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Meet Amanda Melby of Raising Buchanan (and Verve Studios) in Scottsdale

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Melby.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Raising Buchanan is a feature-length comedy was written and directed by Bruce Dellis. Bruce wrote the starring role of Ruth for me to play. René Auberjonois (Benson, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Boston Legal) plays President James Buchanan, M. Emmet Walsh (Blood Simple, Blade Runner, The Jerk, My Best Friend’s Wedding) plays my Dad, Larry Kiesling; Cathy Shim (Reno 911) and Jennifer Pfalzgraff (21 Grams, Jolene) play my best friends and Terence Bernie Hines (Secret Life of Walter Mitty) plays Crosby. We had a whole host of other local actors in roles.

We shot it in the fall of 2017 in the greater Phoenix area (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, South Mountain) and Prescott.

It was released May 5, 2020 on streaming platforms (iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, etc.), On Demand (Cox, Comcast, etc.) and DVD & BluRay. https://raisingbuchanan.com/vod has all of the details.

In 2019-2020, we toured film festivals:

WORLD PREMIERE
2019 Phoenix Film Festival
Screened April 12, 13 and 14, 2019
WINNER: Best Arizona Feature
WINNER: Arizona Filmmaker of the Year: Joe Gruberman

EAST COAST PREMIERE
2019 Manhattan Film Festival
Screened May 3, 2019
WINNER: Best Dramedy Feature

CONNECTICUT PREMIERE
2019 New Haven International Film Festival
Screened May 17, 2019
WINNER: Best Leading Actress in a Comedy Role: Amanda Melby
WINNER: Best Original Screenplay: Bruce Dellis

TENNESSEE PREMIERE
2019 Franklin International Indie Film Festival
Screened August 15, 2019
WINNER: Best Comedy Feature

EUROPEAN PREMIERE
2019 ROFL Film Festival, Madrid
Screened September 13, 2019
WINNER: Best Feature

ROCKY MOUNTAIN EMMY ® AWARDS
September 14, 2019
Raising Buchanan Trailer – Phoenix Film Festival/World Premiere
NOMINEE: Amanda Melby, Talent- Performer/Narrator
WINNER: Bruce Dellis, Writer- Short Form

BETHEL, CT
2019 CT Film Fest 52
Screened September 18, 2019

HARKINS SCOTTSDALE SHEA 14
Exclusive Limited Engagement
September 27– October 10, 2019

JEROME, AZ
2019 Jerome Indie Film and Music Festival
Screened September 28, 2019

OHIO PREMIERE
American Presidents Film and Literary Festival
Fremont, Ohio
Screened October 4 and 5, 2019

CENTRAL NEW YORK PREMIERE
2019 Syracuse Film Festival
October 10-12, 2019
Screened October 11, 2019
MIDWEST PREMIERE
2019 Twin Cities Film Fest
Screened October 18 & October 25, 2019

PENNSYLVANIA PREMIERE
2019 Red Rose Film Festival
Lancaster, PA (Buchanan’s hometown!)
Screened November 1, 2, and 3, 2019
WINNER: BEST PICTURE

MISSOURI PREMIERE
2019 St. Louis International Film Festival – 28th Annual
Screened November 8, 2019

VIRGINIA PREMIERE
2019 Alexandria Film Festival – 13th Annual
Screened November 10, 2019

FLORIDA PREMIERE
2019 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival – 24th Annual
Screened November 14 and 15, 2019

THE CORAZON CINEMA AND CAFÉ
St. August, Florida
Exclusive Limited Engagement
January 22-February 6, 2020

SOUTH DAKOTA PREMIERE
2020 Black Hills Film Festival
Screened on February 22, 23, 2020

LOS ANGELES PREMIERE
2020 Golden State Film Festival
February 21-March 1, 2020
Screened on February 28, 2020

NEW JERSEY PREMIERE
2020 Garden State Film Festival
Screening on March 28, 2020*
NOMINEE: Best Supporting Actor: René Auberjonois

TEXAS PREMIERE
2020 USA World Fest – Houston
Screening on April 23, 2020*
WINNER: Special Jury Award – Feature Comedy
WINNER: Best Editing: Bruce Dellis
NOMINEE: Best Actress: Amanda Melby
WINNER: Best Supporting Actress: Cathy Shim
NOMINEE: Best Supporting Actor: René Auberjonois

https://raisingbuchanan.com

“Raising Buchanan” is a dark comedy that is funny, smart, compelling, and incredibly timely and relevant to our current political landscape. While there are universal themes in “Raising Buchanan” (friendship, belonging, adapting -or not- to the curveballs life throws you, personal legacy and the lessons we can learn from history), they are presented through unconventional and creative ways (three 40 years old women as the leads, a terrible President that no one cares about as the title character, history lessons, some not-very-good ventriloquists and mining disaster songs woven through the soundtrack). “Raising Buchanan” isn’t a political film, even though it features a US President as the title character. It was written prior to the election of our sitting President but is amazingly relevant to the current political climate in the US and the world.

I am proud to have served as both Executive Producer and Producer of “Raising Buchanan,” originating the project with writer/director Bruce Dellis. While it was prior to the gender parity movement (which we are thrilled for), we achieved close to it – 47% of the paid cast and crew were women – just by being open and inclusive across the board.

Of the 25 speaking roles, 76% (19 roles) feature under-represented groups, including gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and ability. Only three were specifically cast as Caucasian (Larry as the pre-cast Amanda Melby’s father and President James Buchanan to match the real-life person). The remaining 22 roles were open to any and all races and ethnicity and the result is a wide range of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age and ability on screen.

What made you decide to start an acting studio and how long have you been teaching?
When I moved to LA from Cleveland in 2000, I had a pretty big ego. I had been booking work. I had joined the unions. I had a B.A. in theatre. Why would I need to be in a class? Well, after about a year of only auditioning for tiny parts in bigger productions and always getting cast as girl next door, I was dying for some challenging roles to play. So, I audited Howard Fine’s Master Scene Study class (after researching a ton of studios) and decided to enroll in his Foundations class. It was quite long – 12 weeks? – I can’t remember – and we met twice a week, during the day. It was a revelation for me. For the first time in my life, I could actually articulate how I was doing what I was doing. I solidified a technique within the many years I studied here.

When my husband and I moved to Phoenix, I started looking for a class to be in. I was utterly shocked to find that there was no ongoing scene study class in the entire metro area. I found a few classes, but they were short term and more were taught by people that had much less experience than I did. So, eight months pregnant, I started Verve Studios. I taught one scene study class a week – on Tuesday nights – subleasing space from JesterZ in South Scottsdale. I had six students. My sister was coming to help me with the baby, and she’s a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, so she agreed to sub my class for the two weeks that she was here.

From there, my class grew in size. When JesterZ lost the 2nd space they had been using for overflow (Verve was in that space), I moved to North Valley Playhouse in North Scottsdale and rented on Mondays. I was able to add an afternoon Teens class. After a couple of years there, they went out of business and I moved again. This time downtown Phoenix to the Phoenix Film Foundation’s offices. (I was volunteer Executive Director of IFP/Phoenix). I added a Wednesday night class – The Core, which was an intro to Scene Study – and a Wednesday afternoon Tweens class. I was also able to add some weekend classes occasionally and film acting and commercial acting. After quite a few years here, the Film Foundation moved up to the Harkins 101 shopping area near the theatres that the festival is at and it was time for me to take out my own lease. I rented an 1800 SF space in the Scottsdale Airpark.

Since that move, in 2011, I had been able to add classes, teachers, equipment and have been fortunate to be able to grow. We currently offer weekday youth classes for Teens and Tweens Monday-Thursday, occasional Saturday and Sunday youth workouts and workshops for ages 8-18. We have summer film acting camps for kids, tweens and teens and in 2019, we created our 29th and 30th original short films for these camps. We added Camera Ready half-day camps to the end of the summer (after the editing and screening of the film camp films were completed). For adults, we have the ongoing Scene Study class still on Monday nights. We rotate the other adult classes and still offer Core, Get Personal (Emotions), Commercial Acting, and Film Acting. We also offer Shakespeare, Accents and Dialects, TelePrompTer, Hosting, Improv, Voice Over, Voice and Movement and bring in a guest artist once a year to work with advanced students.

We have transitioned classes to Zoom during Covid-19 and will move them back to in person as soon as we are safely able to do so.

What has been some of the most memorable/proud moments of your career?
Well, I am most proud of “Raising Buchanan.” In the early 2000s, I made a goals list and “play a leading role in a feature film” was on that list. I finally checked that off in 2017. And, there was a lot of work that went in to that little tiny checkmark. I took filmmaking classes – as many as I could without enrolling back in school – starting when I lived in LA and continuing in Phoenix. (Being Executive Director if IFP/Phoenix allowed me to schedule some fantastic classes, workshops and speakers and I participated in as many as I could.)

I commissioned the script from Bruce Dellis with some commercial residual money, developed the script with him, wrote a business plan, hired an attorney, raised the money, hired the casting director and department heads and MADE A FEATURE FILM!

I did have a mini panic attack right before we started filming, but fortunately, I was in yoga class at the time and I realized that I have everything I need to do this. I have been training as an actor since I was ten years old. I’ve been producing films since 2005, events since the 90s. I assembled a fantastic team around me. It was a magical experience. The film is now available on demand, streaming and BluRay.

What was your big breakout role?
I earned my SAG card on a McDonald’s commercial when I lived in Cleveland, Ohio. It was for a regional campaign for an $.88 menu that they were trying out. We sang and danced to the jingle: “8 for 88 and I like it!.” At the audition, I was almost paralyzed by embarrassment, but right after we started, I switched my mindset and decided to have fun. I booked it. From there, the confidence came and I booked a lot of work. I earned my SAG, AFTRA and AEA cards while I lived in Ohio.

How has your career evolved?
I used to audition for anything and everything I could. And, if I got cast, I always said yes. I’ve become pickier about saying yes in the last ten years. Taking on a project, whether it’s film or theatre, takes a tremendous amount of time and energy, and it takes me away from my family. For me to say yes now, the project has to be a challenge in some way and has to be something I haven’t done yet.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Making an independent feature film is full of obstacles. I’m a firm believer in planning so that when obstacles present themselves, there are clear choices in front of you. On Raising Buchanan, we had location issues, actor issues and there is never enough money, but we worked through them. If you surround yourself with talented, capable crew, you’ll be able to make it through just about anything together.

While we played at many, many wonderful festivals and won some amazing awards, they came with plenty of rejection. It was difficult to find a distributor and were grateful to have found a partner in Gravitas Ventures.

For Verve, our current struggle is dealing with Covid-19. We’ve converted most of our classes to Zoom, but many of our students have lost their jobs, so it’s tough all the way around. I know arts organizations and small businesses are struggling everywhere, and I do hope that those that have the means continue to support the arts and small businesses.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
Raising Buchanan is a dark comedy feature film. Shot entirely in Arizona with Arizona locations, 100% Arizona crew and the majority of the actors are Arizona-based actors. It was released May 5, 2020 on streaming platforms (iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, etc.), On Demand (Cox, Comcast, etc.) and DVD & BluRay. https://raisingbuchanan.com/ has all of the details.

Verve Studios is professional-actor training. The majority of our classes are for adults, but we also offer a robust youth program (Teens and Tweens). We coach actors from aspiring to working and offer a variety of classes in Foundations (voice, movement, script analysis, emotions, scene study) to Work Actor (voice over, film, TV, commercials, TelePrompTer, performance capture). The classes vary from one day to eight weeks in length. Our coaches ALL have degrees and are working professionals.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Central Minnesota about 60 minutes from Minneapolis in St. Cloud. My parents met studying theatre at St. Cloud State University and then owned and ran a music store, Al’s Music. My Mom and Dad were hard workers and in addition to running the store, were both active in theatre and community service. I have three younger siblings: Gretchen Caserotti, who lives in Boise, Idaho and is the head of the Meridian Library system, Kris Hams, who lives in San Diego, CA and is a musician and runs Capricorn Studios and Mike Hams, who recently moved to Brooklyn, NY and is also a musician. My Mom, Marge, passed away in 2001 from brain cancer. My Dad, Al, still lives in Central MN and is retired and re-married to Teri.

We were all musical. I played (and still play) cello. I also played violin, oboe, flute, piano and guitar at some point in my childhood. My sister played violin, piano and drums. My brothers played piano, guitar and drums. My dad played everything but loved the guitar. My Mom played piano, French horn and sang. We all did theatre. In 1986, most of the family was in a play together: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” My Mom played Aunt Mae, my sister, brother Kris and I all played the “no-neck monsters.”

We traveled a lot as a family – mostly by car in the summer. We have a lot of road trip memories and stories! We also visited aunts, uncles and grandparents via air – Germany, England, Texas, Florida, Arizona. Traveling at an early age helped develop my curiosity for the world.

I went to college at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN on a cello scholarship. From there, I moved to Washington DC for an internship at the Kennedy Center, then to Cleveland, Ohio, Los Angeles, Carlsbad and now Scottsdale.

Pricing:

  • $12.99 Raising Buchanan on iTunes/$19.99 BluRay on Amazon
  • $35-$480 for Verve classes

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Raising Buchanan, Verve Studios

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