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The boys are back in town
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By: MARGI HERWALD Staff Reporter
It was the creative epicenter of Cleveland, where original films and music videos were being created on a weekly basis.
It was the Wain family basement in Shaker Heights.
For writer-director-comedian David Wain, writer-producer Stuart Blumberg, and musician-composer Craig Wedren, the Wain basement was where they started out, as children and best friends, on their respective paths to success in the entertainment industry.
"We were too loser-like to actually have girlfriends," Wain says, "so we stayed home and made videos. Stuart and I shot one called 'Fight on Hollywood Blvd.,' about rival Latino gangs. We just ran around hitting each other, eating Tostitos and messing up the house."
"We shot our own music videos," Blumberg adds. "We shot a murder mystery called 'Weekend for Disaster.' Every year we'd shoot it with a new ending. I think I played the butler once, and a stuffy colonel."
"Those videos are still floating around out there," Wedren warns.
Wedren, Wain and Blumberg, all 34, will be appearing together at the Cleveland Film Society's fund raiser "Film (and other arts) Feasts: where the boys are" on Saturday, Dec. 6.
The trio all grew up within a mile of each other in Shaker. "I met Stuart before I was conscious," says Wain. "There's a photo of us in the crib together at two weeks."
"I was a latecomer at age 4," adds Wedren. "I'm not sure how we met, but I want to say it was at Park Synagogue day camp. We've been best friends ever since, and doing the same things we were doing at age 8, but now professionally."
Currently, the trio lives within a 15-minute walk of each other in Manhattan.
Wain is best known for writing and directing the film "Wet Hot American Summer," a comedy based on the trio's own experiences at Jewish summer camps in the early '80s. He was also part of MTV's mid-'90s comedy show "The State," and currently performs, tours and makes short films with his comedy group STELLA.
Blumberg wrote and produced the popular film "Keeping the Faith," about a rabbi and priest caught in a comic love triangle.
Wedren has composed the scores for films like "Roger Dodger," "Velvet Goldmine," and, most recently, "School of Rock."
"I was always obsessed with music," Wedren relates. "I knew every word, breath and note on the radio. I was obsessed with KISS, who I found out were a group of nice Jewish boys. At age 9, after I went through the 'I wanna be a baseball player and a fireman' stage, I knew I wanted to be in a band."
Much to the chagrin of his parents, Bonnie Marks and Gerald Wedren, the aspiring musician was prone to skipping his formal guitar lessons. But he began writing songs, forming bands among his middle- and high-school friends, and developing a "home recording fetish."
Wain, son of Nina and Norman Wain, claims he was never a movie buff. "I always liked filming skits with friends. I just never stopped."
After high school, Wain and Wedren became roommates at New York University. Wain credits Wedren with pushing him to go to New York. He majored in film, and Wedren became the "music friend" upon whom Wain and his buddies relied to score their student films.
Meanwhile, Blumberg, son of Rena Blumberg and Michael Blumberg, was majoring in history at Yale University. Nonetheless, he kept up his high-school pastime of writing stories and plays, and performed in improv groups.
They don't really teach screenwriting when you're growing up, observes Blumberg, who was "obsessed" with films like "The Graduate" and "Sweet Smell of Success." "You have to learn it on your own if you're not at film school."
After graduation, Blumberg moved to New York to join his friends. While Wain was getting directing gigs and working on "The State," thanks to an internship at MTV; and Wedren's band, Shudder to Think, had been signed to a record label; Blumberg opted to go into investment banking.
"It was brutal," Blumberg says. "One hundred hours a week. Lots of number crunching. The people were pretty cool, but it wasn't what I wanted to do."
"Stuart told everyone who would listen, 'I'm going to make money for two or three years, then I'm going to write,'" Wedren says with a laugh. "We all said, 'Yeah, yeah.'"
But, Blumberg did quit to "plug away" at a writing career, eventually landing a television comedy-writing gig.
The threesome has worked together often. Wain directed a video of Wedren's band and appeared as an actor in Blumberg's "Keeping the Faith." Wedren wrote the theme music for "The State" and also co-composed the score for Wain's "Wet Hot American Summer." The friends collaborate casually on even the smallest projects and act as sounding boards for each other.
Blumberg's next film, "The Girl Next Door," will hit theaters in March. It tells the story of a studious high-school senior who finds out the perfect, pure girl he loves is actually a budding adult-film star.
Wedren's new band, BABY, will release its first album in 2004. He is also currently scoring a film called "P.S." and preparing to go to Cuba to record with local musicians for a National Geographic documentary.
Wain, who has several films in development including "Digger" starring Janeane Garofalo, is working on a screenplay called "Cleveland Rocks." "It's a Shaker Heights High School saga," he says. The trio is also developing a screenplay about their childhood together.
"When we were all together in Cleveland as kids, we could not have pictured or wished for a more ideal grown-up situation," says Wedren. "Not that it feels grown-up."
"Film (and other arts) Feasts" featuring Stuart Blumberg, David Wain and Craig Wedren takes place at Spaces Gallery on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. Call 216-623-FILM.
It was the Wain family basement in Shaker Heights.
For writer-director-comedian David Wain, writer-producer Stuart Blumberg, and musician-composer Craig Wedren, the Wain basement was where they started out, as children and best friends, on their respective paths to success in the entertainment industry.
"We were too loser-like to actually have girlfriends," Wain says, "so we stayed home and made videos. Stuart and I shot one called 'Fight on Hollywood Blvd.,' about rival Latino gangs. We just ran around hitting each other, eating Tostitos and messing up the house."
"We shot our own music videos," Blumberg adds. "We shot a murder mystery called 'Weekend for Disaster.' Every year we'd shoot it with a new ending. I think I played the butler once, and a stuffy colonel."
"Those videos are still floating around out there," Wedren warns.
Wedren, Wain and Blumberg, all 34, will be appearing together at the Cleveland Film Society's fund raiser "Film (and other arts) Feasts: where the boys are" on Saturday, Dec. 6.
The trio all grew up within a mile of each other in Shaker. "I met Stuart before I was conscious," says Wain. "There's a photo of us in the crib together at two weeks."
"I was a latecomer at age 4," adds Wedren. "I'm not sure how we met, but I want to say it was at Park Synagogue day camp. We've been best friends ever since, and doing the same things we were doing at age 8, but now professionally."
Currently, the trio lives within a 15-minute walk of each other in Manhattan.
Wain is best known for writing and directing the film "Wet Hot American Summer," a comedy based on the trio's own experiences at Jewish summer camps in the early '80s. He was also part of MTV's mid-'90s comedy show "The State," and currently performs, tours and makes short films with his comedy group STELLA.
Blumberg wrote and produced the popular film "Keeping the Faith," about a rabbi and priest caught in a comic love triangle.
Wedren has composed the scores for films like "Roger Dodger," "Velvet Goldmine," and, most recently, "School of Rock."
"I was always obsessed with music," Wedren relates. "I knew every word, breath and note on the radio. I was obsessed with KISS, who I found out were a group of nice Jewish boys. At age 9, after I went through the 'I wanna be a baseball player and a fireman' stage, I knew I wanted to be in a band."
Much to the chagrin of his parents, Bonnie Marks and Gerald Wedren, the aspiring musician was prone to skipping his formal guitar lessons. But he began writing songs, forming bands among his middle- and high-school friends, and developing a "home recording fetish."
Wain, son of Nina and Norman Wain, claims he was never a movie buff. "I always liked filming skits with friends. I just never stopped."
After high school, Wain and Wedren became roommates at New York University. Wain credits Wedren with pushing him to go to New York. He majored in film, and Wedren became the "music friend" upon whom Wain and his buddies relied to score their student films.
Meanwhile, Blumberg, son of Rena Blumberg and Michael Blumberg, was majoring in history at Yale University. Nonetheless, he kept up his high-school pastime of writing stories and plays, and performed in improv groups.
They don't really teach screenwriting when you're growing up, observes Blumberg, who was "obsessed" with films like "The Graduate" and "Sweet Smell of Success." "You have to learn it on your own if you're not at film school."
After graduation, Blumberg moved to New York to join his friends. While Wain was getting directing gigs and working on "The State," thanks to an internship at MTV; and Wedren's band, Shudder to Think, had been signed to a record label; Blumberg opted to go into investment banking.
"It was brutal," Blumberg says. "One hundred hours a week. Lots of number crunching. The people were pretty cool, but it wasn't what I wanted to do."
"Stuart told everyone who would listen, 'I'm going to make money for two or three years, then I'm going to write,'" Wedren says with a laugh. "We all said, 'Yeah, yeah.'"
But, Blumberg did quit to "plug away" at a writing career, eventually landing a television comedy-writing gig.
The threesome has worked together often. Wain directed a video of Wedren's band and appeared as an actor in Blumberg's "Keeping the Faith." Wedren wrote the theme music for "The State" and also co-composed the score for Wain's "Wet Hot American Summer." The friends collaborate casually on even the smallest projects and act as sounding boards for each other.
Blumberg's next film, "The Girl Next Door," will hit theaters in March. It tells the story of a studious high-school senior who finds out the perfect, pure girl he loves is actually a budding adult-film star.
Wedren's new band, BABY, will release its first album in 2004. He is also currently scoring a film called "P.S." and preparing to go to Cuba to record with local musicians for a National Geographic documentary.
Wain, who has several films in development including "Digger" starring Janeane Garofalo, is working on a screenplay called "Cleveland Rocks." "It's a Shaker Heights High School saga," he says. The trio is also developing a screenplay about their childhood together.
"When we were all together in Cleveland as kids, we could not have pictured or wished for a more ideal grown-up situation," says Wedren. "Not that it feels grown-up."
"Film (and other arts) Feasts" featuring Stuart Blumberg, David Wain and Craig Wedren takes place at Spaces Gallery on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. Call 216-623-FILM.
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