Tempted by 'Fate' Article by Bruce Ingram May 11, 2006 pioneerlocal.com Film schools generally discourage people Steve Coulter's age from attempting to make feature-length movies, but few film students have his years of experience as a writer, actor, editor, cinematographer and producer. Fortunately, Coulter isn't in film school. The 22-year-old Rolling Meadows native makes his writing/debut Saturday night with the world premiere of his drama "Fate Twisted Simply" in Palatine's Cutting Hall. The film explores questions of fate in war and in love when Army Ranger Sgt. Kevin Hill (Charlie Franklin of Palatine) goes missing in action while serving overseas. Uncertainty about his survival is presumably a concern for Sgt. Hill, but the film deals primarily with the effect of his disappearance on friends and family at home. "Fate Twisted Simply" was shot on digital video last May through August in the northwest suburbs. The war scenes were shot on a set in Cutting Hall and in the First United Methodist Church of Palatine, made to look like a war-torn building in Eastern Europe. "There's no mention of a particular conflict or country," said Coulter, a business major at the University of Iowa. "I wanted to keep the story away from politics. It's not about whether or not we should be in Iraq. It's about families having to deal with young people going to war." Coulter first conceived of the story as a short film four years ago when a cousin in the military was assigned to duty overseas after the invasion of Afghanistan. But he felt he couldn't do justice to the issues the subject raised with a short treatment. "Some short films can tell you a lot in five minutes," Coulter said. "But I like longer, more fully developed stories." He's had lots of experience doing both. Coulter and his friends Michael P. Noens, Nicholas Mikula and Marc Muszynski began making short films together in their early teens at Plum Grove Junior High School in Rolling Meadows and graduated to features at Fremd High School in Palatine. Two years ago, after they had all gone to separate universities, they formed CNGM Pictures as a not-for-profit company to maintain their creative partnership. All four friends took turns serving as actors, writers, editors, cinematographers and producers on their collaborative efforts, drawing on a cadre of friends to serve as actors and crew members. Coulter considers CNGM's efforts to be part of the emerging microcinema movement. "Microcinema is very low-budget and truly independent," he said. "The attitude is: I only have one or two thousand dollars, but there's some technology out there that makes it affordable and I know some people with skills so let's make a movie." The CNGM partnership's feature films to date include a horror movie, "The Legends of Cuba Road," and a romantic comedy, "Please Wait to be Seated" -- each made for less than $1,000. "Fate Twisted Simply" has roughly 50 times as much production value, taking into account donated services and locations. "Our earlier films were more genre-based," Coulter said. "Now, instead of imitating what Hollywood does on an extremely low budget, which doesn't really work, we're trying to tell stories we don't see in movie theaters. "But our focus has always been on story, script and performance rather than blowing up cars." << Go Back to Press