Grande Ronde Valley to be backdrop of movie production starting in February

Published 2:00 pm Sunday, October 30, 2022

LA GRANDE — Cinematic history will be made in La Grande early next year.

The filming of a movie directed by Los Angeles filmmaker H. Nelson Tracey, “Dumped on Christmas,” is set to start in February 2023 in La Grande.

The film will be about two college students attending school outside Northeastern Oregon. The young couple, Ben and Cassie, are in La Grande during Christmas break where they are visiting Ben’s family. Unfortunately the couple breaks up during the visit, creating an awkward situation for Cassie, who cannot leave La Grande for her parents home in Illinois for logistical reasons. This leaves the two students stuck in the same house during a portion of the holiday season.

“Xmas becomes ex-mas,” Tracey said.

Tracey believes this will be the first movie made in La Grande that is also set in La Grande. The filmmaker is now in the process of lining up actors and actresses for the film.

“The cast will include several prominent television and movie actors,” he said.

The director said he is close to renting a home in La Grande. The film’s producers, filmmaker Rafi Jacobs, of Los Angeles, and Stephen Mastrocola, of Simi Valley, California, stressed that members of the La Grande community will have many opportunities to assist with the making of the film.

“We will be inviting the community to be a part of the making of the film,” said Mastrocola, who has helped produce movies such as the “Wine Club” and written for the TV series “Simi Valley.”

The screenplay

Tracey became interested in making a movie in La Grande during his visits to the annual Eastern Oregon Film Festival. He started coming to the festival four years ago at the invitation of its director, Chris Jennings. Tracey was struck by the unique beauty of the Grande Ronde Valley.

“I want people to see it in the movie, many of whom will never come here,” said Tracey, who is best known for directing “Picture Jasper” and “Conspiracy Party.”

Tracey writes of the Grande Ronde Valley’s beauty in his screenplay for “Dumped on Christmas,” but he said it is hard to do it justice.

“There is only so much you can capture on paper,” he said during this year’s Eastern Oregon Film Festival, held Oct. 20-22 in La Grande.

Tracey’s screenplay was read Oct. 21, at Eastern Oregon University’s Schwarz Theatre by a cast of eight. The Eastern Oregon Film Festival event was the first time the screenplay had been read together by a full cast, and it was its initial public reading.

Tracey’s screenplay was conceived in conjunction with the festival’s inaugural Eastern Oregon Filmmaker Residency, in May 2021. He was one of six participants who spent a month in La Grande writing and developing feature-length screenplays with local production in mind.

Jocelyn Berado, an actress and La Grande native, portrayed Cassie and said she felt like she was giving birth to her character.

“This was the first time anyone had portrayed her,” she said.

Tracey said in some cases dialogue that sounded natural in his mind when he wrote it did not sound natural when it was spoken, inspiring him to go back and make changes in the screenplay, which remains fluid at this point, just like its characters.

“The script and the characters are evolving at the same time,” Berado said.Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at {span data-sheets-value=”{“ data-sheets-userformat=”{“}541-624-6016{/span} or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.