Local acting teacher hopes to capitalize on Method Fest

Alan Berger This year's Method Fest independent film festival in Calabasas is over, but distributors continue to keep a close eye on the movies that were chosen for the weeklong event.

Local acting teacher Alan Berger screened his movie, "Halfway Decent" starring Ernie Hudson of Hidden Hills, at The Method Fest and tonight will screen it at a theater on the 20th Century Fox studio lot.

Distributors, including one that Berger met at the recent Calabasas festival, will be watching.

"Most of the reviews we get talk about the cast," Berger said. "Every performance in the movie is unbelievable."

"Halfway Decent" premiered at the Austin International Film Festival, then played at festivals in Santa Fe and Santa Barbara. Its final festival appearance was at The Method Fest.

"We're not going to do any more festivals," Berger said. "The Q and A after screenings are always the same. People really respond to this movie."

Festivals, however, have been very helpful to Berger, he said.

"Having a movie that gets into The Method Fest, for example, means that you have a movie that has good acting in it," Berger said. "Just like the Austin International Film Festival- in October-was focusing on the writing. Santa Fe focused on both, and Santa Barbara focused on entertainment. So each festival has its own agenda and when you do a movie like this, you want to get into as many festivals as you possibly can.

"But I could do festivals for three years if I wanted to," Berger said. "There comes a time when you've got to pull the plug and say, 'I've got to sell this and move on to the next project.'"

Berger expects to get a distribution deal as a result of tonight's 20th Century Fox screening. He originally set up the event for cast and crew only, but several reviews and meetings later it turned into a distributor screening. Some of the distributors want to see the movie before a new audience.

Berger got into the movie business the hard way--driven by a dream, he's been working his way up from the bottom.

"I wanted to be in the movie business ever since I saw 'Peter Pan' at 5 years old," Berger said. His first work in the business was as an extra in "Dog Day Afternoon" with Al Pacino. "I was yelling something into the bank with a bunch of people. . . . Next to me was Robert Hegyes from 'Welcome Back, Kotter.' We both got into the union on the same day."

Berger soon got more extra work the grew into acting jobs on the New York theater circuit. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and with actor Lee Strasberg.

In 1975, Berger left New York for Los Angeles in search of bigger parts.

"I would go on the (movie studio) lots to shows that I thought I was right for, and I would leave my picture and rsum," Berger said. "And that's how I'd get calls and get parts."

But the parts weren't enough to satisfy his movie business dreams.

"When I was acting, I was getting parts about every three or four months-a line here and a line there," Berger said.

"A friend of mine became the head casting person at Universal Pictures. And so I got a job with him as an associate because I wanted to see what it looked like on the other side of the desk and see if I could learn something about acting by watching other people come in."

During his tenure in casting, Berger worked on "Above the Law" with Steven Seagal, "Young Guns 2" with Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland, "Space Jam" with Michael Jordan and other mainstream movies.

In 1999, he switched gears again and wrote, directed and starred in the feature-length "A Walk in the Park," which aired requently on Showtime. But Berger wanted to direct movies. He found investors to pay for his next project, "Halfway Decent," which he completed for under $2 million.

Berger hopes to get distribution for that film soon. And he's already got his next project lined up, a script called "A Place Like This."

Berger recently took a job teaching new actors how to audition and win parts at the Agoura Hills-based S&J Talent Network, which opened in February.

"This is a great thing to do," Berger said. "I teach my students how to walk into an office cold-uninvited-because the people that usually come to my classes don't have agents. Nobody is going to (get work) for them."

Berger hopes to move into his dream job in coming months, and he's helping to send aspiring actors off on their own dream journeys.