Coming soon to a streaming service or theater near you — a story about growing up on Bainbridge.
The pilot of “Finding Chaz,” written and produced by BI resident Anisa Ashabi, saw its first screening at the Lynwood Theater July 26. About 70 members of the cast, crew and donors attended.
For Ashabi, watching her passion project come alive in front of an audience was “surreal.”
“You’ve been seeing this cut so many times, as it gets better and more fine-tuned over the last few months, so it doesn’t fully sink in until you realize that other people are now seeing it with you. I was a little bit desensitized, and then it’s up on the screen, and people are laughing in all the right places, and they’re reacting to it,” she said. “It’s so rewarding, also scary; it’s kind of that combo of, ‘Oh my gosh, now it’s out. It’s leaving the safety of my home and my computer and my close circle, and going out there.’”
It’s a major milestone for the project, now two years into production and nearly 10 years in the making: Ashabi first wrote the novel version of “Chaz” as a preteen, inspired by her experience attending Woodward Middle School. That’s why it just made sense to shoot the pilot on Bainbridge — and to source 50 members of her crew from Kitsap County.
“The filming location that we used for the school scenes was the school that I was attending when I first came up with this idea. I keep talking about that when I mention it to people, but I don’t think I can over-emphasize how special that was, that I had the lead actress sitting at the literal, exact desk that I was at in this classroom. It was just a very cool, full-circle moment for me,” Ashabi said.
The community’s excitement for the project was tangible, Ashabi said. People would volunteer their homes for filming, local teens and students home from college and stepped into roles as extras, production assistants and craft services.
However, Kitsap isn’t Hollywood, Ashabi added — she had to learn to be adaptable when situations changed unexpectedly.
“I’m a very type-A person, and I had this map in my mind. But sometimes things don’t go exactly the way that you plan, but that can sometimes be to your benefit,” she said.
The next step for “Chaz” is a proof of concept test-run for a few studios in Los Angeles, who may pick up the pilot for a series. Who knows whether the rest of the show will be shot on BI, Ashabi said — once a studio accepts the pilot, it’s out of her control — but she’s excited to return to the island for future independent projects.
