Over the course of seven years, 19-year-old Colton Harris-Moore had managed to steal a boat, two cars, five small airplanes and to burglarize over 100 households. After being sentenced to a halfway house for three years, he escaped in April 2008, living as a fugitive until his capture in July 2010. During this time, he gained significant notoriety through a Facebook page with over 30,000 fans and a clothing line which consisted of T-shirts with an image of his face. Because he committed most of his crimes without shoes on, he earned the nickname "Barefoot Bandit."
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If this sounds like the plot of a movie, Tisch juniors David Shapiro and Adityavikram Gupta thought so, too. They told Harris-Moore's story in their new short film, "Stealing Suburbia."
The duo met in a Sight and Sound Studio class in summer 2009. Shapiro, who had spent a year working with director Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures in California, and Gupta, a transfer from the Liberal Studies Program, clicked instantly.
"We both really wanted to make a movie, and we had a few ideas, but nothing really stood out," Shapiro said. Last spring, a mutual friend of theirs told them about Harris-Moore.
"We saw the cinematic potential right away. The character development, the expansiveness of the crimes. But in the end, it's a story of self-actualization," Shapiro said.
Shapiro wrote the 23-page script in two weeks, working at an "unhealthy" pace. He requested the help of a screenwriting professor and went through 10 more drafts before finishing.
From there, the two entered pre-production. They employed both professionals and Tisch classmates to work in front and behind the camera. John Swihart, the composer for
"Napoleon Dynamite," wrote and performed the score for free.
"We had 150 shots, 17 locations, 53 crewmembers, two planes, a cube truck, a helicopter," said Gupta, also the producer of the film.
Shapiro laughed at this, almost recoiling from the memory. Gupta and Shapiro have a lot of chemistry; they both have a love of film, a tendency to work hard and a similar sense of humor.
"With the scale of the project, it was at times a frightening experience. But I had a lot of faith in David. He eats, sleeps and breathes film," Gupta said.
Gupta's production company, Conjure Arts & Media, which created the press kit for "Slumdog Millionaire," funded the film's $65,000 budget.
After months of preparation, Shapiro and Gupta shot "Suburbia" over 11 15-hour days in July and August.
"Everyone was professional and collaborative, which allowed for a working environment that was both creative and forward-moving," said Chloe Dworkin, a Tisch junior who plays Harris-Moore's love interest in the film.
Shapiro and Gupta are still in the editing process. They've submitted cuts of their film to several festivals and plan to screen the film at the Cantor Film Center this spring.
"Suburbia" — and its creators — have already gained notoriety around campus as a large-scale production which successfully merged student aspirations with professional talent.
"It was such an unprecedented educational process for all of us," Gupta said. "I learned more [with 'Suburbia'] than I did in two years of film school."
