Midwest Movie Maker

Lamont Richmond II > > > A few days after Shooting Stars , the LeBron James biopic, premiered on Peacock, Lamont Richmond II dropped a link to an Instagram post from @MakeItUniversal in my inbox. It was a short feature about working as a production assistant (PA) on the film. “I started in the hospital as a floor tech, cleaning floors,” Richmond tells us in the video. “I did that for three years. Got a call to be a production assistant. She said a P.A. No clue what the letters meant.” And then there he was, on the Akron set of Shooting Stars , handing out call sheets and wrangling extras. I connected with that experience, having worked as a PA on a handful of productions some 20-plus years ago. Which is what stood out to me when Richmond shared the video. Richmond is a young guy. Not like the crew of PAs I worked with. We were all in our early 20s, hoping to make the leap up the production ladder. Beyond his obvious love for the world of film production, why was Richmond work...

Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx in a scene from 'The Soloist' The Soloist , starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., tells the true story of Cleveland native Nathaniel Ayers , a gifted young musician whose life falls into chaos when he is overtaken by schizophrenia. Foxx plays Ayers and Downey Jr. plays journalist Steve Lopez, an L.A. Times columnist who encounters Ayers, now homeless, in downtown L.A. Lopez takes on Ayers' story - not believing, at first, that this talented homeless man once went to the Julliard School in New York - and the two form a bond of friendship unexpected by both. Scenes of Ayers childhood were shot in Cleveland. Foxx was on hand for the shoot. LeBron James and his St. Vincent-St. Mary teammates LeBron documentary 'More Than a Game' Another film coming soon about another Northeast Ohio phenomenon is More Than a Game . The documentary paints a portrait of Cleveland Cavaliers great LeBron James during his days at St. Vincent-St. Mary Hi...