It all started as one big joke between good friends Ron Bonk and Jonathan Straiton. At a film festival years ago, Straiton jokingly remarked to Bonk about a sleeping friend, and Bonk responded that he looked like a coffin model, Straiton said. The joke has since developed and “ballooned” into “House Shark.”

Bonk and Straiton are currently knee-deep in directing, producing and acting in their film “House Shark,” an independent homage to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece “Jaws.” The project is due to be completed in 2017.

“House Shark” is about a man named Frank who discovers an unknown shark breed is attacking his house. To solve his problem, he hires the only “house shark” expert in the world to help.

The film is still in the preliminary production stages, though Bonk and his team have already shot several scenes. Last August, they filmed some test scenes to practice a new style of shooting that Bonk developed after watching early Spielberg productions.

One thing Bonk noticed when studying the films was the way the actors moved.

“I’m always making the actors sit down or stand still … I see that in a lot of movies, even on the Hollywood level,” Bonk said. “But Spielberg will keep them moving around … in the end, I think that helps the acting be a little freer, and more natural, too.”

Even if the scenes shot last August with this new shooting style do not end up in the final production, the cast had plenty of fun nevertheless. Straiton said the week he spent working on the project with Bonk and his fellow cast members was one of his favorite times spent on set.

The three main actors, including Straiton, had all worked on previous films together. Straiton said the cast and crew laughed non-stop.

Straiton met Bonk when he was at Bonk’s film festival, Scare-A-Con, in 2006. Straiton had acted in a film being shown at the festival, and Bonk asked him to act in a project he was working on at the time.

Straiton didn’t get the part initially, but when Bonk had to fire the lead actor for repeatedly showing up late to filming sessions, Bonk gave Straiton the part. Since then, the two have been working together on various projects for the past ten years.

Trey Harrison, one of the actors in “House Shark,” said he could recall numerous comical stories from his time on set. One story that particularly stood out to both him and Straiton was when the two of them were shooting a scene in which Straiton’s alcoholic character Abraham is incredibly drunk. Every time Straiton delivered a specific line, Harrison would break into laughter, which was unusual for him. Straiton said that Harrison is usually so into character that it’s hard to make him break, and they ended up shooting 18-20 takes of the scene because Harrison was laughing so hard.

Bonk said the cast and crew plans to pick up filming again in March 2016 to shoot the majority of the film’s content. This will be the first time they will work with “the shark itself,” and all the special effects that go along with it.

Production will wrap up in August 2016, when Bonk will adjust and perfect shots from March. Bonk also mentioned that the group will probably reconvene for a weekend to re-film anything that hadn’t turned out the way he envisioned it.

Of course, as with any independent artistic endeavor, funding can sometimes pose an issue to production. To help raise funds for his film, Bonk set up an IndieGoGo page for “House Shark,” and started a 60-day fundraiser with a donation goal of $15,000.

As of Feb. 22, Bonk has raised $2,737. According to the page, the majority of the money will go toward renting proper camera equipment “to create that cinematic feel akin to the 70’s summer blockbusters.” Regardless of how much money Bonk actually raises for the project, he assures that “this movie will get done, even if we don’t raise the full amount.”

Published on February 22, 2016 at 9:14 pm

Contact: cmrussel@syr.edu | @caseymrussell