Jake Breaks Into The Movie Biz

Jake breaks into the movie biz

Offbeat feature fum on local cable features familiar face, voice

By-CHRISTOPHER POTTER

NEWS ARTS WRITER___________________________

Quick, who is Saginaw, Michigan's famous native son?

Not Stevie Wonder. It’s "Shakey" Jake. Woods, guitar-picker-blues-wailer-street-philosopher extraordinaire, who arrived in Ann Arbor a quarter-century ago.

§o what if everyone’s forgotten his professional moniker is actually Shakin’ Jake Woods? A2's sunglassed, carnation-wearing musical legend has found a new avocation: He’s narrator of “The Detroit Narcotics Bust," a feature film written, produced and directed by Ann Arborite Kelly Charles Powell.

The movie premieres this Thursday on Community Televison Network’s cable Channel 9 at 8:30 p.m., and will be re-broadcast Friday at 3 p.m., Aug. 15 at 10 p.m., and Aug. 16 at 3 p.m.

“We shot most of Shakey’s scenes on the tracks by the (Ann Arbor) train station,” says Powell, a theater grad at Eastern Michigan University who's currently pursuing an MBA there. "We also shot one scene in the alley-way behind the Full Moon (restaurant).

“Jake introduces the story, then offers some closing thoughts. He then shoos the audience away: ‘Well, that’s it! That’s all! Don’t bother me no more!’ ”

“Detroit Narcotics Bust” chronicles multiple crises confronting two best friends during and following graduation from college. Milliken (played by Powell) is an ex-football star who grows obsessed with becoming a policeman following the murder of his police-commissioner father.

Trent (played by Kenneth Nyquist, Jr.) is a brainy chemistry major who finds himself unable to resist the fortune he can make creat-• ing a synthetic mega-cocaine, the two friends’ divergent paths ironically put them on a long-range collision course leading to violent tragedy.

Powell wrote the screenplay for “Detroit Narcotics Bust” May through August of 1995, then immediately commenced shooting the film - with several breaks “because it was just too much being in grad school full-time plus making a movie.” Shooting wrapped at the end of this May, followed by double-time editing work.

“Narcotics Bust” was shot primarily on Detroit's East Side, “although we also went west all the way to Jackson for some scenes,” says Powell. Work included the renovation of a defunct milk farm in Grass Lake to make it resemble a drug-manufacturing hideaway.

Challenges included the fact that none of Powell’s nearly two-dozen cast members had ever acted before.

“I just told them, ‘These are your lines. Try to figure out where your character’s coming from, what their feelings are. Some people

largely wrote their own parts. 1 think they brought it off pretty well.”

Powell credits editor-cinematographer Greg McDonald - a University of Michigan B.A. and M.A. recipient in Communications

- with helping make “Narcotics Bust” a reality. “He really helped me through a lot of the tough stuff,” says the director of McDonald, who works at Ann Arbor Community Television.

Powell says his hour-and-50-minute black-and-white film bears the visual look of the surprise 1994 hit “Clerks," although “the story line is totally different.” The movie adds local flavor by featuring original music from such area bands as South Normal, The PMF and Tim Knapp.

So why is a film buff - who calls the making of his movie “the fulfillment of a dream"

- pursuing a grad degree in Business Administration?

“Well, the MBA is sort of my backup plan,” laughs Powell. “If I can’t end up on the artistic side of the movie business, maybe I can end up on the business side of it."

Will Powell shoot for a theatrical or video release for “Detroit Narcotics Bust”?

"I’m really not sure at this point," he said. "Actually, I’m exploring the idea of sending copies of the movie to major studios to see if they’d like to re-make it on a studio budget. They could use the original as a kind of blueprint.

NEWS FILE PHOTO

Shakey Jake Woods, narrator of the upcoming CTN feature movie,

'Detroit Narcotics Bust.'

“But I really like the film because I don’t think too many viewers will be able to predict what’s going to happen. I think that’s a refreshing change from your typical Hollywood formula film where you can predict the outcome an hour in advance.

“I like to stump audiences. That helps keep the characters themselves interesting.”