Fred Stoller

Home , Fred Stoller, Lee Reherman, Steve Skrovan

Fred and Vinnie

Contents

1) Synopses

2) Director’s Statement – Steve Skrovan

3) Finding Vinnie – Fred Stoller

4) Bios

5) Production Notes and Facts

6) Credits

7) Screen Captures

8) Behind the Scenes Stills

9) Festivals and Awards

10) Reviews

www.fredandvinnie.com 3

Fred and Vinnie

Long Synopsis

Everybody knows a Vinnie.

Fred Stoller works as an actor in Hollywood, playing an assortment of deliverymen, clerks, and other oddball schnooks. The rest of the time he wanders the streets researching his pet book project, “Restaurants You Don’t Feel Self-Conscious Eating Alone At.” As the title suggests, he lives a relatively isolated life punctuated by the occasional hellish date. He does, however, have a long distance bond with his old friend from the stand-up comedy scene back East, Vinnie D’Angelo, who these days hardly ever leaves his rent-free basement apartment. Fred calls Vinnie whenever he has an odd anecdote to relate about some dumb thing he overheard a lady say at the post office or how the owner of a video store refused to wish him a “Happy Holiday” because Fred was renting a porno on Christmas. Vinnie howls with delight, living vicariously through Fred’s stories. What to anyone else would seem mundane, for Vinnie are great adventures. In fact, he has all of Fred’s calls on tape, because since 1984 Vinnie has never thrown out an answering machine message. He longs to one-day sort through the box and listen to some of the classics. The tapes reveal a quirky, symbiotic relationship where Fred provides Vinnie with a window to the outside world, while Vinnie is the adoring parent Fred never had.

One day, Fred gets a surprise call. Vinnie plans to venture cross-country to give show business a try. “Scariest thing I ever did, man.” He needs to stay with Fred for a couple of weeks until he rents his own place with the money he’ll make doing “extra” work in films. Fred is thrilled to have the company and eager to give Vinnie a live tour of his “crazy” life. It’s the perfect marriage of two misfits. In fact, this would be a romantic comedy if Vinnie weren’t a three hundred and fifty pound middle-aged man. The romance soon fades, though, when Vinnie arrives and quickly reverts to his agoraphobic ways. Despite his pledge not to be a bother (“It will be like I’m not even here”), Vinnie snores loudly every night and devotes an hour and half every morning to blow-drying his hair and gazing at his beloved baseball card collection while sitting on the toilet. Even though the only thing he does all day is camp out on Fred’s roof to smoke cigarettes. And he can’t seem to apply himself to the task of getting “extra” work. Or any job for that matter. With no end in sight, Fred feels trapped, his already small apartment getting smaller and smaller. Eventually, the claustrophobia overwhelms him, but he doesn’t have the heart to kick Vinnie out.

Will Fred be able to overcome his meek nature and get rid of Vinnie? Is Vinnie a freeloading conman taking advantage of an old friend or just a well-meaning guy who is truly incapable of dealing with the world? One thing’s for sure. Everybody knows a Vinnie.

www.fredandvinnie.com 4

Fred and Vinnie

Short Synopsis

That relationship is put to the test when Vinnie ventures cross country to stay with Fred to give show business a try. At first, Fred is thrilled to have the company and eager to give Vinnie a live tour of his “crazy” life, but soon feels trapped when Vinnie quickly reverts to his agoraphobic ways. Will Fred be able to overcome his meek nature and get rid of Vinnie? Is Vinnie a freeloading conman taking advantage of an old friend or just a well-meaning guy who is truly incapable of dealing with the world? One thing’s for sure. Everybody knows a Vinnie.

www.fredandvinnie.com 5

Fred and Vinnie

One Line Synopsis

Lonely guy Fred Stoller is thrilled when his good buddy, Vinnie D’Angelo, the world’s happiest agoraphobic and fattest vegetarian, comes to live with him, until Vinnie also proves to be the world’s most maddening roommate.

www.fredandvinnie.com 6

Fred and Vinnie

Directors Statement

By Steve Skrovan

I can’t remember if we met at The Comic Strip or The Improv in New York, but I’ve know Fred Stoller for almost thirty years now. We are both children of the 1980s stand-up comedy boom. No matter what their personality differences, stand-ups tend to have a bond that develops between those brave or foolish enough to stand alone on a stage trying to make a group of strangers laugh. Fred and I are nothing alike, me Catholic from a small town in the Midwest, Fred Jewish from Brooklyn, me an Ivy League education, Fred a high school graduate, me a 200-pound jock who married his college sweetheart, Fred a 140-pound stick, who’d give his left nut to date a woman who wasn’t certifiably insane. But we had that bond.

I always thought Fred was one of the funniest guys I knew. I was most impressed at how truthful he was on stage. He could never say anything false. It would never occur to him to do a stock line, or any of those “savers” most of us had filed away to dig ourselves out of a hole onstage. It just wasn’t in his DNA. He was authentic.

Over the years, our careers took us both out to LA, me to write for sitcoms, Fred to be a guest star on just about every sitcom of the last twenty years, “Murphy Brown,” “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” just to name a few. But he was always a guest star, never a regular. In movies, he was always the weird cartoonish character given only one scene. You may remember him as the poor schmuck in “Dumb and Dumber,” who gets punched through a telephone booth. In spite of the frequent work, he longed to find a “show business home” not for the paycheck necessarily, but just for a place to go every day, to be part of a regular community.

He took to writing a memoir about all of his guest star appearances and would send pages for me to edit. It was entitled “Maybe We’ll Have You Back,” which is what all guest actors hope the writers will say to them at the end of the shoot week. After that, Fred would run all sorts of ideas by me, including a script about an experience he had with a mutual acquaintance from Philadelphia, Vinnie D’Angelo. Vinnie was a local comic, who would emcee or “middle” when comics like Fred and I would come down from New York to do one nighters.

Fred wanted to write about this odd, funny, disturbing experience he had when the agoraphobic Vinnie got kicked out of his rent-free attic apartment in Philadelphia, “the cave,” and came to stay with Fred in LA. He kept pitching it as a high concept comedy, “The Vinnie character’s a psychiatrist who lives on my couch…” kind of thing. It all seemed a bit contrived to me, so I encouraged Fred to write the real story and not worry about making it a script. I told him to write it as a short story in prose form the same way he wrote “Maybe We’ll Have You Back.” He ended up

www.fredandvinnie.com 7

producing about a forty-page manuscript version of his experience with Vinnie, and I remember reading it and immediately thinking that this would make a nice little independent film, never thinking I’d be the one to make it.

A few years later, I directed a documentary on the life and career of Ralph Nader entitled “An Unreasonable Man,” which made the Sundance competition, was short- listed for the Academy Awards, had a nationwide theatrical release, and aired on PBS’ Independent Lens. All of a sudden, I was a filmmaker. I called Fred and said, “Let’s do the Vinnie story.”

I was attracted to this story of two guys who have somehow fallen through life’s cracks. These aren’t two men having a middle-aged crisis. As Fred says, “These are two guys who are always in crisis, one just slightly more functional than the other.” Fred wrote the script based on his short story and after a couple of years of fits and starts, we found ourselves on a set shooting a movie. Finally, Fred had found a show business home, if only for nineteen days.

With only a few imaginative exceptions, every scene in the film is a verbatim rendering of his weird, symbiotic relationship with Vinnie. It’s an almost documentary depiction of Fred’s world, a unique world where all of the quirky, character-types get to be center stage and all the beautiful, well-adjusted people exist only on the periphery.

I believe we were able to capture on screen all of those qualities I initially appreciated about him thirty years ago. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and it’s authentic.

That’s Fred.

www.fredandvinnie.com 8

Fred and Vinnie

Finding “Vinnie”

By Fred Stoller

I always describe Vinnie as “the adoring parent I never had.” I’d call him up, and he’d hang on every word of mine like I was telling him about some exotic war battle, when in fact, it was a quirky story about some silly thing that happened to me at the video store or the post office.

So, when I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to make a film where I’d get to tell the story of our friendship, we had to find an actor-Vinnie to play the real Vinnie. During the auditioning process, we saw a lot of competent actors. But, Steve, the director, and I couldn’t put our fingers on what wasn’t quite there. It’s not as if they even had to look like Vinnie. Although it was a true story, no one knew this friend, who I described as the happiest agoraphobic.

“Know what it is?” I figured out. “These guys don’t quite seem like they’d be my friend.”

In the middle of one session, the casting director held out a photo of a heavyset actor with a big smile on his face, Angelo Tsarouches. I couldn’t pronounce his last name, but even before he came in, I said, “Now, this could be Vinnie.” He sort of looked like a younger version of Meatloaf. We actually had Meatloaf in mind but were concerned about a real life star portraying someone who was in awe of me, and my minor celebrity.

In the first audition scene, I relate one of my “adventures” to Vinnie over the phone. I hate to sound corny, but the way Angelo seemed so delighted by my story made me feel like I was talking to the actual Vinnie. All of a sudden, I wasn’t in a reading. Angelo was relishing every detail just as Vinnie did. We even ad- libbed and extended the scene. Like in real life, I felt at that moment, we were both giving each other a reason for being alive. Every part of my life mattered. Every part was fascinating and amazing. I wanted to keep talking and telling Angelo more stories for him to savor. We saw other Vinnies after that, but we knew Angelo was the guy.

On the set, Angelo became more Vinnie than Vinnie to me. He had the same infectious laugh and smile. And we cracked up about little things, like the anal- retentive pizza owner at the Farmer’s Market, who always explained in annoying detail why he could never give out more than two napkins. On the set, we kept laughing at the generic candy and cigarette labels we had to use because of copyright laws.

www.fredandvinnie.com 9

“Hey, Fred. Look, I have my ‘Morely’ cigarettes. And ‘Tarty’ candies.” “Morely… Tarty.” It was just like the real Vinnie to harp on just one word, one nugget of something and repeat it over and over like a parrot.

And like Vinnie, Angelo was humble. I didn’t know when we cast him that he was a successful world-known comedian. His stand-up clip on You Tube has over 200,000 hits. He is enormous in his Canadian hometown of Montreal, as well as India, South Africa, and England.

And Angelo thanked me for the opportunity to play Vinnie. He had always been cast as Driver #1, or random bouncers, or an angry guy in a mob. He relished playing someone more dimensional.

He’s a friend for life.

Now I should write another movie and hope for the same after-film magic.

This time with a girlfriend.

www.fredandvinnie.com 10

Fred and Vinnie

Bios

Steve Skrovan (Director)

Steve Skrovan has had an eclectic career in show business as a stand-up comedian, actor, television writer and film director. Originally, from Cleveland, Ohio, and a graduate of Yale University, Steve began his career as a stand-up comedian in New York City during what is now referred to as the “Comedy Boom” of the ‘80s. After moving to Los Angeles at the end of that decade, he segued from stand-up into comedy writing when Larry David gave him his first writing job on Seinfeld. Steve subsequently landed on the first season of Everybody Loves Raymond, where he stayed for the entire nine-year run of the series, rising to the level of executive producer and garnering two Emmy Awards. After Raymond, he has been on the staffs of Til Death, starring Brad Garrett and Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer. In film, Steve directed the highly acclaimed, Sundance Grand Jury nominated, and Oscar short-listed documentary on the life and career of Ralph Nader entitled An Unreasonable Man. Fred and Vinnie is his first feature.

Fred Stoller (Writer, “Fred”)

Fred Stoller has appeared on countless sitcoms, most notably as Ray’s mopey cousin on Everybody Loves Raymond, as Elaine’s forgetful date on Seinfeld, and as Monica’s bossy co-worker on Friends. In feature films, he was the annoying guy who gets punched through the phone booth in Dumb and Dumber, the moronic referee in Rebound, and a doting dad in Little Man. In animation, Fred could be heard as Steve the Tree on Nickelodeon’s Oswald, Stenographer Fred on ABC’s Science Court, as Rusty the monkey wrench on Disney’s Handy Manny, and as Chuck The Evil Sandwich Making Guy on PBS’s WordGirl. As a stand-up comedian, Fred appeared on HBO, The Tonight Show, and Late Night with David Letterman. Fred was a staff writer for Seinfeld and has also written for Handy Manny and National Lampoon magazine.

www.fredandvinnie.com 11

Angelo Tsarouchas (“Vinnie”)

Angelo definitely exudes star power, his burly size and no holds barred attitude, have put him in high demand on the global comedy stage as well as in T.V. and film. Some of Angelo’s high-profile film credits include John Q, The Score, The Prince and Me and the critically acclaimed teen cult flick Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle. Angelo also appeared in the movie Cinderella Man starring Russell Crowe. He has also guest-starred on the hit show Mad Men. His Showtime special has received critical acclaim and he has performed in festivals and venues all over the world, too many to mention! Fred and Vinnie is his first starring role.

Jerry P. Magaña (Producer)

A native Southern Californian and honors graduate of Art Center College of Design, Jerry P. Magaña has been producing for more than a decade. With numerous commercials, features, short films and music videos his producing career highlights include the 2002 Festival de Cannes short film selection, “Falsehood” and the feature film, “Firecracker” which earned 3 ½ stars from critic, Roger Ebert. Other highlights include several AICP nominations and a Silver Clio win for his work as producer on a 2002 “Adopt-A-Pet” spot, entitled “Companionship.” In addition to serving as the post production manager on “Fred and Vinnie,” Jerry continues to work as a freelance producer for the multi-Emmy and VES award winning visual effects production company, Ghost Machine in Los Angeles, CA.

Jason J. Tomaric (Cinematographer, Editor)

Jason J. Tomaric is a 14-time Emmy, Telly and CINE Award-winning filmmaker. With four feature films, numerous shorts, thirty commercials, music videos and several educational DVD series on the market, Jason’s on-time, on-budget directing approach has made him an invaluable talent on every project. Jason has worked in over 20 countries as a director/DP and has taught at some of the nation’s most prestigious film schools including UCLA and the New York Film Academy. His new book on filmmaking, "The Power Filmmaking Kit" is on store shelves around the world (published by Focal Press). Coinciding with the book release is the premiere of the world's first online film school, FilmSkills.com. Jason currently resides in Burbank, California.

www.fredandvinnie.com 12

Fred and Vinnie

Production Notes and Facts

• Fred and Vinnie was shot in 19 days in April and May of 2009.

• The total budget through post came to $429,237.

• Fred and Vinnie was shot with the Panasonic HPX500. The digital imaging data was stored locally on 3 sets of portable, rotating P2 media cards which were "ingested" into 3 redundant multiple raid array drives by our on-site media manager, Brian Caravella. Brian constructed a rough edit of the film concurrent to principal photography. • The third redundant media drive was never in the same room as the first two drives until production wrapped officially with pick-ups in late May of 2009.

• The interiors of Fred’s apartment were created on a stage at Panavision Studios in Woodland Hills.

• The exteriors, front door, roof, hallways, dumpster were shot at Fred’s real building in the Fairfax district of L.A.

• Many other scenes, the studio exterior, the agent’s office, Vinnie’s “job” interview, a park, and the audition hallway were also shot in and around Panavision.

• Ironically, the only scenes shot inside Fred’s apartment were the ones where Fred and Vinnie were looking at “bad” apartments.

• Fred, Vinnie, Paul and Luther's apartment interiors were all made from the same set walls. They were simply designed to fly away, move and reverse when production required the new sets. The walls were repainted by a swing crew on stage at Panavision while the first company crew was out on location.

• Two digitally composited visual effects were used within the film. The first one digitally added Fred's name on the wall in the pizza restaurant and the second was added to the movie premiere postcard Fred holds in his hands towards the end of the film.

• The Fred and Vinnie production used the Mobile Movie Studio owned and operated by cinematographer, Jason Tomaric. It was a five-ton truck equipped with most of the equipment needed to shoot the film from lighting

www.fredandvinnie.com 13

and grip packages to dolly track to craft service tables and chairs. It made it easy to pull up to a location, unload the truck and start shooting.

• The final production schedule was determined over the course of a 9-hour meeting between DP Jason Tomaric, Production Designer Coree Van Bebber, Associate Producer Richard Augello, Locations Manager Susan Piek and Producer Jerry P. Magana. The meeting detailed every shot, move, design element and production requirement needed for every frame of the film.

• Mike Saccone, who voices the character of Vinnie’s friend, “Dan” on the phone was the real “Mike from Vegas.”

• The Paul and Luther characters were inspired by Fred’s real friends, Bill Rutkoski and George Calfa. Bill (“Paul”) played himself.

• From about 1983 to 1999, Vinnie D'Angelo never erased an answering machine tape. We used his actual box of tapes for those shots.

• George Calfa, the inspiration for “Luther,” wrote and produced the Vinnie remix credit music at the end of the movie, using the real message tapes Vinnie left behind.

• Fred actually wrote a script, “Ski Potty,” after appearing in a low budget ski film entitled "Downhill Willie," which also featured actor Lee Reherman, who played comedian Adam “Don’t Be A Puss, Be A Man” Clark.

• The license plates used on all the picture vehicles were fake plastic replicas. When the transportation coordinator dropped the cars off at the base camp on the last day of principal photography, he arranged for there to be two California plate replicas but didn't realize Vinnie's picture vehicle was supposed to be from Pennsylvania. Luckily, on the reverse of one of the fake California plates we discovered a Pennsylvania replica plate.

• Vinnie's picture vehicle, a 1976 Oldsmobile, did not stop idling for nearly ten minutes after the crew returned it to the production base camp, parked it and switched the ignition off.

• The team card Vinnie was studying in the baseball card store was of the 1948 World Series Champion Cleveland Indians. The players faces were slightly altered, but the team logo, mascot and font were intact as they were in 1948. The final draft of the card was cleared and used by permission of Major League Baseball and the Cleveland Indians.

• Vinnie’s beloved baseball card collection was never recovered.

www.fredandvinnie.com 14

Fred and Vinnie

Credits

Directed By

Steve Skrovan

Produced By

Jerry P. Magaña

Written By

Fred Stoller

Co-Produced By

Fred Stoller

Jason J. Tomaric

Executive Produced By

Steve Skrovan

Director of Photography

Jason J. Tomaric

Edited By

J.J. Ciramot

www.fredandvinnie.com 15

Production Designer

Coree Van Bebber

Costume Designer

Persephone Bott

Score Composed By

Jim Lang

Casting By

Brad Gilmore, C.S.A.

Associate Producer

Richard Augello

First Assistant Director

Casey Slade

Second Assistant Director

Zack Coutroulis

Second Second Assistant Director

Julio “Jules” Vincent Desanctis IV

Cast

Fred Fred Stoller

Vinnie Angelo Tsarouchas

Paul Bill Rutkoski

www.fredandvinnie.com 16

Luther Scott Chernoff

Mr. Basin John Asher

Angela Harriet Rose

Pizza Delivery Guy Justin Roiland

Pizza Restaurant Manager Dave Hawthorne

Barbara Sarah McMaster

Leo Jack Axelrod

Casting Assistant Amy Stiller

Adam Clark Lee Reherman

Autograph Hound Richard Horvitz

Theresa Sarah Rush

‘Bongo’ Willie Christopher Judges

Interviewer Hamilton Mitchell

Apartment Manager #1 Hiram Kasten

Apartment Manager #2 Mike Ivy

Barry Carlson Richard Tanner

Darlene Ellie Knaus

Vinnie’s Neighbor Tonita Castro

Himself Ryan Cafeo

Himself Kevin Michael Richardson

Himself Fred Willard

Road Raging Guy Omar Lindsey

Voice of Dan Mike Saccone

Voice of Karen Henriette Mantel

Voice of Fred’s Mom Susan Silo

Voice of Lenny the Parrot Jon Olsen

www.fredandvinnie.com 17

Backlot Burn Victims Alina Basil

Sam Skrovan

Other Neighbor Rene Castro

Lenny the Parrot Portia

Murky and Pelly the Cats Rufus

Bonneville

Crew

Production Coordinator Richard Augello

Camera Operator Drew Lauer

First Assistant Camera Nick Savander

Second Assistant Camera Mark Grabianowski

Media Manager/Asst. Editor Brian E. Caravella

Techno Crane Operator Ryan Kahm

Video Assist Quantus Pictures, Inc.

Still Photographer Robyn Von Swank

Compositing Supervisor Doug Witsken

Script Supervisor Dennis Marrell

Art Director Roxy Maronyan

On Set Dresser Edwin Yovany Reyes

Property Master Derek Armstrong

Set Construction Supervisor Levon Maronyan

Carpenter Ian Marsh

Art Department Assistant Humberto Garcia

Georgia Arvanitis

Gaffer David Sheetz

Best Boy Electrician Nathan Fetzer

Electricians Edward Joyce

Larkin Seiple

www.fredandvinnie.com 18

Key Grip/Dolly Grip Tom Hunt

Grips Yoshikazu ‘Yoshi’ Isomura

Owen Hooker

Make Up Department Head Jed Dornoff

Key Make Up Artist Lufeng Qu

Additional Make Up Artists Vicki Chan

Erin LeBre

Lexx Staats

Hair Stylist Department Head Donna Sexton

Additional Hair Stylist Vicki Chan

Special Effects Make Up Jed Dornoff

Donna Sexton

Wardrobe Supervisor Persephone ‘Poppy’ Bott

Assistant Wardrobe Erin Tanaka

Production Sound Mixer/Boom John Churchman

Justin Gay

Location Manager/Scout Susan Peik

Key Set Production Assistant Jody Wilson

Additional PA’s Rebekah Schecter

Flavia De Maio

Assistant To Mr. Stoller Sam Skrovan

Stage Managers Ryan Kahm

Michael Thompson

Craft Services Susan Burlingame

Caterer Jennie Cooks

Swing Gang Caterer Juan & Roxanne Heredia

Transportation Coordinator Robert Dykes

Transportation Captain John Mansur

www.fredandvinnie.com 19

Driver David Johnson

Picture Vehicles By Cinema Vehicle Services

Production Vehicles By Galpin Studio Rentals, Hollywood CA

Production Trailers By Apache Rental Group

Extras Casting By Burbank Casting

Susan Turner-McMains

Michelle Gabriel

Animal Wranglers Benay’s Bird and Animal Source

Benay Karp

Erin Shelly

Tomica Baquet

Morgan Bateman

Camera & Production

Equipment Provided By Quantus Pictures, Inc.

Mobile Movie Studio

Additional Camera Support Bexel, Burbank CA

Additional Production

Equipment Provided By Out Of Frame, Hollywood CA

Additional Audio Equipment

Provided By Good Karma Production Rentals

Sound Stage & Studio Facilities Panavision, Inc., Woodland Hills CA

Location Security P.R.O.P.S. Security

Location Permit Services By Walker Location Service

Production Insurance By Supple-Merrill & Driscoll, Inc.

David Merrill

Malissa Rabold

www.fredandvinnie.com 20

Production Legal Sloss Eckhouse Brennan LawCo, LLP

Jacqueline Eckhouse

Jaime Herman

Production Accountant Narine Terzian

Production Payroll &

PC Accounting By Entertainment Partners, Burbank CA

Wendy Mortimer

Kristin Inman

Kim Weddig

Post Production

Post Production Supervisor Jerry P. Magaña

Post Production Services By Quantus Pictures, Inc.

Additional Voice Recording Audio Paint, New York NY

Frank Piazza

Visual Effects By Ghost Machine, Los Angeles, CA

Renaud Talon

Doug Witsken

Score Recorded At Knobworld, Los Angeles CA

Composed & Arranged By Jim Lang

Assistant Recordist Jesus Martinez

Additional Recording Facilities Multi Media Music, Toluca Lake CA

Mark Vincent

Poster Artwork Ryan Nellis

Eyelumination Studio

www.fredandvinnie.com 21

Songs

“Eachother” Performed By Patrick Tuzzolino Written and Published By Patrick Tuzzolino Arranged By Patrick Tuzzolino and Bob McChesney Courtesy of Mamaroneck Roofing Music (BMI)

“Today’s The Day” Performed By Andy Paley Written, Arranged and Published By Andy Paley Courtesy of Twilite Tunes (SESAC)

“The Vinnie Tapes” Published and Arranged By George Calfa (BMI)

The Fimmakers Wish To Thank The Following For Their Assistance And Support

Abbe Leviton

Alina Basil

All of Fred’s Wonderful and Patient Neighbors

American Cinematheque The Egyptian Theater, Hollywood CA Nancy Winters

Anne Peralta

Apache Rental Group Tony Checa

Armen Terzian

Barney Weiss

Bexel, Burbank CA Michael Lai

Bischoff’s Taxidermy & Animal FX

Bob & Meg Augello

www.fredandvinnie.com 22

Bob McChesney

Bob Sheppard

Brian McKim

Brian Whalen

Cara Stein

Chris Tedesco

Darryl & Colleen Bates

Deirdre Lyons

Dom Irrera

Doug & Midori Witsken

Entertainment Partners, Burbank CA Myfa Cirinna Julie Harris-Walker

Eric Sherman

FilmLA, Inc.

Frank Capp

Fresh & Easy ™ Stores…for keeping it so Fresh & Easy

Galpin Ford Studio Rentals, Hollywood CA Robert Dykes

Georgia Arvanitis

Ghost Machine VFX, Los Angeles CA www.ghostmachineVFX.com Doug Witsken Renaud Talon

Goro & Kanta Amano

Harvey Branman Photography

Hilarion & Pearl Magaña

Humberto Garcia

Ian Campbell

Ingrid Davis

www.fredandvinnie.com 23

Jeff Mandell

Jeremy Stevens

Jilbert Tahmasian

Joel Warshawer

Jonah Torreano

Julia Skrovan

Ken Averill

La Cañada Village, L.P.

Louanne Johnson

Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. Robin Jaffe Laura Bishop

Mark Long

Martha Van Bebber

Michelle Lang

Mr. K’s Pizza, Glendale CA Mr. & Mrs. K

Out of Frame Production Rentals, Hollywood CA

Panavision, Inc., Woodland Hills CA Larry Hezzelwood Heather Mayer Susan Nelson Lenore Terrace

Patricia Heaton

Patrick Tuzzolino

Peter Fogliano

Phil Rosenthal

Ray Romano

Rena Zager

Renaud Talon

Richard Czerny

www.fredandvinnie.com 24

Rick Munoz

Rob Schaer

Robert Cabeen

Robert Forster

Robyn Von Swank

Roman Gora

Screen Actors Guild Gail Glaser Kathy Morand

Stacey McGinnis

Stephen Butchko

Sunset Bronson Studios Robin Bennyworth Beth Talbert

The Baseball Card Company, Granada Hills CA www.bbcardco.com Steve Aronson Michael Harris

The Bungalow Club

The City Of Glendale, CA

The City Of La Crescenta, CA

The City Of Los Angeles, CA

The Cleveland Indians Paul Dolan

The Grove, Los Angeles CA

The Legendary Wid

The Writers Store, Los Angeles CA Jesse Douma Dana Hahn

Tom Caltabiano

Warner Brothers Wardrobe Department

Writers Guild of America, West

www.fredandvinnie.com 25

Fred and Vinnie

Screen Captures

“I know! You were in that ski movie about the toilet! Sky Potty!”

www.fredandvinnie.com 26

Vinnie: I got evicted from my apartment and my car repossessed. You think that’s gonna show up?

Fred: Yeah, that’s gonna show up.

I stopped at the Dollar Store and stocked up.

www.fredandvinnie.com 27

Fred: Don’t you think you should put your cards storage? What if something happened to them? You’d kill yourself. Vinnie: What good are they in storage? I need them close to me.

“Oh no, don’t tell me. One time you were stuck in an airport and it was your birthday and you had to talk to your boyfriend on the phone and ‘I was so alone, ohhh,’ and you once went three weeks without a boyfriend when you were 23!”

www.fredandvinnie.com 28

Fred and Vinnie

Behind the Scenes Stills

Steve Skrovan (Director), Angelo Tsarouchas (Vinnie), Fred Stoller (Fred), Tom Hunt (Dolly Grip)

www.fredandvinnie.com 29

Dennis Marrell (Script Supervisor), Jason Tomaric (Cinematographer)

www.fredandvinnie.com 30

Scott Chernoff (Luther), Bill Rutkoski (Paul)

www.fredandvinnie.com 31

Kevin Michael Richardson, Angelo Tsarouchas, Fred Willard, Ryan Cafeo, Fred Stoller

www.fredandvinnie.com 32

(L) Jerry Magana (Producer)

www.fredandvinnie.com 33

“The Crew” at the Egyptian Theater Hollywood

www.fredandvinnie.com 34

Fred and Vinnie

Festivals and Awards

Winner, Best Feature Film Beverly Hills Film, Television & New Media Festival

Winner, Best of Festival Alexandria Film Festival

Winner, Best Actor - Fred Stoller Mammoth Film Festival

Official Selection Slamdance Film Festival

Official Selection Newport Beach Film Festival

Official Selection Montreal “Just For Laughs” Comedy Festival

Grand Prize Winner, Independent Comedy Feature Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago IL Christopher Wetzel Award

www.fredandvinnie.com 35

Fred and Vinnie

Reviews

Marc Hershon Host, "Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast"

Couch Potato Au Gratin (Movie Review: Fred and Vinnie) As posted on www.huffingtonpost.com, May 11, 2011

Fred Stoller shouldn't be the star of a movie.

That's what conventional wisdom would have us believe. He doesn't look like a movie star. He doesn't sound like a movie star. He doesn't act like a movie star.

All of which are precisely the reasons he's great as the star of Fred & Vinnie. Stoller wrote the movie and Stoller stars in the movie, in which he plays... Fred Stoller. Who better?

Fred & Vinnie is a very small movie about two friends who haven't seen each other in years, but who have kept in touch by phone. The origins of the friendship are uncertain, but we quickly learn that Vinnie (deftly played by Angelo Tsarouchas,) a virtual shut-in in his darkened "cave", lives vicariously through Fred's exploits as a struggling comedian/actor/writer on the fringes of Hollywood.

The most trivial of anecdotes sends Vinnie into belly laughs -- a comedian's best audience -- one reason we suspect Fred calls so often. The long distance relationship the two men have, so comfortable by phone, all starts to change when Vinnie announces he's coming for a visit.

At first, Fred's delighted at the prospect. He'll be able to show his buddy all of the crazy Hollywood sights he's only been able to talk about. And even putting the uncomfortably overweight Vinnie up in his tiny one-bedroom apartment doesn't seem so bad. (Stoller, tall and rail-thin, together with the generously proportioned Tsarouchas, cut a classically comic pair when seen onscreen together.)

www.fredandvinnie.com 36

The discovery that Vinnie isn't just visiting, but has moved to Los Angeles with nothing but a bag of clothes and a beat-up suitcase containing his baseball card collection, creates a slow, creeping dread in Fred. A dread that grows the more he learns about bridges Vinnie has burned that will make it hard for him to return home. It seems things may have been way better when Vinnie was just a phone call away.

While Fred lives a Hollywood life of quiet desperation -- fruitless auditions, therapy sessions with Loony Tunes psychologists and with a retinue of friends who are all in various stages of scrabbling to make it -- his friend Vinnie is the personification of anyone who's never been in the thick of it. "I just need to get on a movie set," he tells Fred, in the belief that his talent will out as soon as a star of significant magnitude gets a load of him.

There's a reality of the comedy community that comes through for those of us who have served, and that's the separation that takes place between those in "the Business" and everyone else -- the civilians. In Fred & Vinnie, all of Fred's comedian/actor friends exhibit various dysfunctions -- paranoia, delusions of grandeur, etc. -- but theirs is a shared world. Vinnie is an outsider and, as delusional as he may be (and although even a small-time stand-up comedian back home,) he's not part of Fred's world any longer. Their history has brought them together, but it's not enough to keep them that way.

The longer that Vinnie takes advantage of Fred's hospitality, the closer his fragile host comes to losing it. The film does an exemplary job of making the viewer feel Fred's world -- not to mention Vinnie's ever-magnifying idiosyncrasies -- pressing in on him. Ultimately, Fred manages to survive, though only through Vinnie's self awareness of what a burden he's become. By the film's conclusion, Fred's travails have brought him back once again to regard his relationship with Vinnie with a nostalgic sweetness, the tone of which helps to elevate Fred & Vinnie to a level of filmmaking that has seen it invited to Sundance, Mammoth (where Stoller took Best Actor honors) and, most recently, the first-prize winner in the feature category competition for the Gene Siskel Film Center's Christopher Wetzel Award for Independent Film Comedy.

Stoller's not the only comedian who has helped to create this funny yet sad world. With a budget under half a million dollars, Steve Skrovan, a former standup himself, does a nice job at the helm, and the no-frills cinematography by Jason J. Tomaric makes Fred's corner of Hollywood look slightly seamy and worn out -- like that pair of shoes you'd kick around in but not be caught dead wearing outside. Quirky characters that leave an impression include neighbors and roommates Paul and Luther, played by Bill

www.fredandvinnie.com 37

Rutkowski and Scott Chernoff, Lee Reherman as Adam Clark, the bombastic self-help author of Don't Be A Puss, Be A Man!, and old pal Hiram Kasten is funny as an apartment manager who wrestles with a sofa bed.

Fred & Vinnie is in full film festival mode right now, which includes a stop at a mental health festival this month. If you keep your eyes peeled, you should be able to catch it... but don't let it drive you crazy.

Marc Hershon is the co-author of the book “I Hate People” (Little, Brown and Company; June 2009) with Jonathan Littman. Marc is also a screenwriter who has written several television movies for the Hallmark Channel, including Santa Jr., Monster Makers, and Wedding Daze.

www.fredandvinnie.com 38

Film Review

Posted: Thu., Aug. 4, 2011, 3:26pm PT

New U.S. Release Fred and Vinnie By Rob Nelson

Angelo Tsarouchas and Fred Stoller star in “Fred and Vinnie.”

Produced by Jerry P. Magaña. Executive producer, Steve Skrovan. Co-producers, Jason J. Tomaric, Fred Stoller. Directed by Steve Skrovan. Screenplay, Fred Stoller.

With: Fred Stoller, Angelo Tsarouchas, Bill Rutkoski, Scott Chernoff, John Asher, Sarah Rush, Ryan Cafeo, Kevin Michael Richardson, Fred Willard.

"Pretty much a true story," according to its opening credits, "Fred and Vinnie" gently fictionalizes the "Odd Couple"-style screwball- comic relationship between rail-thin actor-screenwriter Fred Stoller and his vastly overweight pal, the late Vinnie D'Angelo (beautifully played in the pic by Angelo Tsarouchas). Stoller, a frequent sitcom guest star and former "Seinfeld" staff writer, comes off as a cross between Joe Mantegna and Steve Buscemi, his character seeming the quintessential schlub when Vinnie, a kindred agoraphobe and accomplished freeloader, comes to Los Angeles for a visit and stays a short eternity. Witty and heartfelt, this modest indie surely deserves an audience.

www.fredandvinnie.com 39

Lonely as the day is long, middle-aged comedian Fred flails hilariously in his furtive attempts to connect with women while suffering failed acting auditions and struggling to finish penning the treatise "Restaurants You Don't Feel Self-Conscious Eating Alone At." He's naturally excited when his long-distance phone pal Vinnie, the most appreciative audience member Fred has ever had, reports that he's just been evicted from his Philly attic apartment and would like to come and crash with him in L.A., where he hopes to find bottom-feeding work in Hollywood.

Little does Fred know that 350-pound Vinnie, the self-described "fattest vegetarian in the world," eats candy by the bushel, snores like a roaring grizzly bear and generally declines invitations to leave the house. Rarely more than an inch away from his most prized possession, a three-ring binder full of vintage baseball cards, the bushy-bearded Vinnie gradually wears out his welcome with Fred while fully endearing himself to the viewer, thanks largely to Tsarouchas' lovably deadpan portrayal. Throughout, the movie displays a keen and ultimately poignant understanding of a loner's self- imposed isolation as well as his intermittent yearning for connection.

Director Steve Skrovan (who made the Ralph Nader docu "An Unreasonable Man") favors simple setups that shrewdly accentuate the real-life dimensions of Stoller's screenplay. Supporting characters too often appear more abrasively shrill than humorous, although the comic interplay between Stoller and Tsarouchas is more than deft enough to keep the film grounded. While production values are exceedingly lean, the movie is sharply rendered on all counts, with Jason J. Tomaric's aptly claustrophobic videography a particular standout.

Camera (color, HD, widescreen), Jason J. Tomaric; editor, J.J. Ciramot; music, Jim Lang; production designer, Coree Van Bebber; art director, Roxy Maronyan; costume designer, Persephone Bott; sound, John Churchman, Justin Gay; visual effects supervisors, Renaud Talon, Doug Witsken; visual effects, Ghost Machine; associate producer, Richard Augello; assistant director, Casey Slade; casting, Brad Gilmore. Reviewed on DVD, Minneapolis, July 28, 2011. (In Slamdance Film Festival, Just for Laughs Festival.) Running time: 89 MIN.