Fair Field Productions makes short film to stir holiday cheer

FAIRFIELD - The staff of Fair Field Productions took a break from filming their fourth documentary in the Fairfield History Series to bring the community some much needed holiday cheer.

The pandemic has not only taken thousands of lives but canceled many activities.

And yet, the community has persevered, finding ways to stay in touch with those they love.

Dick DeAngelis, a producer and director with Fair Field Productions, said he wanted to create a short film that would give people hope, and that's exactly what he's done with a 3.5-minute video published on Facebook last week called '2020 Christmas Message from Fairfield, Iowa.”

The video features singer and guitarist Chuck Mitchell performing the song 'Little Drummer Boy” inside the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center's Stephen Sondheim Theater for the Performing Arts. Mitchell plays to an empty theater, which is especially poignant this year when so many live performances have had to be canceled.

As viewers listen to Mitchell's soothing melodies, the camera shows scenes from around Fairfield, such as the town square aglow with Christmas lights and decorations, children waiting for a book to be delivered outside the library, and residents dropping off food at one of the Little Free Pantries.

The film was posted to Fair Field Productions' Facebook account on Dec. 15, and within six days had amassed 22,000 views and 191 shares. Fair Field Productions collaborated with the Fairfield Media Center to produce it, and the film is showing several times a day on the town's cable access channel.

'It's an exciting thing Fairfield can be proud of,” DeAngelis said. 'Even though we're going through our own challenges, we can still come together to share with one another.”

DeAngelis said it's amazing to see all the things happening in the community such as the dinners being provided by The Lord's Cupboard and area churches, the drive-in movies that the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center just showed and so much more. One touching moment captured in the film is a child going to meet Santa and talking to him through a window, an image emblematic of 2020.

The footage in the film was shot in early December and after about a week of intense editing it was ready for publication. Joining DeAngelis behind the cameras were a cast of familiar characters who have played a leading role in the Fairfield History Series, such as director of photography Jason Strong, videographer Werner Elmker who was also the editor of the film, and sound editor Tim Britton. Elmker was also responsible for the half dozen or so cameras that captured Mitchell's performance in the Sondheim.

'All the people put a lot of focus on this. We did nothing but this for a week, to come up with 3.5 minutes of something special,” DeAngelis said.

DeAngelis said Mitchell lives in Keokuk but makes frequent visits to Fairfield and even contributed music to two of the three films in the Fairfield History Series, 'Heroes of Fairfield” and 'A Place to Grow.”

'His music connects us, and he has the respect of a lot of people around here,” DeAngelis said. 'He said he'd be honored to be in the film, and just dropped everything to record his own spin on ‘Little Drummer Boy.' It was from the heart, and it meant a lot.”

Fairfield Middle School sixth-grader Teagan Gilchrist appears in the film walking through Central Park with a poinsettia, and at the end of the film joins Mitchell on stage, where she leaves the poinsettia for him on a stool and tells him, 'Merry Christmas.”

DeAngelis said the feedback on the short has been overwhelmingly positive, with one person telling him the square never looked better than it does in this film.

The crew of Fair Field Productions will now return to the project that has kept them busy all year, filming the fourth film in the Fairfield History Series called 'Ahead of their Time,” about the area's early entrepreneurs. DeAngelis said it's taking a little longer than he expected because of delays from the pandemic, but he hopes to have it ready for public viewing by late spring or early summer of 2021.

'We've done at least half of the filming and almost all of the research,” he said. 'The editing has just begun. There is a lot more to do, but we're looking forward to a year when we don't have so many roadblocks.”

The filmmakers are already doing research and interviews for the fifth film in the series, on Parsons College, a fixture on the north side of Fairfield from 1875-1973.

Those who wish to view the short film just produced can view it on YouTube at: Here is the YouTube url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN_OEbcZMF4. If you'd like to make a contribution to the Fairfield History Series, you may do so at: www.fairfieldhistoryseries.com.