As Matthew Magennis' screenplay Standard begins, his character Nathan is about to test the waters of the unknown, to leave the stability of a relationship he has with a pleasant girl named Olive. To do what? He doesn't know, beyond just be in the moment, which at least for a time won't include her.

Nathan's dissatisfaction with his reasonable, staid, normal life is the impetus for his rash act. Nathan needs to find himself and so he puts himself into his own drama, relying on his instincts to guide him through. His problem, we discover almost immediately, is that the development level of his instincts are nascent at best.

"Do What You Want to Do, Not What You Are Good At":  This is the sub-title to Magennis' screenplay and at first it seems revealingly facile, like the impetuous pout of a young adult protesting the unpleasant probabilities of a normal life. Whether it is the sentiment of the screenwriter Magennis or his character Nathan - and the distinction is not easily made - the banality of the statement expertly frames the "character study nature" of the work. Whatever profundity it contains becomes revealed as we gain empathy for the bumbling Nathan and meet another face plate for Magennis in the character of Nathan's new-found friend Harriet, who represents his focused self and Nathan's muse.

Magennis cites Harold and Maude as an influence on his film, though his reasons are, one learns, skewed from what most might assume. "The simple, long takes are appealing to me, minimal and poetic," he says of the 1969 Bud Cort-Ruth Gordon cult classic. As for quirky character development, the parallels between the two screenplays are with people who feel disconnected from those around them and the degrees to which they do or don't wish to fit in. Magennis has a characteristically unordinary take on that, presenting in Nathan a character who drops out of his normal life to seek a more satisfying way, while Magennis himself claims to have an abiding need to find joy in mundane things.

So why on earth is he a filmmaker?

This filmmaking aspect of his life - he also has a background in elementary school education - has its roots in his hometown of Hollis, New Hampshire, a small town on the outskirts of Nashua, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. As a high school kid in Hollis, Magennis worked at a video rental store and there, rather like famed filmmaker Quentin Tarantino before him, he began his education in movies. "I started avoiding my friends and taking home four movies to watch on my day off. Comedy, drama, foreign films." He recalls that the film A Trip to Bountiful, written by Horton Foote for television in 1953 and made into a feature film in 1985, had a particular influence on him. This quiet, sensitive story is a far cry from the grindhouse fare that piqued the imagination of Quentin Tarantino, but Magennis style isn't mayhem. In fact, it's comedy.

"It wasn't until a handful of years later - you know, growing up in New Hampshire - that I even realized that you could actually go and study film and filmmaking. I ran into a friend of my girlfriend at the time who was going to Emerson, and she was talking about how much she loved studying film. It never even occurred to me until I was in my late teens. It never seemed real or applicable to me."

The son of a 4th grade teacher/mother and a computer tech father, Magennis grew up in relative affluence that could have led to a peaceful, middle class life. He claims never to have had stars in his eyes, but was moved to filmmaking because "Every time I try taking the easy route I become miserable..."

Though bitten by the film bug, only one college in New Hampshire offered any kind of a film program major, and Magennis couldn't afford the tuition, which he recalls was around $36,000 per year. He instead went to Hunter College in Manhattan, because "New York was the only viable place, in my mind, to go." There he studied screen writing, but with minimal impact. He recalls studying under a teacher with whom he was impressed because a story he had written about a mouse had been animated into a Christmas story. The regard was apparently not mutual. "Everyone else got called upon to read their scripts but me... I am assuming the teacher didn't think my writing was 'academic.' "

Perhaps as a result, Magennis doesn't "consider myself a screenwriter. Screenwriters take it very seriously and they want to write as much as possible, and hopefully sell their screenplay to someone else and make money off of it. I definitely don't see myself as that. I am a wannabe film maker who can barely afford to do that kind of stuff, and if I want to make a movie then I need to write a script. That's about as serious as I can be about being a screenwriter."

This isn't to say that Magennis isn't a capable writer. Besides the scripts he has generated, he has published short stories and poetry in Berkeley literary publications.

CONTROL: An admitted "control freak," Magennis marshals creative control of the filmmaking process as best he can through writing, acting, and casting his projects, which is quite a different approach from what most people would characterize as a director's medium.

"Substance, for me, comes from the writing. The other aspect of equal importance is the casting. How good are the actors and how applicable are they to the screenplay."

One cannot over emphasize the extent to which Magennis incorporates this holy triumvirate of crafts. He is an independent filmmaker who crafts roles for unknown actors on the periphery of the movie industry. His commitment to his actors as integral to his vision for the film is exemplified by a scene in the Standard screenplay that was cut because the actor chosen for the one word scene became unavailable. Rather than recast what most people would consider a part of minor significance, Magennis axed the whole scene.

Casting comes first with Magennis. "My philosophy is that story and actors are the most important part."

Locations also play an important part in Magennis' creative process, with scenes written to describe the settings within which they are shot. It is another aspect of Magennis' wholistic approach to project development. The footage for Standard features prime Bay Area backroads locations, including Bodie State Park, Inglenook, Post Costa, Rodeo, Oakland, and Livermore locations. Says Magennis - "If Hollywood were based up in the Bay Area then all of the locations I used would have been shot seven or eight times already. A lot of this area remains uncharted, in many ways. I am fascinated with location. It is a character in and of itself. There are places in the state I can feel miserable and depressed because of the architecture, and others that charm me no end. That's where a story starts for me. Some people write from concept or character. I start with location."

Magennis learned from filming his previous screenplay, modest (sic), that pulling together a crew for an independent film is all about first landing the Director of Photography - the "DP." Magennis located DP and film editor John Tulin (Mind's Eye, Sunday Girl), for whom he held the start of production for months while Tulin finished film work on another picture in England. Tulin is a guy one can build a crew around and he comes with his own high definition digital camera equipment, which for Magennis meant a savings of at least $250 per day in equipment rental costs. With Tulin on board, the crew quickly added Director ___________, sound man Blair Collins, and associated gaffers and technical crew.

Standard was filmed over two weeks last fall. "I have all the footage in the can," Magennis says. He wrote his script using "Final Draft," which has become a script formatting software standard to the film industry. He intends to edit the raw footage himself, using "Final Cut Pro" on a Mac G5, but he is taking time to view the footage repeatedly, making notes on alternate edit possibilities before he gets started.

"I just want to stabilize myself financially so I haven't even jumped into editing yet... Sometimes we can benefit from taking a break and coming back with a fresh perspective... It's going to be a long process because I'm obsessive compulsive. I want everything to be perfect, and I just felt like I wanted to take a break before I get into it because it is going to obsess me, and I don't know how to approach a project different other than to be obsessed about it."

Magennis will submit the finished product to festival committees for consideration.

No themes to convey. "I think this particular project was almost a conversation with who I am now, and who I used to be...Harriet being who I am now, and Nathan being the old me. I sort of look back at my old self - my Nathan - with curiosity. I beat him up and berate him, because he is sort of a loafer, but there is something I admire about him in his carefree, lackadaisical way. I tried to give him qualities Harriet doesn't have. He is more patient and tries to be more loving."

The story revolves around the relationship between Nathan and his girlfriend Olive ... "he was stagnant, petering along in some sort of routine, comfortable life and it was driving him nuts...and he just had to change his life, and she just happened to be part of the life he wanted to change..."

Olive shows up late in the screenplay and rescues Nathan after Harriet abandons Nathan after he isn't accomplishing anything - Harriet wants to go pursue her own dreams. Matthew toys with the audience, suggesting that Nathan may retreat to his previous dull life, but riding in the car he realizes that it is right that he is right to have embarked on his journey. Magennis gives Nathan a single word, "No," to utter as he looks out the car window.

DO WHAT YOU WANT: The subtitle of the screenplay is "Do What You Want, Not What You Are Good At." "It is my interpretation that so much of the world's dissatisfaction comes from people doing what they are good at... I just believe there is a lot more joy out there if we pursue the things we really love to do at the exclusion of the consideration of whether we are good or bad at it. I think that's a side issue and not particularly relevant..."

"Nathan is a completely lost character, and Harriet does have a goal or dream that matters to her..."

"Standard comes from a toilet. I saw that name on a toilet, American Standard." Matthew likes under statement as a naming convention, his favorite rock band name of all time being "The Smiths." "The first movie I shot was called modest, lower came 'm.' I'm not into flashy titles. I think there is more joy in the mundane than in a lot of things that try to be spectacular."

Favorite line from Harold and Maude relates to Harold's assertion that he would like to be like one of a field of daisys, to just fit in, which Maude rejects, asserting that each daisy is distinct and different. "Maybe because we are living in a world where everyone just wants to be unique and different and outrageous...the fact that a person could find joy in the mundane is interesting to me, I guess."

"Nathan is lost and he wants something that is different, but he doesn't know what that is because he doesn't know himself. Committing to something for him is totally foreign, but I don't think he would know what to commit to anyway... The only thing he thinks that might bring him pleasure is a life of recreation...just being a slacker..."

Nathan just hasn't developed himself "stepped up to the plate to want to be an adult" - arrested development

ABOVE AND BELOW: Stills from the shooting of standard. Matthew Magennis with actors Kellen Kaiser ("Harriet").

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ABOVE AND BELOW: Judy Blair portrays the forlorn "Olive", the "stable" girl who Matthew Magennis' character "Nathan" leaves behind when he goes off on his uncertain personal odyssey. Sound man Blair Collins wires the doorway for the departure scene, while director Jeff Palmer and D.P. John Tulin set up the shot.

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ABOVE: Shooting schedule for the opening days of standard filming.

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FRINGE CHARACTERS

ON THE FRINGE: Magennis, in his young career as a filmmaker, has shown a preference for characters and outsiders, whether he is portraying or writing for them. He portrayed "Seamus" in the critically well-received indie film on the fringe, a still from which is shown above. Magennis' character's transportation of choice was a bicycle. The press packet for on the fringe defines the film in a way that puts Magennis' career to date in sharp focus:

"Set against the scenic backdrop of a vibrant New England fall... a story of homecoming and healing unfolds when Kurt (Dan Clay) hits the streets of Garrison Falls, New Hampshire. Traveling for nearly three years after his mother's death, Kurt is back to reconcile with his father Kenneth (Bill Humphreys) and brother Elijah (Jeff Fritz). But his plans are quickly derailed when he befriends Dwayne (Jerry Howe), a benevolent comrade of the town misfits. Over a game of cards, Kurt meets Eddie (Michael Walsh), a deadbeat dad hiding from gambling debts, and Seamus (Matt Magennis), an antisocial pack rat withdrawn from the world around him. Together, the four characters form an uncompromising fellowship that pushes them into the fringes of society. This is a stirring and complex vision wrapped in breathtaking scenery."