Downtown Owl to release on digital April 23rd

Stage 6 Productions shot the feature film "Downtown Owl" in Minnesota under a union contract in 2022. It was a comedy drama directed by first time filmmakers Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater. The adapted screenplay was by Linklater of a book by MN writer Chuck Klosterman. The film starred Lily Rabe, Ed Harris, Vanessa Hudgens, August Blanco Rosenstein, Jack Dylan Grazer, Finn Wittrock, and Henry Golding. It shot in Minnesota for 22 days. The film had its’ World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Fest earlier this year. It is coming to Digital on April 23. You can pre-order now at : https://bit.ly/DowntownOwl 

The film employed many local craftspeople, actors, teamsters and was shot under a Tier 1- IA contract. Local 490 is very proud of the many of their members were hired off their roster (or became members after the film) for example; It was decorated by Melissa Pritchett, Lead Man was Peter Dahl and ‘Owl’ was Art Directed by Brian Simpson. Set dressing by Nathan Tymochuk with Cheri Anderson as the Art Buyer. Jason Thomas was Propmaster and Sam Deans was the assist. Sound was mixed and recorded by Jim Morgan with Matt Joyer on the boom. Make up was crewed by April Hindrichs, Laura Hart was her key. Hair was done by Brenda Torre. Costume Supervisor was Amanda Schwarzrock. Union Best Boy electric was Nathan Lee, Grip by Ricky Taylor. Craft Service was provided by Natasha Georgia. SFX was executed by Dieter & Evonne Sturm with Tiny Proctor as the SFX tech. Linda Kuussito was scripty. Union owned Wheels Up provided trailers and Tasty Lighting supplied the Grip Truck. Thank you to all these union members who worked extremely hard under challenging budgets and with first time filmmakers. Other non-union crew were present, we invite them to apply to Local 490.

Here are some BTS shots of some of our Local 490 members working on set.

This film was a good example how a tier 1 film can be executed in Minnesota. The MN Film and TV board did an nice job bringing "Downtown Owl" to MN. 490 wishes the film lots of luck with its digital release and hopes to see other projects of this size or larger to use its membership to create their story. If you are interested in signing a union contract, pls contact our business agent at E: businessagent@iatse490.net C: 612-393-0550

The local press was very interested in this project. Here are some links to stories written about "Downtown Owl";

Business Journal: https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2022/04/27/movie-st-paul-downtown-owl.html

Star Tribune: https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2022/04/27/movie-st-paul-downtown-owl.html

CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/film-production-tax-credit-draws-indie-film-crew-to-st-paul/