‘In the Silence’ premiering Sept. 20 at Collins Road Theatres in Marion

Do not confuse “In the Silence,” the movie, with In the Silence, the heavy metal band.

However, both might just mess with your head — or at least, your emotions.

The latest collaboration between writer Rob Merritt and director/cinematographer Adam Orton, both of Cedar Rapids, will have its Eastern Iowa debut Wednesday night, Sept. 20, 2023, at Collins Road Theatres in Marion. (Note: Tickets are going quickly.)

At 47 minutes, it’s described as a “one-act dramatic thriller.” It’s too long to be considered a “short” and not long enough to be a full-length feature. It falls in the in-between, as do the characters.

“The silence represents a sort of metaphor for death, and this sort of spirit realm,” said Orton, 38, who came up with the title.

“In this movie, the silence represents the supernatural world and where we go when we die, and all the lives that have lived before us coming to this point — and the shoulders of the people that we've existed on,” Orton said. “Silence represents death.”

Genesis

This isn’t the first time Orton and Merritt have explored this realm. They’re actually breathing new life into a short film with the same title and same basic plot, made in 2008, but expanded:

“Hoping for a new start after losing their son, a husband and wife move to a remote home in the country to find some sort of closure. They discover the home seems to be haunted, and the arrival of a strange man threatens their sanity.”

The 2008 film marks “the first time Adam and I ever worked together,” said Merritt, now 47. “It was a script Adam had written, and I came on board as an actor, along with Tim Arnold, and we just had a really good time making that film. But we all were very young. I mean, Adam shot it on like a camcorder. We all were just kind of learning.

“And so 15 years later, I came across that old film and sent it to Adam, and were just kind of reminiscing about it. … One of us said, ‘Imagine what we could do with this concept today, considering how much we’ve both done in the 15 years since then.’ The other one was like, ‘Well, why don’t we try that?’

“And so it went from this hypothetical thing to actually, ‘We could probably really do that,’ ” Merritt said.

Between summer and fall of 2022, they revisited and revised it to the point where Merritt ended up “writing a whole new script,” fleshing out the story and characters from the original drama, while adding a couple more characters.

Arnold, who performs professionally as Tim Riven, was back onboard, but with a twist: He and Merritt flipped roles. Merritt now plays the grieving father and Arnold plays the mysterious man.

“That was kind of a fun thing for both of us to do,” Merritt said. “So 15 years later, it's a whole different thing for Tim, it's a whole different thing for me, it's a whole different thing for Adam. …

“It was a really nice opportunity to have basically 15 years to think on a concept and be like, ‘How could we do this better?’ And then on top of that, shoot it with way better gear, and with actors who have a lot more experience behind them than we did in 2008 — a lot of fun opportunities to make this project bigger than what it was before,” Merritt said.

It’s also coming full circle, since the original film was screened at the 2010 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival at Collins Road Theatres, where it won an award. The new, longer version won’t be making the traditional film circuit, since it’s neither short nor long. Orton calls it “a one-act play.”

“It’s almost the same length as a TV pilot,” Merritt noted.

Going into production, the filmmakers were OK knowing this retelling wouldn’t “get into an abundance of film festivals,” Orton said. “We’re just going to do our own premiere here, and we’re going to invite people and make it a community event. That has always been a goal going forward.”

Merritt and Orton also premiered their sci-fi full-length feature, “Amelia 2.0,” At Collins Road.

“It has to be said that Bruce (Taylor, owner) is such a huge supporter of Iowa filmmakers, and there are so many things that wouldn't be possible without his support,” Merritt said. “ … He has hosted other premieres. We are very lucky to have not only a locally-owned movie theater in Cedar Rapids at a time when those don’t exist very much anymore, but also an owner who really, really believes in supporting Iowa filmmakers.”

Setting the scenes

The duo found the actors for the remake through networking and other projects. Orton knew Merritt and Arnold from the 2008 film. Then Orton worked with Rachel Korach Howell on a virtual production of the cyberbullying drama “Out of Bounds,” which Orton filmed at Theatre Cedar Rapids during the pandemic.

“She was just awesome,” he said. “I remember watching her behind the camera. I was like, we have to use this woman for something. I don’t know what movie it is. I just sort of kept her in the back of my mind.”

He friended her on Facebook, and when the “Silence” project came about, he sent her a message, asking if she would “please be willing to waste a bunch of gas and driving time and not get paid for free to work on soul fulfilling art.” She said yes.

In the “small world” realm, she and Merritt had worked together on several plays, and she directed a staged reading of his play, “The Summerland Project,” that would morph into “Amelia 2.0” on film.

“We’re all connected in this really weird way,” Merritt said, adding that Angela Billman, who appears in this film, also portrayed Amelia Summerland on stage and screen. Orton knew the caliber of Anthony Hendricks’ work onstage and Merritt had worked with Tad Paulson, and was eager to bring him onboard. Orton’s and Merritt’s sons also get some screen time.

With the script completed and cast, shooting spanned 18 days from late September to February, followed by two or three months of editing.

“I’m still editing,” Orton said. “I’ll probably be editing up until we show it.”

  Buy Photo

They found a farmhouse in rural Mount Vernon for the exterior shots, then shot interior scenes in several of their own homes, as well as a historic home in Osage. And they used the Matthew 25 Tool Library in downtown Cedar Rapids for Paulson’s tool shop.

They lucked out with capturing the changing seasons at just the right time for fall colors and snow.

“One of the really cool things about this movie is how it looks,” Merritt said. “I wish I could say that this was planned, but it wasn't. We went and shot it on this farm during a couple of weeks between I think September and early October, right when the fall colors were happening.

“We went out and took images of the farm like a month beforehand, just to figure it out. Everything was green, and it looked all beautiful and summery,” he said. “And then when we actually filmed, it was right when the colors were turning, and the cinematography in this film is gorgeous to look at. And then I think we went back out there like a couple of weeks later and everything was dead. So it was filmed at exactly the right time to get these absolutely gorgeous fall shots.

“I remember the first time that I saw a rough cut of the film, and it’s breathtaking how beautiful the cinematography is in it, and the way that farm looks, it’s just stunning.”

It’s been a labor of love filmed on a shoestring, with costs totaling between $1,000 and $3,000. Orton was the only one behind the camera, and his assistant was the only one paid, “usually less than 100 bucks for about five to six hours worth of work,” Orton said. “It’s really to just say, ‘Thank you for your time.’ ”

Hauling and setting up equipment is not just a big job, “it's kind of a thankless job,” Orton said. “You don’t get to be on camera, you don’t get to even really be that creative when it comes to adding contributions to the film. And so that was how I justified (that) in order to fill this position, it has to be something I pay.”

Looking ahead, Orton, a full-time filmmaker with his Dreamcity Cinema, and Merritt, director of communications for NewBoCo in Cedar Rapids, which involves crossover skills with filmmaking, are hoping to get as many eyes as possible on “In the Silence.”

They’re working on getting the film screened in a couple more theaters, as well as perhaps making some noise in a few indie film festivals, but they also anticipate it living on streaming and sharing sites, like YouTube and Amazon.

“Whatever brings audiences to it is going to be the strategy,” Orton said.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com