Gerard Elmore's romantic comedy - All for Melissa - is a valentine to the life he experienced and witnessed on his home turf. And Elmore's home is the luscious and fragrant Hawaiian Island of Oahu.

"We set out to make a movie to put smiles on people's faces. We didn't set out to win awards. It wasn't meant to be a flashy show - but a love letter to Hawaii, a nice little tale about everything Hawaii represents," Elmore, 28, said in a recent phone interview.

This fictional feature stars Milan Tresnak as Jared, an aspiring Oahu filmmaker who has a major screen crush on a major movie star named Melissa Williams. Jared decides to track down Melissa and convince her to star in a music video, hoping, of course, to woo her and convince her to co-star in his own life. Melissa is played by Kimberly Estrada, an actress with a Bachelor's degree in criminal justice. And as if that wasn't enough, Estrada is trained in martial arts and was named one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People in 2006. Aloha!

The film was shot in 20 days. Other filmmakers will relate to this: All for Melissa was accepted at a festival and the festival's October 2007 screening date put a rush order on the film's six-month post-production.

"I finished the movie the day we showed it at the Hawaii International Film Festival," Elmore said, the amazement and exhaustion still evident in his voice as he recalls the experience. "I don't recommend doing that. I was pretty messed up afterwards."

Despite the stunning locales available on every one of the state's islands, feature films with a story set in Hawaii are surprisingly rare. Hawaiian film fans turned out when this homegrown film premiered at the Honolulu festival.

"The response was enormous. We sold out every screening. People were excited because there haven't been a lot of features made in Hawaii," Elmore said. "And it was really well received. People see me on the street and will say, 'Hey, you did that movie.'"

Some of the most-recent dramatic visuals to come from Hawaii are from "reality" TV - the cable show Dog the Bounty Hunter, about a muscular guy with bad skin and a wicked long mullet who tracks down bail-jumping meth addicts on Oahu's west side. Much of All for Melissa was filmed on that very same infamous west side. Elmore intentionally shot his pretty romantic comedy in the "Dog pound," and while not denying the problems that plague the area, he wanted to show that there was more to the region than meth-induced mayhem (although a generator was stolen from a beach during production).

"I wanted to show that Hawaii is like every other place. Yes, we have the natural beauty, but this film just happens to be set in Hawaii. This is how we really are. It's not hula girls and grass shacks. Our lives are like everyone else's," Elmore said.

One of the film's charms is that is depicts the racial and ethnic diversity of Hawaii, and how, according to Elmore and the film, those diverse groups cohabitate amiably, and that Oahu culture is one of integration, not separation.

"It's a melting pot of races," Elmore, who describes himself as a Guatemalan and Caucasian mix, said. "I wanted to show that we're all mixed up, but at the same time we all have different personalities and backgrounds."

Elmore learned the basics of filmmaking by working crew jobs on commercials, and by making shorts. "I never went to formal film school. Shorts were my film school," Elmore said, adding that he has written and directed six shorts that have appeared in festivals. 

Members of the Oahu film community, with whom Elmore had worked on commercials and short films, came together and donated time to help Elmore realize his first feature. Crew members offered their skills, and use of cranes and a steadicam. The film was shot in hi-def using a Panasonic AG-HVX200 with a Red Rock 35mm lens adapter.

"We have a real cool, tight-knit community here in Hawaii," Elmore said. "We said we have to do this because features need to come out of Hawaii - we have to prove we can do this."

The visuals are top-notch, and the film looks as though it had a production budget far above the $27,000 that was spent to make the movie. "People automatically assume we spent a lot of money on the movie," Elmore said.

"We were like the Macgyver of movies. We did the best we could with what little we had," Elmore added.

Director of photography Anne Misawa and the sound team (especially ADR dialogue dubbing in post-production) lifted the film's production quality. Elmore knows from his own experience that volunteering time and skill on projects in your local film community pays off.

"A lot of the crew members have gotten very busy and successful as a result of this film and I'm very proud of that," Elmore said. 

Elmore also works in front of the camera. He plays a supporting role in "Melissa," and played "Blake" on TV's Beyond the Break, a series on The N, a cable Network owned by Viacom.

Elmore moved to and lived briefly in Los Angeles because he had heard over and over that he needed to be there in order to have a serious career in film. He was hired by Crown Royal to travel the U.S. filming commercial spots for the distillery at NASCAR race tracks.

"I was reaching for LA and the glamour and the hope of making it, but I realized I had friends here (in Oahu) who were passionate about making films and that everything I wanted was right here," Elmore said. "And when I was writing the script (for "Melissa") it was about coming to terms with being happy where you are."

After a year, Elmore returned to Oahu and is committed to the Hawaii film scene. And, of course, Elmore is plotting his next feature.

"And in the meantime I want to help out other Hawaiian filmmakers," he said, adding that the close-knit relationship between filmmakers on Oahu is what made "Melissa" possible. "I think it's important to say 'we' instead of 'I.' It was a whole team effort."

Elmore is focused on distribution for "Melissa." He is talking with a distributor interested in buying USA DVD rights. A theatrical release in Hawaii is possible this Christmas. He hopes that exposure in the From Here to Awesome festival will introduce the film to the international marketplace - Oceanic countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, and in Asian countries - all of which are well represented by strong communities on the Hawaiian Islands.

"We're doing From Here to Awesome because we really believe in the film and we want to get it out there - we think it will help us reach beyond the borders," Elmore said.

Click Here to watch the All for Melissa trailer at From Here to Awesome. If you like what you see, give the film an "awesome" vote!

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