Filmmakers with Utah roots talk about their new film 'Amber Alert'

LOS ANGELES — As a film lover, I am fascinated by all aspects of filmmaking — especially the process.

For a film to be great, each component must work individually and for the whole of the film. For instance, if you listened to just the music of a film, without the visuals or dialogue, you should get a good sense of what is happening at any point in the film. Same with the script, set design, editing, etc. As I watch movies, I am always thinking about these individual components and how well they come together to tell the full story.

When I get a chance to speak with filmmakers, I like to see the filmmaking process through their eyes and get a sense of their vision of how it all comes together.

I spoke with husband-and-wife team Kerry and Summer Bellessa about their most recent theatrical film release "Amber Alert" (in theaters now). I spoke with the couple as they settled into their home in California following a tour crisscrossing the country promoting their new film.

To get the interview going, it only makes sense that we start from the beginning.

What was the inspiration for this film?

"What happened was Summer and I were driving from LA to Arizona to visit Summer's mom," said Kerry Bellessa. "It was January of 2010 and we saw a real-life active Amber Alert. I remember seeing it and saying, 'Summer, we are going to find this car,' and gripped the wheel a little tighter and said, 'We are going to run that car off the road; we are going to save the kid and be heroes.'"

"I was like, 'Uh, let's take a moment, that does not seem like the smartest thing to do, in case there is a kid involved. Maybe we should just call the police and watch from afar.' We kept talking about it for about an hour and a half, about what we would do in different circumstances," Summer Bellessa said.

"I went home and scoured the internet thinking this is such a great idea, great concept, pretty simple and no one has done it. I called my buddy Josh, who wrote it with me, and we started working on it," said Kerry Bellessa

From the time you thought of the story to when it was a finished film, how much had changed from the original idea and how much stayed the same?

"The initial hook was always there — it's been written for 11 years. The thing that we had to do is make sure it was believable, that these two individuals were following this car and the police involvement wasn't around. We were always working on that, making sure we had that and other believable things happening. I don't know if that's how it always was from Day 1, or if it had changed a lot," said Kerry Bellessa. "There were different iterations, but the through-line story has always been there. Things shifted like technology. People weren't getting Amber Alerts on their phones when we first wrote the story so we had to implement that."

What was the most rewarding thing about making this film?

Summer Bellessa said, "I think one of the things I love to see is how Kerry is drawn to movies that make you think, and, afterward, you are really debating and talking about the film and your life ... then getting to see people thinking about things, talking about things, discussing Amber Alerts as they were walking out of the theater. I thought that was really cool because I know how much Kerry cares about that."

"Just having amazing actors — they took the words off the page and made it better than we could have expected," said Kerry Bellessa. "They were nuanced and had care for the words. They brought humanity to it, and you're really grateful for these amazing actors and that they came on this journey with us."

What is the process like working together as a husband and wife?

"For Kerry and I, it's really fun and rewarding working together because we both enjoy what we do," said Summer Bellessa. "For our date nights, we will go and discuss story ideas and things like who we need to hire. Some of our friends when they hear this say, 'If my spouse talked only about work on date night, I would be mad.' We both enjoy what we do, so we are able to spend a lot of hours we wouldn't get to if we didn't both love it.

"We work the hardest for each other because we have a goal as a couple and for our family," she said. "Kerry sometimes gets frustrated because I am his biggest fan, but I am very honest — if I don't think an idea is good or I think we are failing at something, I am very vocal about it, but I think it helps in the end."

"Yep, everything Summer says is spot-on," Kerry Bellessa said.

You mentioned earlier you have goals for your family; what are some of the goals you were talking about?

"We love to create and want to continue to make a living doing this," said Summer Bellessa. "What that looks like for our family, we would love to go live in Spain for a year, so we are planning for that. Things like this are probably unusual, but it's how we want to live our lives. It's important to us we are on the same page and working toward those things."

"Our kids came out to Kentucky with us for a week; our oldest stayed an extra week and read the whole script while he was on set," Kerry Bellessa said.

"He's 13 years old, and Kerry asked him what he thought about the script. He said, 'It's not 'Indiana Jones,' but it's really good,'" Summer Bellessa added.

How are you both connected to Utah?

"We have a ton of family in Utah and always go to the Sundance Film Festival," said Summer Bellessa.

"I have a brother who graduated from the University of Utah and one who graduated from BYU. Every year, we visit my cousin and his family in Utah," Kelly Bellessa said.

"We just love spending time in Utah. In fact, I just shot a film there this summer. It's called 'Too Soon' and will be out next year," Summer Bellessa said.

What were some of the challenges you faced shooting the film on the budget you had?

"I wish I had more days to shoot. We only had 19 days; I would have liked 25 to 30 days, but that's where you spend all your money, shooting the film," Kerry Bellessa said. "We had bigger stunts planned that we had to reign in — at one point, we had a train but had to scale things back and keep it simple."

"This is the most money we've had to make a film with," said Summer Bellessa. "On one hand, we thought, 'This is great,' but we still had to wear multiple hats so we could make sure the money showed up on camera."

Kerry Bellessa added: "Our budget was like what the Marvel budget is just for water and water bottles for their films."

What's your next goal professionally?

"Summer wrote a script we are working on, and we have another one Josh and I have written that we are working on right now," he said. "We are just trying to get the next thing going."

Summer Bellessa said, "I'm doing the post-production on 'Too Soon.' We have one we have written we are starting pre-production on. You know, we always have a lot of balls in the air."

"Our confidence is good going forward because we've shown what we can do on a smaller budget," said Kerry Bellessa. "We want to surround ourselves with awesome, talented, creative people who share our same vision and keep learning as we go."

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