WHY EASTERN OREGON?

In the summer of 2018, director H. Nelson Tracey visited the Oregon/Idaho border and directed Picture Jasper, a 20-minute documentary about mining in the Northwest. What started as an impromptu trip with a former colleague ended up turning into a documentary that kickstarted a love of the Eastern Oregon region. The film was accepted into the Eastern Oregon Film Festival (EOFF) in October 2019, and Nelson traveled to La Grande, Oregon for the very first time, where the film played to a standing-room only audience. Nelson met Christopher Jennings, the festival director, and he took affinity to the small town and its festival, likening it to “a model train village.” The following year’s festival was virtual due to the pandemic. Nelson had another short film Conspiracy Party in the lineup. During the filmmaker zoom happy hour, Chris mentioned that EOFF was in early stages of forming a Filmmaking Residency program, with hopes of bringing film production to the region, specifically targeting filmmakers on the precipice of directing their first feature film. Nelson leapt at the opportunity to be involved and became active in the development of this new program. 

In May of 2021, EOFF officially launched the Eastern Oregon Filmmaker Residency program. Nelson was one of six inaugural participants selected to participate, developing a screenplay set in this region that would become Breakup Season. Time spent writing in La Grande gives the film’s location a distinctive grit that would not have been achieved without immersive time on location.

The concept of a “Christmas breakup movie” had been rattling around in Nelson’s mind for the better part of a decade, having loose inspiration from a real life story he heard only in passing, but taking most of the ideas from the life experiences that nearly every one of his peers had gone through: a difficult post-college breakup. Time in La Grande gave the story an authentic texture and key details he wouldn’t otherwise have added to the narrative.

Fast forward a year and Nelson decided, it was time to pursue the lifelong dream of directing movies and committing to seeing this through. The Christmastime setting gave a very real deadline: shoot it this February while still within La Grande’s snowy season, or punt it a whole year and lose all momentum. It is here where Stephen Mastrocola joined as a producer. His friendship with Nelson runs a decade plus from their time at Chapman University as well years living in LA together. Stephen  was coming off a streak of producing 4 different indies with Static Films, alongside fellow producers Rafi Jacobs and Liana Montemayor. Static Films is a boutique production company whose lineup includes Easter Bloody Easter, Max Dagan, Crossword, and Wine Club, all shot in 2022 and being released in 2024. With well-oiled, boots-on-the-ground production experience from Team Static, combined with Nelson’s creative and fundraising efforts and Chris’s local La Grande / Oregon Film connections, the team had the makings of producing an independent film.

Having this winter deadline kept Nelson accountable and hungry to churn out draft after draft and make the story as strong as it could be. He conducted three live readings, held in Los Angeles and La Grande, all of which informed stronger iterations of the script, including a pivotal title change that wasn’t solidified until December. In the casting and crew hiring process, without previous features to Nelson’s credit, the story and screenplay is what drew everyone to come spend 3 weeks filming in rural Oregon.

The state of Oregon has long been a haven for independent cinema, with legendary filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant and Kelly Reichart making it their state of choice to shoot a movie. With an Oregon based producer in Chris Jennings, Breakup Season qualified for the film’s tax incentive for independent features, with a bonus rebate due to its rural setting, making it much more plausible to bring an indie production to rural Oregon. OregonFilm Executive Director Tim Williams has a lauded career in independent cinema and first made his way to Oregon because of his involvement in the 2014 film Wild, directed by the late Jean-Marc Valee and starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, both of whom were Oscar-nominated for their roles in that film. This production is credited with kickstarting the state’s new set of tax incentives for low-budget independent movies to receive support and keep production and film related jobs in the state of Oregon. In the case of Breakup Season, it meant bringing on a crew that was over 80% composed of Portland or La Grande based film professionals to populate the crew. 

While there are more cost effective places to shoot an indie movie, the team agreed that the location of La Grande would bring so much to this story it would be hard to deny the intrinsic value of shooting in this location. 4 hours away from Portland, this was the first major production to be shot in this area in 25 years. Prior to Breakup Season, only 2 feature length films were ever shot in La Grande. Independent FIlm Sammyville (1999) and the classic Western-musical Paint Your Wagon (1969), starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood.

Director of Photography Eric Macey and 2nd Unit DP T.G. Firestone come from a background of working with acclaimed auteur Kelly Reichart (Showing Up, Certain Women) among other talented filmmakers they’ve collaborated with. Their work gives an irreplicable visual flavor to every shot, embracing the winter exterior light. Both knew how to utilize the evocative location to its maximum impact, and the results speak for themselves in the final film.

On many indie movies, the cast is what clinches funding and finalizes production dates. But on Breakup Season, the dates were pre-determined based on the winter weather, and it meant finding cast that was available for the 15-day shoot in February 2023. This ended up working as an advantage: a quiet time for the industry meant many more talented actors participated in the casting and auditioning process. With no time to spare, the incredible ensemble cast one by one found their way into roles on the production. While each actor a unique pedigree, what binds the six actors together is that every one of them got to do something new as performers on this production and hone new skills as actors. For both Chandler Riggs and Samantha Isler, it marked their first time playing romantic leads, as they make the transition from teen to young adult actors.

In the end, production was fortunate to receive enough snow to tell the film’s story, but not enough to be disruptive to production. Many individuals in La Grande stepped up to support the production, and the film makes great use of the many locations available in this town, and ends up being a showcase for a wonderful location not often seen in cinemas. The film also features original music from many artists local to the Pacific Northwest, and two original songs by Bag of Hammers, a songwriting duo from La Grande. A location rich with charm and character, La Grande is a vital part of what makes Breakup Season a unique and compelling film.