Paul Cram Actor

By Thompson Communications

Multi Award-Winning “Contract Killers” from G. Anthony Joseph’s Tritan Northstar Entertainment, is now Airing on Three Cable Networks: Starz, The Movie Chanel, and Showtime Extreme

The award-winning action adventure film Contract Killers has been selected to air on Starz, The Movie Channel, and Showtime Extreme during the months of January and February, 2010. Broadcast schedules are available on the Starz and Showtime official websites. Produced by actor / producer G. Anthony Joseph, who comments: “We are honored by the number of awards and nominations we received on the festival circuit. Everyone connected with our film worked very hard to make it happen within our limited
budget, so naturally we are excited to see our work broadcast on Starz, The Movie Channel, and Showtime Extreme. Now our focus is on finding the right project with a larger production budget . . . imagine how far we’ll go next!”

Contract Killers was written, edited and directed by first time feature director Justin Rhodes, and is alsoavailable on DVD from NetFlix, Blockbuster, Amazon, and all major retailers.

Contract Killers was shot on location in Trinidad West Indies and Orlando. The film earned the Best Feature Film award from the 2008 Orlando Film Festival — arriving on the heels of the film receiving the Best Picture Award from the Big Bang Film Festival in Philadelphia, four nominations earlier in the year from the Action on Film Festival in Los Angeles, and winning in two categories: “Best Action Sequence in a Feature Film” and “Best Break Out Female Star — Frida Farrell — In a Feature Film.” The Orlando Best
Film Award, combined with the Big Bang Best Picture Award, and two wins at the Action on Film Festival means that Contract Killers racked up four wins against six nominations.

Contract Killers is the high tension story of Jane Bradford (Frida Farrell) who is entangled in a sophisticated government conspiracy. Framed by the CIA as a murderer, hunted across oceans, her only hope is to uncover the secret she was unwittingly paid to erase. Once an assassin, Jane is now a mark herself, stalked by the CIA’s Special Activities Division aka US Government contract killers. But proving her innocence to contract killers isn’t easy. The CIA’s assassins don’t ask questions. They don’t even think. They just pull the trigger.

Starring Under Siege star Nick Mancuso and featuring powerful performances from an ensemble cast of international actors that include Frida Farrell (Sweden), Rhett Giles (Australia), Christian Willis (Australia), Wolf Muser (Germany), Steve Boergadine (USA), K. Lee Sherman (USA), G. Anthony Joseph (Trinidad) and Paul Cram (USA). Director of Photography Andre Lascaris hails from Greece and the music video for the movie Toro Toro is performed by Machel Montano (Trinidad) featuring Shaggy
(Jamaica.)

Actor / Producer G. Anthony Joseph states “I never imagined that an action picture like Contract Killers was a festival sort of film. It’s growing success may be due to all the separate exotic spices I threw into the soup, and of course the strong vision of the smartest kid I discovered right out of AFI film school, writer / director Justin Rhodes. However, my hat goes off to co producer Steve Boergadine (who also does an amazing acting job in the film) for his encouragement in leading the way for the film to make the rounds of the festival circuit.”

Co-Producer Steve Boergadine states “After I saw the film I told G. Anthony he had a special feature on his hands and we should enter various film festivals. I basically told him if he had no time to do it I will and he had no time so I did it. I took the bull by the horns and executed the plan according to his guidelines, and look at where we are today”

Carla Foderingham and her staff at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission cleared the way with permits, locations etc. for G Anthony Joseph to shoot part of the film in Trinidad. The Film Commission also supported the film financially on its cinema release on the island, and recently awarded the production its cash back rebate, which was set up by the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Contract Killers is now released across America through media powerhouse First Look Studios and is distributed worldwide by Birch Tree Entertainment.

Updated broadcast schedules are available on the Starz, Movie Channel, and Showtime websites.

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“An indie actor in this town has a tough life — living from small paycheck to small paycheck, auditioning, waiting for good parts, praying for a big break. For Paul Cram, who has appeared at the Guthrie (”Edgardo Mine”), small Twin Cities theaters (”Everywhere, Signs Fall” at Gremlin) and in numerous indie films (”Contract Killers,” more) , the actor’s life has come with a fair share of lacerations, bruises and other physical injuries. (Not to mention his having been killed by gunshot, poison. stabbing and other means).

As Cram relates in this story on the website Backstage, stunt work is often flat-out harmful to one’s health. There’s the guy who was supposed to kick a gun away in a scene, but instead kicked Cram in the head. Another time, an overzealous fellow actor turned a fake pistol-whipping scene into a real one. In the photo at right, from the movie “Subversion,” Cram’s injuries are courtesy of makeup artist Crist Ballas.

Contract Killers has me palying the role of Chuck Dittmer, an FBI techie, and the film is playing on Showtime, TMC, and the Starz network. Check it out if you like action movies!

When I am not acting in movies, I keep my hands busy with making soap.
You can get a free bar of this soap by taking my 8 question Movie Quiz HERE

The recipe is basic.

Soap Recipe Ingredients:

• 6oz. Olive Oil
• 6oz. Coconut Oil
• 9.5oz. Vegetable Shortening (Crisco)
• 3oz. Lye
• 8oz. Water

(Click Here to purchase Lye)

To make the soap–

1. Warm all the oils in a pot on your stove top until they are a liquid consistency.
2. In a glass, measure your water, then slowly stir in the lye.
3. Pour the warmed oils into a crock pot.
4. Pour the lye/water slowly into the oils, stirring as you do so.
5. Use a hand blender to mix, keep it mixing until the consistency is like pudding.
6. Put the lid on your crock pot and cook on low for one hour
7. After the hour, remove the soap from the crock pot and scoop into a mold to cool.

Begin with the oils. Measure them out and warm them to a liquid temperature. The measuring of oils and fats is important. It’s not about the volume, it’s all about the weight. If the weight is off by a fraction of an ounce, then the lye may not saponify and all the mixing and waiting will be in vain. (I’ve failed a few times.)

I used to make soap on the stove top using a Cold Process of soap making, but found a way to make it in a crock pot called Hot Process. It increases the speed of saponification from a month down to an hour. Yeah technology!

Because Lye is caustic, it really needs to be handled with care. It eats through aluminum, so glass and plastic are best to use for containers and mixing. (Safety goggles are sexy!) Slowly add the Lye to the water, then add the lye/water slowly to the oils.

Using a hand blender, mix the oils together until it all gets thick, like pudding.

Then put the lid on your crock pot and time it for about an hour.

During the hour wash everything else down with Vinegar. (It neutralizes the Lye.)

Now for the fun part: choosing and mixing in the scented oils. The scent combinations are endless. Flowers, woods & resins, even fruits or vegatable scents.
My current favorite is Cinnamon, Lime, & Clove. It reminds me of the Carribean.

After the soap has cooked for an hour, then add the scent and put the soap is put into a mold to cool.

Making soap in a crock pot speeds up the process of soap making, so much so that once it’s cooled (about 2 hours in the mold) you can cut it into bars and use it that same day.

You can get a free bar of this soap by taking my 8 question Movie Quiz HERE

I remember late at night, clutching a stack of books, waiting in the darkened vestibule of the government building for my dad to come and pick me up.

As there wasn’t a library in our home town, I’d go to the one in the city south of us. It was housed with the sheriff’s department and town hall. In the winter, the librarian would lock up, but allowed me to stay while I waited. I suppose she knew that if anything happened whilst I was “locked in” that I was near the police already. Or she figured if I froze to death while clutching a stack of books on the front steps it would inevitably promote illiteracy.

The shelves of the library were the first place I went after announcing to my mom that I would become an actor. To which she smiled and asked how I would accomplish such a thing. Which led me to map out my plan after reading every book I could get my hands about acting.

I am grateful to my mom, to libraries, and for the librarian that let me stay in from the cold when it was against the rules.

Happy Thanksgiving!