Lights, camera, action: Vincennes to be location for movie

“The detective is confronted with Nazis being used as spies by the CIA, which gives them leave to harass him,” Clay said. “They're trying to get him to give something back that he stole during (World War II).”

Clay is working with local contacts to recruit historical re-enactors to help out. Some are going to have nonspeaking parts, others will have actual roles in the movie and all of them will lend their valuable expertise to bolster the film's historical integrity.

“Most of those guys have their own uniforms so they come with knowledge,” Clay said. “They're going to school my actors on what they're doing.”

And the Indiana Military Museum at 715 S. Sixth St. will even have some time in the spotlight: It will serve as a backdrop for the war scenes.

Clay's mother is Linda Osborne, who is married to museum director Jim Osborne, so he has a personal connection to the site. But all the historic equipment and items in the museum's repertoire make it a perfect place to shoot a movie set during the war.

“If we wanted any war implement, the museum has absolutely everything,” Clay said.

And the head of the IMM is more than happy to accommodate the moviemaker's requests, such as fixing up old vehicles that were already on the museum staff's to-do list.

“We're working on those things as we speak,” Osborne said. “We're working on trying to get some vehicles ready. We have to give one a new paint job and do some body work on it, so the good thing is that this is prompting us to fix some things that had been on the back burner.”

IMM is supplying uniforms for the film as well, and Osborne is looking forward to seeing the project come to fruition.

“We're excited. I think it'll be interesting and fun,” he said. “It might lead to more filming here for more groups. The History Channel filmed here once and they said they'd be back, so maybe these things will continue to evolve and we'll see more action.”

The IMM's lengthy list of attributes isn't the only reason why Clay, who serves as the film's writer, director and producer, decided to make his movie here in town.

“Vincennes still has a lot of architecture from its post-war heyday,” he said. “And there's also the fact that Indiana is a little more lax when it comes to shooting guns or blowing things up in the middle of the day.”

And blowing things up will certainly be part of the equation because Clay wants the film to be as historically accurate as possible, especially when it comes to the military themes.

“When you're using war re-enactors and people who are knowledgeable about this stuff, they won't settle for anything less,” he said.

When it comes to the scenes set in the '50s, that's when Clay said he'll utilize a little more creative license. He'll also add a supernatural element to spice up the plot a bit, but overall he said he's not portraying any ideas that aren't realistic and plausible.

“The fact is there isn't a single thing happening (in the movie) that didn't possibly happen,” Clay said. “Even though all the CIA documents haven't been unearthed, the extent to which Nazi war criminals were in the United States and allowed to be here by the CIA was pretty extensive.”

Clay pointed to a book called “The Nazis Next Door,” written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Eric Lichtblau and published last fall, as a good source of background information about this particular subject. It details how the CIA, FBI and military put Adolf Hitler's men to work in America as spies after WWII.

However, though the book does provide some background it wasn't the main inspiration for “Souvenirs.”

Clay, who grew up in Vincennes and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1990, has refined his detective story-writing skills over the years and this past spring he wrote a detective tale that his students ended up producing.

“It turned out really amazing and that kind of inspired me to do another,” Clay said. “We started talking about it and they loved the idea of a field trip.”

And thus the movie was born.

The filming doesn't technically count as a class, but several of his students have volunteered to help bring the 57-page script to life. Three or four of them will be driving across the country to serve as both cast and crew members — they'll play varying roles as Nazis and assassins — and Clay is also in the process of recruiting the help of a few other people he's worked with before.

Since the $5,000 film is financed by Clay himself, no one will be paid for the hours they dedicate to its production. But that also means the movie provides a plethora of volunteer opportunities for community members.

“One of the things I've had trouble with is finding actors,” Clay said. “Some of the major roles are cast but I'm still trying to figure the rest out. And when it comes to shooting, getting people fed and providing water are going to be the big things.

“As a producer, I'm good at doing a fair number of things but asking people to give stuff for free is not one of them.”

Anyone who would be willing to donate food or any other materials while Clay and his crew are scrambling through the movie production, which will be gin Saturday and will ideally be wrapped up by Aug. 14, are welcome to do so. They are invited to call Clay directly at 510-290-0350 or reach out to him via the film's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/souvenirsthemovie if they'd like to help out in some way or ask any questions.

Once all is said and done and the movie has been created, Clay said he isn't looking for any sort of distribution deal. He sees “Souvenirs” as a sort of pilot, a jumping-off point to do more detective stories about Nick Harvey.

After all, the movie is more of an artistic expression than it is a moneymaking venture or Indie film. Clay is hesitant to classify it as “Indie” because he has some qualms with the distribution model for those types of productions nowadays.

“The bigger the actors are, which is what the entire budget is spent on, the better your film. And I'm trying to get away from that as much as possible,” Clay said. “I think we should offer some bang for our buck.”