A bartender can sometimes be the person a patron airs their grievances to, but it's not every day the patron is a retired superhero.
The movie Super Retired takes place at a bar for almost the entirety of its story and it was filmed at The Ward’s bar Standing Room Only on Sunday.
The characters are a retired superhero who doesn’t disclose his superhero name, but instead his real name is Chad Boswick and bartender Klowie. It's set at Standing Room Only and when actor and producer Caroline Concordia and writer, actor, director, producer Kim Lombard first stepped into the space it wasn’t what they expected. The hats and instruments that hang from the ceiling and the one square dance floor caught Concordia's eye. She thought of the bar as a character in and of itself.
Super Retired was written by Lombard back when he was living in France in 2000 and working for a now folded company 9 Points Media. It was going to be an animated movie but nothing came of it.
Now, a distributing company in Los Angeles is set to meet with steaming services to figure out where the movie will stream, said Lombard.
He met Concordia at the opening of KIC Studios, a video production rental space in Burlington. She read his script and it was decided she would act alongside Lombard in the movie and become a producer with Lombard and Lisa Crawford.
Through a friend Lombard heard about Doug Todd’s bar in Guelph, Standing Room Only, at 60 Ontario St. They connected and after seeing the bar things were set in motion. The crew and actors wrapped up a 13-hour shooting day on Sunday.
The thing about the retired superhero in the movie is you don’t know his superhero name or what his superpowers are.
“You don’t really know, he’s more of a drunk whiny kind of guy telling about how it used to be back in the day. He said you know, now everyone’s a superhero,” said Lombard.
In the movie there are no other patrons at the bar and bartender Klowie is polite and patient with Chad at first but then gives him a reality check. “I probably wouldn't be that harsh to a real customer. But for the movie, there was this element of being able to kind of give this guy's head a shake,” said Concordia.
Concordia has had experience as a bartender and for this movie Todd taught her to make a couple of cocktails he serves at Standing Room Only, with some flare like a smoke bubble on top of a drink.
The bar has a capacity of 10 people so it was a little tricky to film. “When we came back yesterday to shoot, Marty was standing right there and he went ‘God, I don't remember the room being this small’,” said Lombard. He pointed near the bar’s small dance floor where director of photography Martin Love stood with a boom mic and Steadicam.
“And so it was really quite a challenge to get this very large gentleman to move around the room and get the angles we required,” said Lombard.
Todd saw behind the scenes during the shoot and snapped some photos. “You're grabbed, and you're pulled in quick,” said Todd of the movie.
Through the story audiences will get to know the superhero for who he really is instead of Bruce Wayne for example where audiences only really know he’s a wealthy man but the rest about him is hidden, said Todd.
There isn’t a city named in the movie but Lombard said Standing Room Only is played up a bit in it, showcasing the logo and the bartender wearing a Standing Room Only shirt as she’s working.
“Doug is a gem, and so is this place,” said Concordia.
