Alaska grown

This Saturday, Grant Olson will finally be able to relax. He'll sit back, eat some popcorn, and enjoy the film being projected on the screen at Mat-Su Cinemas.

But for Olson, and for many others in attendance at the Dec. 28 showing of Crossing the Rubicon, it will be unlike any other movie date they may have had in the past. That's because it will be their movie -- their one and a half years of effort, hard work and determination -- being shown on the big screen.

Crossing the Rubicon is Olson's directorial debut -- and the debut of virtually everyone else on the set -- in the movie world. The rough cut of the film debuts Dec. 28 at Mat-Su Cinema, with 150 tickets available. All those involved in the movie are ready to see the finished product on the big screen for the very first time.

"This was the first movie for all of us. It's brand new for everyone involved with the project," said Kelsey Myrvold, who plays Ruby Crawford, the "leading lady" in the movie. "I'm proud of the way everyone performed. I've seen parts, but not all of the movie. Yeah, I'm nervous to have people I know watch the finished project."

The locally produced movie has been in the works since 1998, when Olson wrote the first draft of a stage play. At a private reading, it was suggested he turn it into a film. After several drafts, the production got its first showing as a play, during the summer of 2001. Second unit shooting began later that year, and principal shooting began earlier this year.

Olson is a Valley Performing Arts veteran, but taking his talent to the big screen posed challenges -- some of which were unforeseen, such as hair length.

"With a movie, you have to pay attention to so many different things. It's stop and go. You have to become a family when you are making a film," Olson said. "There were incredible challenges. We shot over the course of a year, and you always have to be working with variables like how long people's hair is, how tan they were, things like that. We didn't shoot in order, and getting continuity was a challenge."

Crossing the Rubicon was shot entirely in digital format. Olson plans to have the movie in several film festivals later this year, in hopes of it catching on with a distributor, who could ultimately convert it to 35-millimeter film for a full theatrical release.

For now, however, the cast and crew is happy to sit back and see the finished product, because getting to this point certainly wasn't easy.

"Maybe it gets easier the more films you do, but it was considerably harder than doing theater," Olson said. "A lot of the scenes were filmed at Mat-Su College, for example. We were constantly killing sound. The buzz of the ventilation system was always there on Fridays and Saturdays, so those days weren't beneficial for us to film. On Sundays, we could get the janitor to turn off the ventilation system so we wouldn't have that background noise. Of course, we were sweating, but we had control of the set."

Following the project, Olson said he understands why filmmakers don't choose Alaska often.

"We filmed a lot in the Talkeetna area, and the number of planes, trains and cars that drive through was amazing," Olson said. "We filmed on Memorial Day weekend up there, and there were planes flying by every minute."

Crossing the Rubicon details the adventures of Trevor Harrington, played by David Mead, a teen-age boy so brilliant that he has been identified as a new human species. He is put in a hidden institute outside Talkeetna, where he works telepathically with scientists.

Ruby Crawford, played by Myrvold, is an attractive student from California. She has been identified as a positive source to breed with Harrington, and she is duped into coming to Alaska as part of a Make-A-Wish Foundation event.

Harrington then has two weeks to win Ruby Crawford's heart over in this sci-fi romantic comedy.

Bringing the play to the big screen meant the actors had to make the transition, Olson said.

"You have to make it less big, but you can't lose that energy you have in the theater," Olson said. "These guys somehow intuitively knew how big to make it. I'm proud of that."

Myrvold said working on Crossing the Rubicon has helped her in college -- she is now a freshman at the University of Nebraska.

"It has helped me in discussions about film and filmmakers," Myrvold said. "It let me get my foot in the door. I'm moving in that direction."

The movie is being put out through Sundog Films, a company formed by local arts supporters. Led by Scott Sterling, Jacquelyn Rupnik, Gini King-Taylor and Olson, the group has been trying to promote the film industry in the Valley.