Upper St. Clair Short Film Set to Premiere Wednesday

After a months of writing and preparing, and a summer of filming, Bad Kids will premiere at Upper St. Clair's on Wednesday night.

Bad Kids is a short film created by two graduates, Peter Rosati, a 2010 graduate and student at Emerson College, and Dominic Rodriguez, a 2009 graduate and student at Point Park University.

Nearly 10 months ago, with the help of many Skype meetings, Rosati and Rodriguez wrote a story about seven kids—and a ferret—who run away and must try to find their way home by throwing a knife in a map.

According to Rosati, the first part of the film is pure action adventure. The second part of the film explores a particular sadness the main character has and becomes more emotional.

The audience can be promised "a lot of action and sincerity," Rosati said. "Companionship is a very important theme of the movie."

And that companionship was something the seven Upper St. Clair actors, ranging in ages of nine to 13 years, had no problem creating on camera, because they were already all friends.

"They are not all actors, but their friendship together is real," Rodriguez said.

During a heat wave in Upper St. Clair, the dedicated actors and film crew spent days in the middle of the woods shooting the film.

The young actors were all smiling, drinking water and eating crackers during breaks, and giving the directors their full attention during scenes.

Perhaps their favorite part of their work was the food fight scene—when they got to throw paper mache fruit which was filled with pudding.

"Everyone is working their butts off," Rosati said during filming. "It's really nice to see the kids enjoy and want to come back every day."

The actors' parents were also supportive of the film.

"The parents told me it was kind of like a summer camp for the kids," Rosati said.

Rosati and Rodriguez said they had just as much fun as the kid actors.

"This is exciting because it's not for school. There's no deadline. There's no grade based on it," Rosati said. 

Their motivation comes from their love of film.

"I've been making movies ever since I was a little kid," Rodriguez said. "This is what I want to be doing more than anything else."

Rosati and Rodriguez said they're pleased with the final product and plan on submitting their project to film festivals. 

"Seems strange to aim so high, but we're going to see what's out there," Rodriguez said. "I think this is really special and we should take it as far as we can go." 

Upper St. Clair Patch will have coverage of the Bad Kids premiere on Thursday.