This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
“Christmas with Jerks” has a holiday film plot if you ever heard one: Eve Carter (Leanna Adams), a former child star with a penchant for cocktails, is thrilled to be spending Christmas alone at her sister’s house. Imagine her displeasure when the house turns out to be occupied by professional stuntman Ace Strong (Tyler Buckingham), who is dog-sitting while he recovers from a foot injury. Stuck in a stalemate, the hostile parties try their best to kick each other to the curb — unless they fall in love first.
As a screenplay idea, “enemies-turned-lovebirds stuck inside a house” had all the hallmarks of a cozy holiday movie. But for Adams, who wrote and starred in “Christmas with Jerks,” it had another enormous appeal: She could film almost all of it in a single location.
“I mean, I love movies with lots of baby goats, and I love movies with kids!” Adams said. “But writing it a little smaller just made the whole thing possible.”
Credit: Courtesy of Good Deeds Entertainment
Credit: Courtesy of Good Deeds Entertainment
It was late 2022, and the Atlanta writer and actor was feeling discouraged. Adams, who has appeared recently in shows such as “The Staircase” and “Shift Drinks,” had come close to selling several pilot scripts and features to film studios, but nothing had worked out. “I just really wanted to work,” she said. “I wanted to learn from the process of script to screen.”
Rather than wait for the next opportunity, Adams decided to create her own. She wrote the script for “Christmas with Jerks” in a matter of weeks, inspired by her life experience as an actor struggling with self-doubt and insecurity. “I’m not a former child star,” she said. “But I have felt this career desperation and frustration, and I really channeled that into this story.”
She set the film at her actual sister’s house in Avondale Estates, a beautiful modern home that has served as a location for multiple local productions. “I knew I could con her into it,” Adams joked.
At first, she planned to barrel into the production all on her own. “I said, I’ll just do it all myself — I’ll get a computer and teach myself to edit,” she laughed. “That was pretty delusional.”
Instead, Adams turned to her local film community to see if anyone might be willing to help her make her movie. As it turned out, they were more than willing.
Kristina Arjona, who co-directed and co-produced “Christmas with Jerks,” originally came on in a crew role. The pair know each other from Atlanta’s indie film scene; in 2014, they won the 48 Hour Film Festival together and have since overlapped on projects around town. In recent years, Arjona has cultivated a successful career in the growing field of intimacy coordination, where a trained professional works closely with actors performing sensual or sexual scenes to protect their safety and comfort.
Credit: Courtesy of Good Deeds Entertainment
Credit: Courtesy of Good Deeds Entertainment
When Adams approached Arjona about joining “Christmas with Jerks” as intimacy coordinator in February 2023, she mentioned that she was also looking for a co-director. It turned out to be good timing: Filming was slowing down as studios braced for the imminent writers’ strike, and Arjona’s schedule had cleared up. “Suddenly I had two months that were really empty,” Arjona said. “So, I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this!’”
They assembled a small cast and crew and scheduled shooting for late April to coincide with the spring break of Adams’ 8-year-old son. “I said, ‘I can make films, or I can be a mom — I can’t do both,”’ Adams recalled.
Her son went to his grandparents’ house in Colorado, and Adams and Arjona shot the film in eight days. Their editors and music composers finished post-production over the summer, and, by mid-August, they had secured a distributor, Good Deeds Entertainment. It was released to streaming in November, barely a year after Adams had finished the script. “We didn’t sleep much,” said Arjona with a laugh.
It was a breakneck pace to produce a film, but the filmmakers agree that the learning experience was worth it.
“It all can feel so overwhelming,” Arjona said. “You know how to make the film, but then how do you sell it and get it onto a streaming site? There’s no tangible explanation for that.”
The average budget for a feature film made in Georgia is $41.7 million, according to a 2021 report by TAG Media & Entertainment. Even low-budget features can require deep pockets — for reference, the Screen Actors Guild classifies “ultra-low budget” as any film that costs under $300,000. Adams and Arjona had less than that — a lot less.
What they had instead were friends, family, colleagues and local business owners, all of whom wanted a local indie to succeed. “We pulled out all the favors, every last one,” Adams said.
Friends pitched in their services as cast and crew, and some novice crew members joined to gain on-the-job experience. A friend from the comedy scene baked an on-screen birthday cake; another did the logo. Equipment companies rented them cameras and mics at a discount, and local food and drink purveyors such Twain’s and Banjo Coffee donated meals for the cast and crew. They even partnered with Topo Chico for branded sponsorship.
“It was more work logistically than just having one big donor, but it made it more accessible,” Arjona explained, “especially for our community that wanted to help us but didn’t have a ton of money.” Relying on the community for in-kind donations allowed precious funds to go toward essentials such as professional post-production work and licensing extra music.
“Christmas with Jerks” was released on AppleTV+ in time for the holiday season, and the filmmakers are already planning their next production, a vampire comedy set in a movie theater. “It’s still shooting in one location, but we’ll need a way bigger budget for blood,” Arjona joked.
With a feature film already under their belt, it’s been easier to connect with potential producers in Atlanta and Los Angeles. That’s further confirmation for the duo that their DIY approach, despite the hurdles, pays off in the long run. They both feel that Atlanta, with its supportive film community eager to see fellow creatives succeed, is the right place to try new things.
“In the very beginning, I said, I want to make a movie, but how can I not fail?” Adams said. “And I realized if the goal is learning, you can’t fail. Then you’ve made something, and you’re proud of it.”
WHERE TO WATCH
“Christmas with Jerks” on AppleTV+
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Rachel Garbus is a writer, editor and oral history maker in Atlanta. She’s a contributor at Atlanta magazine and the editor-in-chief of print for WUSSY Mag, which covers queer culture with a Southern lens. She performs improv and sketch comedy around town and has been known to pen the odd satire. She lives in North Druid Hills with her wife and her anxious dog.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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