ManaSota Films celebrates first year

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Mark Troy traded a life of suits and ties for a running script of disguises.

To leave his “grown-up job” as an analyst and marketer in the financial services industry for a new career in movies, Troy had to be willing to embarrass himself.

“In the corporate world, the last thing you ever want to do is make a fool of yourself,” Troy said. “In acting, that’s the job.”

It might have come a lifetime later than expected, but Troy, 53, has fooled his skeptical friends by not only forging an acting and filmmaking career, but also uniting a hidden community in the form of a social group — ManaSota Films — which celebrated its first anniversary Nov. 8.

A year in, the group is more active than a typical social gathering — this isn’t a bunch of fans eating popcorn in recliner seats analyzing movies they didn’t make — but it didn’t start that way.

Today 40 to 50 members — actors, writers, directors, sound makers, producers and more — meet once a month at Lakewood Ranch Cinemas.

There, they critique each other’s work, showcased on the big screen, and network and recruit talent for their individual projects.

Submissions ended Oct. 31 for The ManaSota Films Project, for which the group will pool its talents to produce a film.

For the project, members pitched scripts to their peers, and the group voted on one to make into a film.

“ManaSota Films started passive,” said Heath Jordan, a ManaSota Films regular and the owner of Approach Signal, a production company he founded. “It was a thing that was fun, where we would just kind of meet and not produce things.”

Troy founded the group four years after leaving his position as director of marketing for Wood Asset Management in Sarasota, in 2008, to try a career in film.

“I didn’t want it to be something where I was 50 years old and I didn’t do it (make a film career),” Troy said. “You got to do it.”

When Troy was 13 years old, he used his parents’ 8mm camera to make movies that ranged from science fiction and horror to comedies.

Scared of the uncertain route to Hollywood stardom, Troy went to college, majoring in psychology, and entered the corporate world.

Troy came to his first audition, for the “The Uh-Oh Show,” a splatter horror film, in 2009 in Clearwater, armed with nothing — no acting experience and no training.

“I stank,” Troy said. “It was horrible. I was stiff. I couldn’t lose myself in the role.”

Troy took standup comedy lessons at McCurdy’s Humor Institute. He learned to become a character — to be weird and scrunch and stretch his face into animalistic poses — and not care if it felt ridiculous.

Troy completed 10 to 12 films during his first year acting in 2009, but when he tired of scouring for roles, he started making his own films.

He made “The Lon Chaney Thing,” a short film he wrote, directed and starred in, about a struggling actor who tries but fails to copy the career of Lon Chaney, a real-life superstar from 1920s silent movies known as “The Master of Disguise.”

In the film, Troy, as the wannabe Chaney, dons fake hillbilly teeth, eyeliner and even pantyhose.
Troy’s current roles find him comfortable in his ever-changing skin.

He recently starred in a commercial created by Ringling College students that they will submit to Doritos as part of its annual Super Bowl contest.

He also plays a role in “Catching Junior Tate,” the next feature length film by Karl and Rhonda Wilson, the Lakewood Ranch award-winning filmmakers.

“To succeed in acting, and in the industry in general, you have to put yourself out there,” Troy said. “I think thoroughly embarrassing yourself is good.”

Troy wanted to share that carefree, aspiring message locally, among a filmmaking community that he saw as strong but scattered.

“If there wasn’t a ManaSota Films, I was going to make one, so I did,” Troy said.

The group started with meetings held in an arcade room at Evie’s Tavern on Bee Ridge Road.

ManaSota Films soon caught the attention of the Sarasota Film Society, which connected the group with Lakewood Ranch Cinemas.

The group began meeting there in March of this year — at no cost.

When they’re not meeting, the group members constantly chat through their Facebook page, which has more than 400 members, where people advertise for upcoming film projects and events and attract talent.
Jordan, a 38-year-old serial entrepreneur who dipped into Web design, marketing, and computers before beginning a late-stage career in filmmaking, casted a Web series, “The Cube,” which he made entirely through ManaSota Films.

Troy credits Jordan with igniting the aggressiveness of ManaSota Films.

They expect production for the winning script in the ManaSota Film Project to begin by the end of the year.

“We’re not trying to be Hollywood moviemakers,” Jordan said. “We’re just trying to make quality entertainment. The stuff we make here benefits the entire community.”

FAST FACTS
WHAT: ManaSota Films, a hub for the East County filmmaking community
FOUNDED: Nov. 8, 2012, by Mark Troy
MEETS: Monthly at Lakewood Ranch Cinemas
HOW TO GET INVOLVED: See the ManaSota Films Facebook page

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].