating over it many times, the marketing and sales and fundraising, the deluge of rejection.

Keith Gerchak [00:42:39]:
Yes. You

Jeffrey Stern [00:42:39]:
never know quite where the the breakthrough moments are are going to to come from, but they come.

Keith Gerchak [00:42:46]:
But they come. And I think that what, kept us going as well was that we never lost our north star. We knew where we were headed. We knew what the vision was, and we were, when all else failed, we were experts in our own product. We knew what lost and found in Cleveland was. We had the same vision. It was a singular vision shared by the 2 of us. We we live, rent free in each other's brains and mind's eye, and we were thankfully able to communicate effectively to anyone involved or anyone potentially involved, be it on the fundraising end, or the execution, whether it was the cinematographer.

Keith Gerchak [00:43:21]:
We got the editor from Marvelous Missus Maisel. We ended up with the orchestra for Oppenheimer and La La Land and all of John Williams films. That was only because there was AAA passion and a clarity of what the film was and what we wanted to look and sound like that people could get on board with. And and said, you know what? III believe in the 2 of you, and I believe in what it is that you are trying to achieve with with this product. And and that was that was also helpful to to just keep us going through the execution.

Marisa Guterman [00:43:56]:
I do wanna talk about, like, the hairier parts of raising money, especially in Cleveland. You know? Los Angeles has its own challenges, but I think, Jeffrey, when we first connected

Keith Gerchak [00:44:07]:
Mhmm.

Marisa Guterman [00:44:08]:
You know, we bonded over the vision, I think, that we all shared and the potential for what entrepreneurialism looks like in Cleveland for, for us, from our specific lens of film. And as many yeses as we had, there were, you know, a 100 times more noes. So the film space in Cleveland, I think, in terms of an investment, required a lot of education, and there was a lot of resistance. And I think people were really used to conventional investing and, you know, the medical startup in nature, and we had to be able to explain and educate as to what a film investment looks like and how to treat this as a business and not just, you know, how the content gets from onto your television. And we faced a lot of challenges from that. And I think there's a there's a lot of vision in the city, and I think then there's a lot of challenges or limitations in the institutional world about what qualifies as a a startup worthwhile investing and not the literal. There is a literal impact of investment of dollars back to the region. There's an ROI there that is I believe it's like every 80¢ you put in, $2 comes back to the community.

Marisa Guterman [00:45:45]:
Because Keith and I were employing local businesses. We shot at the Westside Market. We had local caterers. I mean, we really employed locally, and that that was a huge part of our pitch. But there's also this existential idea of narrative shifting. And I think that that was harder for people to get behind because a lot of people were and 1 of our dear investors who came on said, well, can you remove Cleveland from the title?

Keith Gerchak [00:46:13]:
Nobody wants to see a film about Cleveland.

Marisa Guterman [00:46:16]:
Right. And so there was resistance within Cleveland to hear your own story. And I think that was a huge part of our challenge was kind of saying Cleveland, like, step up to the plate. You you too, like, the characters in our story are worthy of this kind of representation.

Jeffrey Stern [00:46:35]:
Wow. Yeah. That that is fascinating. What what do you wish more people understood about the business and economic model of of making a film?

Marisa Guterman [00:46:44]:
Well, I I do think it is twofold. Like I was saying, there is a direct economic impact. We are directly helping local businesses. But more than that, there's fantastic crew that lives here year round, and they work on projects. And, you know, last year, because of what happened in Hollywood, the with the strike, we were the last project that a lot of people worked on. And those people live their lives based on, employment through the industry. So it's not just kind of this, oh, Hollywood comes in and then Right. You know, it's not Hollywood.

Marisa Guterman [00:47:20]:
It is an industry in Cleveland that needs to be supported, and there are true talents in the city. And I think there can be more consistent work going on for them if if the people of Cleveland saw investment in film as something that they do rather than outside investment that comes in. I think that could be really helpful in terms of consistency and having the film market be self sustaining. And that's a really big goal for Keith and I. I think we've that is kind of our our philosophy behind making the film was championing the people who live in the city who already work in the industry. But there are other challenges around that, which we can absolutely talk about, including the tax cap, but it's not, you know, Superman's coming to Cleveland, but Superman can't finish in Cleveland because there are sound stages around it. The thing that really generates a sustainable economy is a film like lost and found in Cleveland that's a more modest budget, and you can have more of them throughout the year. So there is this consistency of employment and the chance for the industry to really take off.

Keith Gerchak [00:48:30]:
There are a couple of things, like, when you have an independent film like, Lost and Found in Cleveland versus those, Marvel films that come in, that local crew is, bumped up. So, like, the bench isn't very deep right now in Cleveland because there isn't the sustained it, you know, it is this attempt to truly have the self sustaining industry so that you don't end up with a brain drain of this industry. You know, that happens in other industries. But if the if the flow of that, filmmaking isn't supported locally, they will tend to go off to Atlanta or other locations or New York where they can find the work, but they want to have that life that they have created in Cleveland. The interest and the education is there. But you have the big, studio films that come in, and they may be lowered down the totem pole in terms of the position that they're doing. On lost and found, we only brought, I think, 13 total, key department heads. So, you know, like the production designer, the, costume designer, the cinematographer, everybody else.

Keith Gerchak [00:49:34]:
Like, second in commands, they they were all local on down. And there is something to be said with that, that you have the CSU film department. So there is the educational base that is there to to help feed, feed the machine if the industry itself is supported.

Marisa Guterman [00:49:52]:
And then there is the investment side of things too, where people people were oddly really comfortable with investing in theater, but there was a a gap for them in terms of investment in film. Theater is far riskier than film. Theater, you can put 10 to $15, 000, 000 into a workshop for Broadway, and then it has 2 nights on 1 stage, and it closes, and nothing really ever happens with that show. Versus film has a whole life behind it. And possibly because Cleveland has such renowned theaters and Playhouse Square, which we were lucky enough to film at and have our offices at, that that was maybe more, just digestible for people living there. But there was a hard leap in in people understanding that there's a far bigger opportunity to make a profit in film than there is in theater.

Keith Gerchak [00:50:49]:
People invest for different reasons. And there was that leap, like Marissa said, whether whether it was tech or Broadway. That was a that was a familiar space versus the film wasn't. There is also the civic pride component that people would give to the legacy institutions, be it the orchestra or museum of art. But this is this was perceived as a as a 1 off entrepreneurial startup where we really were part of an engine. And maybe we were a little bit of a pioneer because we were embracing that mission, so strongly of the impact that a single project can have on an industry in a in a particular location like Cleveland. But, you know, we had an investor who said, look. The the legacy institutions don't need my help.

Keith Gerchak [00:51:38]:
It's a project like lost and found in Cleveland that has this, sense of purpose that also is a civic pride element that is changing that narrative that Marissa touched on at the very beginning. It's not the mistake on the lake. It is the best location in the nation as John Levitz says as mayor of Cleveland. And that that seeing the city through our lens locally as well as globally is that ability to be a a 2 hour commercial for the the city of Cleveland in this cinematic love letter that can change, change the narrative locally where people won't say, why would anybody wanna see a film about Cleveland?

Marisa Guterman [00:52:16]:
And nationally. We we were trying to express that the best way for people to get into the film industry was not for a billboard, just some obscure billboard to attract them, but a film that shows off the locations and and the ability of a crew to work with this level of talent in Cleveland. There's nothing that says you can do it more than a film that did it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:52:43]:
Right. Well, Craig Hassall, who I who is the CEO of Playhouse Square, who I got to talk with recently, talks specifically about how the vision for Playhouse is to surprise and inspire the world. And that came in the aftermath of a conversation where, you know, the the board and those, in charge of Playhouse had originally honed in on a message that was to surprise and inspire, you know, Northeast Ohio and and how Craig, you know, kind of brought to that conversation. That's actually not ambitious enough. We can create, you know, world world class arts and performance here, and it it it should be, you to the aspiration of a global audience.

Marisa Guterman [00:53:24]:
And if I could just speak, Craig isn't a Clevelander, and you're not a a tunder, and I'm not originally a Clevelander. And I think sometimes it takes people on the outside who can look at Cleveland objectively and everything that it has to offer to be, like to remind Clevelanders that this is a world class city and has the resources. People just have to have the ambition there and belief that, that it is there. And I I do think that outside voices sometimes are the best, carriers of that message.

Keith Gerchak [00:54:02]:
Cleveland is worthy of red carpets and national press.

Jeffrey Stern [00:54:05]:
I love that. Well, having, I think, ultimately, you know, broken through a lot of these challenges over the the making of this movie, I'd love to hear from the other side of it, you know, what are the most salient earned learnings that you have from how to have successfully, you know, ultimately pulled together a very inspiring and eclectic cast for the film, having secured the fundraising, and and ultimately having pieced together the product, if if you will.

Marisa Guterman [00:54:37]:
Sure. I mean, to speak on the casting, in our first iteration of the film, we had hired a casting director, and I think we had kind of touched on that with the Dennis Haysbert story. But there's a really limited thinking in terms of casting, at least in Hollywood, of people's value and and what they'll sign up to do and who you can get. And Keith and I actually ended up doing a lot of a lot of the casting the first go round because our casting director was too afraid to reach out to some of these names that we were interested in. So on the second go around, we said, f it. Sorry. Blame me. We're we do it ourselves.

Marisa Guterman [00:55:19]:
Anytime someone has said, this is too hard or you're dreaming too high for the film or hasn't believed in the vision, Keith and I have kind of just rolled up our sleeves and we said, well, I guess guess we're doing this part.

Keith Gerchak [00:55:35]:
What else can we do?

Marisa Guterman [00:55:36]:
And I really think, you know, having written the script, that these roles would resonate with the right actors. So we were offering, and I don't wanna throw out a number out of respect for everyone, but peanuts compared to what these people are used to making. So we move forward with an MFN, which is most favored nations offer, knowing that actors, you know, it's not about how much they're making. They want to be treated fairly and Right. And as the same as the other actors that they're working with. So that approach really allowed us to kind of build this cast, and it's such an ensemble piece that we just said, you know, we're going for it. We want Martin Sheen. Like, the casting director is gonna tell us no.

Marisa Guterman [00:56:21]:
You know, the person that tells you no is the same person that said, you'll never raise the money for this film. You'll never be able to direct this. No one's gonna wanna see this movie. So we just we went for who we wanted to get and we we got them. Now it took some creativity. I probably can't get into all of the nitty gritty with the agencies and how complicated and, and what a convoluted system that that really is. But we navigated it through writing meaningful letters directly to the talent and being really pushy. Because as any entrepreneur knows, 1 email isn't enough.

Marisa Guterman [00:57:02]:
You gotta call. You gotta pick up the phone. You gotta do whatever you can to make sure that the actor receives the offer. So I think the thing that guaranteed the success of this film was Keith and I taking on that role of casting directors Because truly directing, there's not much to do if you have the right actor doing the role.

Keith Gerchak [00:57:25]:
Get out of the way. That that was that was my biggest lesson. And it was interesting too even, like, the the location scouting. You know, we had the time, over those years to find exactly the locations that we wanted. We served as our own location scouts. And so when people have said, my god. It's curated down to the wallpaper, we say, yeah. Because Marissa literally was scrolling on Zillow, swiping, and finding the homes.

Keith Gerchak [00:57:54]:
The Stacy Keach character is a Korean war vet, and the home we found was absolutely perfection and had been owned by a Korean War vet. So I you know, we found the Korean War vet's hat, and it was the same hat that our costume designer had already picked for Stacy to wear. So, I mean, there was a lot of life imitating art imitating life.

Marisa Guterman [00:58:15]:
When we were on the technical scout at our locations, and and this is, like, I wanna say December 22nd, and keep away still had 3 roles to cast, 3 of our lead roles to cast, and we're with, I wanna say, 50 of our crew members going to each location, then driving together in the car, making phone calls as the industry in LA is absolutely shutting down. I mean, we got into some real nail biting moments.

Keith Gerchak [00:58:45]:
Didn't sleep.

Marisa Guterman [00:58:46]:
Didn't sleep. Yeah. Still still recovering from that.

Keith Gerchak [00:58:49]:
PTSD. Yeah.

Marisa Guterman [00:58:50]:
No need PTSD

Keith Gerchak [00:58:52]:
to talk about. But, you know, the the location scouting was fun too. My favorite 1, if I could talk about, you know, you know whose house I'm gonna talk about.

Marisa Guterman [00:58:59]:
Oh, yeah.

Keith Gerchak [00:59:00]:
Of course. Because you do have to find those those people who just open their hearts. We had found 1 location for, for a house, that was really great for 1 of the story lines, and I had remembered that I had been to a party at this other house, like, 20 years prior. It was some architectural party. And found the, home line on, on the Internet on my phone, called up. They picked up the phone, said, come on over. And don't don't notice. 5 minutes later, we're walking in the door and she gives us a tour.

Keith Gerchak [00:59:30]:
It's like an art museum. It's absolutely exquisite. And we got to, the 1 living room and saw all this beautiful wood paneling, and she's kind of turned ghost white, and she said, you're standing in front of a painting of my son. And I turned around, and he looked like me, and he had a beard, and I was wearing a scarf that day because I thought I was playing Francis Ford Coppola. And she said, my son had been an independent film producer, and he had passed away, and she was struggling with his death. And she said, I feel like he sent the 2 of you today to let me know that everything was gonna be okay. Would you use my house for free? And we Wow. Were absolutely blown away, and we said, you know, it would be an honor.

Keith Gerchak [01:00:12]:
Like, you don't even have to ask. We're asking you. It would be an honor and a privilege to be able to use your your home, and to open your and she just 1 of our favorite people in Cleveland. And a lot of the location

Marisa Guterman [01:00:25]:
Who's an extra in the film?

Keith Gerchak [01:00:27]:
Yeah. As an appraiser.

Marisa Guterman [01:00:29]:
Yeah. She's actually a fabulous art historian. The house is covered in incredible art, and she she did a little bit of paint paint appraisal for us.

Keith Gerchak [01:00:38]:
Yeah.

Marisa Guterman [01:00:38]:
In the film.

Keith Gerchak [01:00:39]:
But, you know, whenever we would lose a location, we would we would gain 1. Like and whatever we might have lost, we ended up with something better. And so it is that kind of unwavering faith, even in the most dire like you said, we're missing 3 3 characters yet. How are we gonna do that? Just knowing, no, we couldn't have gotten this far for it to fall apart. Nope. Nope. Believing wholeheartedly that it will come through. You remain the expert in your product, and complete unwavering faith that, the rights thing is going to fall into place, and thank God it did.

Jeffrey Stern [01:01:16]:
And that's that is what is required?

Keith Gerchak [01:01:18]:
Yep. It is.

Jeffrey Stern [01:01:19]:
Well, what what is, left unsaid here? You know, what are are there particular parts of of this journey that you think are important to talk about that that we haven't yet?

Marisa Guterman [01:01:29]:
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we were just touching on some of them, but there were moments on set where you think if you can get to set, like, that's 90% of the battle. But, yeah, I I mean, I think I can share this, Keith. The night before we started filming, our first AD calls us, and he's like, I'm really sorry to tell you this, but I have COVID. And, you know, our fur the first AD is the assistant director. It's such a vital role for the directors, and this was our first time on set, and we were starting 6 AM at the Westside Market. And Keith and I kind of just, like, looked at each other, and we were like, okay. This is happening.

Marisa Guterman [01:02:15]:
And we just we move forward. Our cinematographer had COVID a couple days later, and you just don't know where the punches are gonna come from. You just anticipate that things are going to go wrong. But Keith and I were like, if the 2 of us can stand together COVID free, like, the movie will live on and move forward. But there were a lot of challenges on set, and we had such a tight 20 day schedule with, you know, 14 principal actors, you

Keith Gerchak [01:02:48]:
know 20 some odd locations.

Marisa Guterman [01:02:51]:
We couldn't we couldn't be late. Like, we couldn't be 30 minutes late somewhere. So the idea of, oh my god. What if somebody what if 1 of our actors gets COVID? Like, how is that going to impact the our 2nd week when we were at Playhouse Square filming the roadshow? You know, we had all of those 14 cast members on set, and it required everybody to be there. We didn't have any room for error. So we're just grateful to our crew and the resiliency there, and and you really have to be on your feet in the moment because so much stuff is going to come back come up. I think, you know, Keith, you can tell a story about, the security, meeting the security guard, Anthony.

Keith Gerchak [01:03:36]:
Yeah. Anthony, never will never forget him. We, yeah, it was like the night 1 whatever night we were at, Playhouse Square. I think I I think we can talk about it. That because everything worked out fine. He said, I'm a I'm a night watchman, the fire watch.

Marisa Guterman [01:03:52]:
And I

Keith Gerchak [01:03:52]:
was like, oh, I didn't even know that was a position. Well, it's really nice to meet you, Anthony. And He says, this is my first time ever doing this. And I was like, that's great. Welcome aboard. Welcome to the family. And 6 AM, I had a phone call. Everything is fine, but there was a fire on set.

Keith Gerchak [01:04:06]:
The and Anthony took care of it. It was the batteries for the cameras imploded on the cart Wow. In the middle of the end of the roadshow set in PlayhouseWare. Like, fire trucks. Like, nothing like, oh, I started my career there as a little boy acting, and then I was renovating the theaters, and then I burned them down with our production of Blossom Bound of Cleveland. Like, that is not the tale that I would want to to have as a legacy. But, Anthony had the wherewithal and put out the fire himself. And we also heard probably 6 months later, if the, batteries had imploded when they were in the production van, everything would have been lost.

Keith Gerchak [01:04:47]:
So the fact that it was there and he could see it happen in real time and put the fire out, there was a a PA. Stacy loved her. Yes. And she said this film was ordained because there is nothing else to explain how you know, like, he survived and thrived, and that things happened. If they were gonna happen, they happened for a reason, and everything worked out fine and better. But, yeah, we owe Anthony a huge, huge thank you, and always will for for taking care of it. You have to have complete confidence and know the film like the back of your hand so that you can pivot in real time.

Jeffrey Stern [01:05:23]:
Right. I mean, the the parallels again to entrepreneurship just hold hold true. It's real it's really fascinating.

Keith Gerchak [01:05:31]:
Yeah. And you have to you have to trust. There's just I mean, you know, Marissa and I trust each other implicitly. Mhmm. But everybody that you bring on board, there has to be a certain level of trust, that they are going to execute and and, you know, join forces.

Marisa Guterman [01:05:50]:
In our first production meeting, we wanted everybody to hear the story of how the film got to be made and what the film was was about in order for them to kind of believe in this American fable and create that kind of magical, intangible quality. And I think everyone fully embraced how special this film was going to be no matter what their role was on the film. No matter how small or how big, everyone went in, and we wanted them to feel like they were really a huge and they were. They were such a huge part of making the film.

Keith Gerchak [01:06:28]:
And it was they had a sense of ownership. You know, and I I remember it I don't it feels relevant. My mom, was, in the film. And when she arrived on set, she needed the handicap parking. And the PA, Matthew, was out there, and he didn't know who she was, but he took such care with her and my dad of, like, hey. Let me pull the car up to the door. I'm gonna park the car for you. I'm gonna come find you and give you your key back.

Keith Gerchak [01:06:59]:
Like, nobody asked him to do that. He didn't know who these people were. And then when my mom came back and she was single handedly saying, you need to, you need to thank your head of hair, your head of makeup. You have to thank Matthew, the PA. Like, they all took care, and she told me exactly, like, what they had done. And I think we even had given a speech maybe that day of just thanking, everybody for that that kindness and that you know, like I said, that culture that kind of trickles down, it stops starts from the, the top down, that it it really was imbued in in everybody that, that worked on the project.

Marisa Guterman [01:07:34]:
And Keith's mom is absolutely phenomenal in the film. She is a scene stealer. She is so and me, she's like 411. She's paired with this guy who's gotta be 64. It is like it's 1 of the best scenes in the film. But to just speak once more about how great the crew was, you know, when our cinematographer went down, we were so lucky to just have our camera operator, Ryan Forte, who's local, just kind of step in with this calmness and ease. And there were so many moments like that, countless moments where people just rose to the occasion. And these are local Clevelanders for the most part.

Marisa Guterman [01:08:17]:
Out of those key department heads, these are local Clevelanders who just I don't know. There's something in the water there. Yeah. The genuineness and the passion for the project, that's why I said this film could have only been made in Cleveland.

Jeffrey Stern [01:08:33]:
It it it takes it takes that village and

Marisa Guterman [01:08:35]:
and a lot of vision. Yep.

Jeffrey Stern [01:08:37]:
Well, and I think you've you've touched on this, but but maybe as as a way to, you know, summarize to, to the degree we can, when someone watches Lost and Found in Cleveland, you had mentioned, you know, simultaneous laughing and crying reflections on the American dream, this kind of magic experience. What what do you what is it that you hope that they walk away with? Is there a particular feeling or message, you know, impact that you'd ultimately like to have with with this film?

Keith Gerchak [01:09:07]:
That's what yeah. If somebody ever asks us so tell us your film in 1 word. It's hope.

Marisa Guterman [01:09:12]:
And in a world where that's really harder and harder to come by, we can't think of a bigger gift with this film than offering hope.

Keith Gerchak [01:09:22]:
You know, and it's it's interesting that, there there I think the film is a wonderful reflection of the city itself, that it is sophisticated without being jaded or ironic. It is earnest. It is hopeful. It wears its heart on its sleeve. And those are those are positive traits. Those are, ultimately and intimately watchable traits as well. And, so I if, if Cleveland and the rest of the world could see the city through our eyes and through our lens and embrace that, those qualities, I think, yeah, I think think life would be a lot happier.

Marisa Guterman [01:10:09]:
I think this film is going to have a lasting legacy. It's going to become part of people's holiday traditions, something that they can gather the entire family around the couch and put it on every year, you know, in the same way that people do with the Christmas story. It's going to become part of their tradition. And in a city that feels like it's about legacy in a and a movie with objects that are about legacy to have the film be kind of the ultimate embodiment of that is something we're really proud of.

Jeffrey Stern [01:10:41]:
Well, if people would like to watch, where would you direct them? How how can, folks tune in?

Marisa Guterman [01:10:48]:
We're anticipating a holiday theatrical release, and we can't wait to update you. It's this is gonna be something where people can go with their families to the theater, and we're really excited about that.

Keith Gerchak [01:10:59]:
And with a film that really immerses you in the in the story, in this fable, in this world, being able to see it in a movie theater where people can collectively, sigh and laugh and cry at the same time, It is just a very special way of being able to experience that film.

Jeffrey Stern [01:11:20]:
I'm very excited. I'm very grateful that you're you're telling these stories. I think I think it will deeply resonate, with the folks here and with a a broader audience, and I'm excited that you've opted to shine this light on on Cleveland.

Marisa Guterman [01:11:37]:
Thank you.

Keith Gerchak [01:11:37]:
We're Thank you.

Marisa Guterman [01:11:38]:
We're really excited. And like we said at the top, we're really grateful to you for putting this light on people who are really doing important things in the city.

Jeffrey Stern [01:11:47]:
Well, I'll I'll pose our traditional closing question, which I I would imagine both of you have amazing answers to, which is for hidden gems in the city for for other things that people should know about that maybe they do not. And in a lot of ways, I feel like the whole film is is an answer to that question. But

Marisa Guterman [01:12:05]:
Exactly. Watch the movie.

Keith Gerchak [01:12:07]:
The Nash comes to mind to me, not to call out, like, a particular, location, but, Slavic Village, I think, took on a a lot of special meaning to us between saint, Saint Stanislaus, which is truly a jewel box of a of a church. And then the Nash, which is just a a piece of history with a bowling alley and the pink palace for events and, being handed down through families. And even when the families had moved out, to the suburbs, they had maintained this foothold in in Slavic Village that I I wish everybody in town knew that that the Nash exists.

Marisa Guterman [01:12:45]:
And the people who work there, Tony, who's run it with his family, it's it's a legacy. It's gorgeous. It's iconic. I think as I was saying somebody from LA, like, I didn't have an appreciation that places like this weren't sets, that they're real. There's just this beautiful nostalgia that is so incredibly powerful in that area. Saint Stanislaus is just it's a jewel box of a church, and it's really absolutely captivating in the film. We there will be a guide to the city with, Lost and Found in Cleveland that we are excited to share with audiences when the film comes out. And once the film comes out you know, this happened.

Marisa Guterman [01:13:31]:
We did a private screening for cast and crew, and somebody flew out from out of town to see it. And he could not believe that Charlie, our little boy's house that's under the Hope Memorial Bridge, was real. He thought that was a CPI, because it is it looks like Dorothy's house in the wizard of Oz, and it is it's just got the most stunning panoramic view. So I think, you know, when the film comes out, people are gonna be driving. It's so close to the West Side Market. It's it's on Duck Island, and not a lot of people know it's there. Plus, we also got to film it at Bartleby's. That's, a big location for us, and they were so generous.

Marisa Guterman [01:14:14]:
It's a really special if you're looking for a special dinner, we can't recommend it more.

Jeffrey Stern [01:14:19]:
Oh, I love Bartleby's. Morgan Morgan is great.

Marisa Guterman [01:14:21]:
Morgan's fantastic. Wonderful. Morgan was so helpful in us making the film. They let us shoot a dream ballet in it. Mhmm. I mean, So generous with their time shutting the restaurant down.

Jeffrey Stern [01:14:36]:
Very cool.

Marisa Guterman [01:14:37]:
And I would say for anyone listening not in Cleveland, the people of Cleveland are the hidden gem.

Keith Gerchak [01:14:42]:
Ugh. And ain't that bad.

Jeffrey Stern [01:14:44]:
I do have to second.

Marisa Guterman [01:14:46]:
Yeah. They're just they're the best kept secret.

Jeffrey Stern [01:14:49]:
Well, I don't know what I can add to that. That, is is a great place to wrap. Keith and Marissa, I just wanna thank you for for sharing your story, for coming on, and for for sharing really Cleveland's story. I think, again, I think this is something that will become a hidden gem in in and of itself. So very excited to to see it come out.

Marisa Guterman [01:15:10]:
Thank you, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Stern [01:15:12]:
Cool. If if folks said anything they wanted to follow-up with with you about, you know, personally, where would where would be the the best place for for them to do so?

Marisa Guterman [01:15:20]:
Reach out on our website. It'll have a way to get a hold of us. We have a lostinventaclavinfilm.com as well. And, we're trying to do social media on that, but Keith and I kind of are 20th century people. So we're working on going on filling that out. There will be more there soon.

Jeffrey Stern [01:15:39]:
Awesome. Well, thank you again.

Marisa Guterman [01:15:42]:
Thanks so much. Thanks, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Stern [01:15:46]:
That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show, so if you have any feedback, please send over an email to jeffrey@layoftheland.fm, or find us on Twitter at podlayofthelandor@sternfa, JEFE. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show. We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of the land. The Lay of the Land podcast was developed in collaboration with The UP Company, LLC.

Jeffrey Stern [01:16:29]:
At the time of this recording, unless otherwise indicated, we do not own equity or other financial interests in the company which appear on the show. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of any entity which employs us. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.