Harvest filmmaker shoots portions of film in Madison

A poster for Dormant, an upcoming full-length feature film from Harvest filmmaker Jay Burton. (Contributed/2015 Bermuda Image)

By Nick Sellers | Staff Writer

MADISON – For his full-length feature film, Dormant, local do-it-all talent Jay Burton recently shot scenes in Madison over Memorial Day weekend with the cooperation of HEMSI and other authorities from the Madison area.

Under Burton’s film company, Bermuda Image, LLC, Dormant functions as a prequel to “Bermuda City”, which is a series of short films that exists on Youtube and is coming out soon as comic book under his label, Red Crow Comics.

As Burton explained it, Dormant is a chance for he (Burton plays Det. Jordan Long in addition to writing, directing and producing the film) and the other actors and actresses to show more of their individual character than was revealed in “Bermuda City.”

“I think with Dormant, I wanted to focus more on the psyche and individuality of the characters just more than shoot-em-up and bang-bang,” Burton said.

In the film, Det. Jordan Long, one of the protagonists, is tasked with investigating recent crimes committed by former CIA agent Nigel Goodman.

“Goodman is a Russian spy who was murdered ten years ago but has mysteriously returned to continue his terrorist acts,” the synopsis reads.

Throughout the process of making Dormant, and his other works, Burton has strived to hire local creative talents to help make his works happen.

“Most of our crew is from the Huntsville-Madison area,” Burton said. “I stay in Harvest, and there are a few people from Birmingham, Atlanta, South Carolina.”

Burton wrote the film for Dormant in just two months around two years ago. There have been a few delays, but Burton said the photo shoot in Madison, which occurred in a neighborhood just to the south of Highway 72, is a big step in completing the film.

“We had about 12 extras there,” Burton said of the May 24 shoot. “In all, we had almost 30 people on set.”

After shooting, Burton said, the film will go “straight to editing.” The run time will be around 90-100 minutes. He hopes the film will be ready to be released in October, with help from distributors like Netflix, Redbox and international distributors.

“We definitely would like to get Monaco Pictures involved,” Burton added, referring to the Bridge Street movie theater.