CityView Magazine

It was the push he needed to get his thoughts down on paper. He collaborated with friend, fellow filmmaker and former professor David Acuff of Raleigh. They had a script together in about a week. Renee McLamb provided not only the push but the inspiration for the project. As a school principal, she saw young people struggling with hardships that outsiders never saw. “A lot of people go through life with heavy burdens,” Jeremiah McLamb explained. “They are smiling but, emotionally, for them, things are really wrong. People wear a mask.” “Masquerade” is about two teenage girls, Ashley and Jamie, who are facing some of those burdens. With some fairly heavy script material, McLamb went into auditions last spring. Then he needed financial backing. It didn’t take long for members of the community to step forward. Bryan Kent, a local businessman and owner of K3 Enterprises, recognized McLamb’s talent and contributed to the project. “He is a young aspiring entrepreneur with a lot of passion for what he does,” Kent said. “He has deep moral and ethical values, and he is reaching out to the younger generation.” Buck Hodge also offered money and a key piece of equipment, a digital cinema camera called the Red One that has been used to shoot a slew of large-scale Hollywood pictures. McLamb was ready to start shooting. His actors were mostly students who had to be on call in the height of the sticky summer heat for no pay. “This was a low-budget film,” McLamb said, “and when I could get a place we had to take it, get everything set up for a scene, and shoot it. This meant a lot of last-minute coordinating.” Perhaps the most ambitious scene was the live-action car wreck shot in Buies Creek. McLamb pulled in a friend from college who also worked as a volunteer firefighter and arranged for permission from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to shut down two miles of country roads. By 5 p.m. the day of the shoot, he had assembled 50 or so off- duty firefighters and police officers, 20 to When You Need Expert Advice & Superb Quality Come to the Master jeweler Walter Guy Jewelers Jewelry Showroom Estate & Insurance Appraisals Custom Jewelry Design - Watch & Jewelry Repair Pearl Restringing New Location 220 Hay Street, Fayetteville - 910.868.6472 Baron’s Breakfast Mon - Fri: 6:30 am - 10:30 am Sat & Sun: 7:00 am - 11:00 am Dinner Mon - Sun: 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm 910.323.1600 x 1220 1944 Cedar Creek Rd. Fayetteville, NC 28312 ★★★ RATING www.HolidayInn.com Located inside Holiday Inn Fayetteville, I-95 South Honey Bourbon Dijon Pork Loin By Executive Chef Reginald L Pelt COLOR & HAIR SALON Jenifer Waddell, Kristina Cirasunda Laura Stewart & Erica Tew 136 BOW STREET FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28303 910.223.1113 • www.euphoriadowntown.com CityViewNC.com | 23

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