Guests at Rochester's Little Theatre fill a packed show at the premier of the locally shot film, “Sophomore,” which was completely sold out.
Matthew Burkhartt

“Sophomore” made its highly anticipated debut on January 13 at the Little Theatre after many years of planning and hard work. The film was written, directed, and produced in by Tim Lee Beideck, a Rochester native. The movie itself had a difficult start. Its filming originally wrapped up in 2007 but according to Beideck was unable to break into the theaters until now due to problems finding the perfect venue for the release the film.

Most of the difficulty with the filming came from problems with acquiring the money to get the movie into production. Due to the lack of funds, the filming itself was very sporadic. After having cast all of the characters, there was priority put on which scenes needed to be completed first. Money was tight, but Beideck made it last as long as possible.

The next step in the filming of “Sophomore” involved trying to find decent places to shoot. Beideck thought of his hometown as the perfect place to make this long awaited dream come true. He tried to get the full feel of the area and shot the movie at a number of different locations, including Webster, Irondequoit, Spencerport, Brighton, Pittsford, Penfield, Charlotte, Rochester, and on sets built at the Rochester Tech Park in Gates.

One of the most fortunate things that happened to this film was the acquisition of Patrick Warburton, who starred in “Seinfeld” and “Rules of Engagement,” and Emmy Award winning actress Amanda Plummer, known for her role in “Pulp Fiction.” Beideck sent compelling cover letters along with the movie script to their agents and hoped that they would enjoy it as much as he did. Both were only available for a short period of time, though. Beideck did not want to lose such vital parts to his film so he put a lot of work into configuring schedules.

The rest of the cast was found in a less conventional way. The majority of actors were local high school students. Many members of the cast were discovered in the yearbooks of area high schools. Beideck went through and circled the faces of students he believed had “the look of the character,” as he said. He then emailed them and asked if they would like to audition for his movie.

One of the cast members was found in an even less conventional fashion. The director was at a concert, skimming over the faces of all the kids there, and saw someone who he though had the perfect look for one of his characters. He went up to him, asked for his email and a photograph and after a few auditions, had cast one of the main characters of the film.

Beideck reminisced over all of this at a question and answer session conducted at the end of the showing of _Sophomore_. When he spoke of how he met all of these people and how much they meant to him, he started to tear up. “It’s kind of perfect,” he said to the sold out theater, “that I am able to finally able to end the film here, in Rochester, where everything had started for me.”