Kristen Anne Ferraro is an actress, producer, and business strategist at REMcycle Media. She stars in and produced “A Deadly Legend,” releasing this Friday, July 24th.
The horror-thriller tells the story of a real estate developer who buys an old summer camp to build new homes. However, the property has a dark history that ties to a legend of supernatural worship and human sacrifice. A celebration weekend turns deadly when construction disturbs forbidden ground.
Ferraro plays the film’s hero, Joan Huntar, alongside acting legends Corbin Bernsen, Lori Petty, and Judd Hirsch.
On July 7th, 2020, Ferraro spoke with NOIAFT founder Taylor Taglianetti about her experience making the film.
This is your first feature film as a producer. How did you know that this was going to be your first project in that world?
This project was initiated by my husband, Eric. He wrote the script and executive produced. I agreed to produce along with him in support of his efforts. I had a little bit of experience producing a short film and I do come from a background of theater, film, and television. I was able to lend some of those skills to the process.
You also have a career in business. Did you find it to be a natural transition working on the producing side of filmmaking?
My background in business includes large-scale project management, marketing, and communications. That definitely helped me transition to the role of producer much more smoothly than if I did not have that experience. I think when you have some really strong foundational skills, especially in project management and in the communications area, you can transfer those over to a number of different disciplines as long as you have that framework. With marketing, too, it’s about understanding audiences and target markets.
Corbin Bernsen (Matthias Leary), Kristen Anne Ferraro (Joan Huntar), Dwayne A. Thomas (Sam Jones), Danielle DeCaro (AmyJones), and John Pope (Connor Huntar).Adding on to that, this venture must not have required too much of a learning curve since you’re also an actress. You know about making a film from being on the other side. We have a lot of young filmmakers a part of our organization who would aspire to make something along the lines of your film. Since you did everything from the ground up, can you go into what it entailed for you to put this film together?
I had the lead role in the film. I was in almost every scene of the movie. I knew that once we started getting closer to production, I had to start working closely with the director, Pamela Moriarty, and focus on the acting. I did a lot of legwork during pre-production in setting up my folder structure in starting to pull together resources for our line producer. I pulled together as many resources as I could so that once he came in during pre-production, he could pick up where I left off.
I then worked with the line producer as much as I could so that we were scaling up with all of our resources, especially with lodging and housing our crew. Separately, both Eric and I started working with the casting director. We have a fairly large cast and we have our three celebrity talents. Eric took the lead with the casting director on negotiating the celebrity talent and I participated in ensuring that we had really in-depth character descriptions. I also participated in the casting process with our casting director and director. Eric and I helped make some of those decisions.
Eric Wolf (Mike Renfield) and Jean Tree (Eva Chan).You’ve been intimately involved with this film from the beginning and it’s still not over because now you have to promote it! I think that’s more rewarding though. When you’re hands-on like you’ve been, it’s even more exciting to see your baby born.
I’ll tell you what was even more exciting for me. Because my husband wrote the script and it was his first time doing so, it was most fulfilling for me to watch him experience developing the script and characters, and watching the film come to life through the amazing work of our cast and crew. Every single person was immensely talented and executed their roles so beautifully. For him to experience that creative end-to-end, ideation to execution, was so rewarding for me.
Because you are a couple, what is the process of giving notes like? Your criticisms will come as his wife, but also as a producer wanting to make it the best product.
Eric and I actually met at work in the healthcare industry. We worked on an amazing project in partnership with Samsung and we kicked ass on that project! With this project, it was a little bit different. The whole corporate culture was removed. We have to act like business professionals as a couple, but we don’t have those same rules and regulations over us as we did in corporate. There were many times where we wouldn’t always agree. I would have to try and fight for my point and he would finally acquiesce and say, “You know what? You’re right.” And vice versa! There are times on the set where we didn’t get along. I’m lucky that I have some mentors here in the Hudson Valley who are film partners and married. We have been told that this is a very common occurrence! It’s normal. Both Eric and I truly believe that if you don’t push the status quo, you don’t get to a good place. That’s something that we do for each other as painful as it may be.
Is there anything else you want to say?
It’s really important to me that I mention that I’m a first generation Italian American. My dad is from Italy and he came to the U.S. through Ellis Island with his mom when he was three years old. I’m very proud of my heritage. My father is also creative and it’s something that he has inspired in me my entire life from the day I was born and he is still encouraging it. I just want to give him some credit because he’s a writer and a book collector also. He actually created and ran the Italian American Press to promote Italian American authors. He’s in his late 80’s now and transitioned it over to another Italian American author who is now running it.
A Deadly Legend is now on VOD.
For more on the film, check out www.adeadlylegend.com and follow the film on Instagram @adlfilm.
For more on Kristen, check out www.kristenanneferraro.com and follow her on Instagram @kristensdelight.