Angie Franzer
Metromix
Dusk is just beginning to set on the Coachella Valley while the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs buzzes with action.
Actors scurry to the makeup room where they will be powered, hair sprayed and tweaked before their big scenes. The production staff — recognizable by their secret-service like earpieces — make final lighting adjustments. Lines are memorized, the scene is set, and it will only be moments before local director Christian Sesma says the magic word: “Action.”
What looks like an ordinary hotel on the outside has been transformed into a full-fledged movie set for Sesma's third full-length feature, “Shoot the Hero.”
La Quinta actress and entrepreneur Denise DuBarry Hay is serving as executive producer of the film that features her daughter, Samantha Lockwood, Palm Springs- based actor Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and former CBS 2 reporter Mike Hatton.
While other movies have shot a scene or two in the desert, “Shoot the Hero” is filming almost entirely in the Coachella Valley.
“It's the realization of a long-standing dream, to film in our home,” said Sesma, a Palm Springs High School graduate who decided to try his hand at filmmaking after being hospitalized for a burst appendix in 2003.
Palm Springs' close proximity to Los Angeles has allowed Sesma to compile a cast of local and Hollywood talent, including Jason Mewes (“Clerks”), Katie Morgan (“Zack and Miri Make A Porno”), Danny Trejo (“Desperado”) and Nick Turturro (“NYPD Blue”).
“People who live in L.A. and all these big cities, it's easier for them to get to ...
