Jan 27, 2018 4 min read

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Photos courtesy of Eric Chapman

Garrett Titlebaum as Craig and Jordan Streussnig as Grace walk past Little Joe’s Market in Canonsburg while filming “Craig Quits His Day Job.”

Photos courtesy of Eric Chapman

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From left are Terry McNavage as Winston, Jerry Pietrala as Jerry, Marie Lou-Nahhas as Nadia and Garrett Titlebaum as Craig.

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Screenwriter Eric Paul Chapman, right, appears in the film with Garrett Titlebaum.

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When screenwriter Eric Paul Chapman couldn’t get Hollywood to bring one of his movies to life, he decided to do it himself.

The Dormont native, who has written more than 20 screenplays, was living in and working near Canonsburg when he set out to create a budget-friendly and universally-appealing script. His previous film, “Kultur Shock!” was a “mystery, sci-fi thriller that didn’t do well,” said Chapman, because “people didn’t know what to make of it.”

This time around, in “Craig Quits His Day Job,” Chapman’s plot is one to which most people can relate.

In the film, Craig, played by Garrett Titlebaum, unites fellow “quitters” in his community after leaving his job. He’s like a younger version of the “Milton” character from “Office Space,” said Chapman, and probably would have turned out that way – a mumbling outcast long-antagonized by his work environment – if he hadn’t quit.

“Craig is different than me, but similar in that we were both stuck in a job, felt like we had reached a dead end and wanted to move on. That’s the similarity between us,” said Chapman, who quit his job captioning movies and television shows to work on his own movie. “I definitely felt passionate about this story. It’s a very unique story that’s never told, whereas a lot of locally produced movies are horror movies. If I was going to make a movie with my own money, it had to be original.”

The full-length comedy was filmed primarily in Canonsburg in the summer of 2015. Brody’s Furniture, on West Pike Street, served as the backdrop of a key scene in the film, which is available to view on Amazon Prime. Other Canonsburg locales include the now-replaced bridge on South Central Avenue and Town Park.

Because of frequent rain that summer, though, Chapman was not able to film outdoors as much as planned.

“It rained a lot. I’m proud of the film, but I wanted to get more exterior shots,” Chapman said.

One other regret?

“I should have put Mayor (David) Rhome in it,” Chapman said. “Everyone knows him.”

Other than the rain, the cast and crew didn’t meet with many external obstacles while filming, but they did garner some strange looks from passersby.

“Once people got used to seeing us, though, we got lots of support,” Chapman said.

After shooting wrapped, Chapman and his editor, Billy Jerlat, spent about nine months editing footage into an 85-minute film.

Chapman used his 401(k) account to finance the $25,000 price tag.

“It could have cost less, if I would have not paid the cast and crew. It wasn’t necessarily a lot, but I did feel an obligation to pay them something,” he said.

It took some time to find a distributor, but once he did, the movie was available on Amazon in about a week.

Now that the film is complete, Chapman’s new goal is to get 100 customer reviews. That would lead to the film appearing on recommended lists, which could reach a wider audience. So far, he has about 40 reviews.

“It’s not every day somebody films a feature-length movie in your backyard,” Chapman said. “I’d like to let more folks in Washington know about the movie. It’s cool to see those locations in the film.”

Chapman, who has worked as a temp for the past year, has plans for his next full-length film. But he doesn’t want to give away too much plot. What he will say is that it’s a coming-of-age story, and that he can only make it if “Craig” is a success.

The ultimate goal would be “Craig Quits His Day Job” becoming a cult hit, he said, with a line of T-shirts, coffee mugs and desktop calendars for die-hard fans.

“Hey, it’s a long shot, but a guy can dream,” said Chapman.