Westchester Weekly Desk, NY TIMES

Filming in Hastings Brings Native Sons Home to Applause

By LISA W. FODERARO

WITH a dramatic river backdrop and a citizenry endowed with writers and artists, this village is no stranger to the flash of Hollywood. Early last year, Nicholas Cage strode through town for the filming of ''8mm.'' And last fall, Susan Sarandon posed with shopkeepers during the shooting of an HBO movie. But the village's transformation last month into a film set for ''Last Ball'' was different. A coming-of-age story shot almost entirely in Hastings, the film is being made by three 30-something men who grew up together here and eventually wound up in Los Angeles where they worked in different corners of the film business.

Their return this summer to film ''Last Ball'' -- in the riverfront park, on the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, at John's Bar and Grill and in a stately mansion -- has sent a ripple of excitement through the village. ''This is like the book, 'The Circus Came to Town,' '' said Donna Taylor, a resident whose daughter went to high school with the filmmakers.

In some respects, the four weeks of filming, which end today, was the movie-making equivalent of a barn raising. Ms. Taylor, for instance, made her house available to the filmmakers and actors as a crash pad. High school students and recent graduates volunteered hundreds of hours on the production. A hair salon opened its doors every Sunday so the makeup artist had a place to work, and a food market donated an empty second-floor apartment as a set.

For its part, the village charged the filmmakers a token $25 for a permit to shoot all over town, compared with the $20,000 it charged the HBO producers. And residents have sent in contributions ranging from $25 to $1,000, while others have made investments of $5,000 and $10,000. The largest investment, a check for $100,000, came from a woman who went to Hastings High School with the filmmakers.

''We had one investor who said: 'I don't care if the movie makes money. I think it will be neat just to see Hastings on film,'' recalled Ivon Visalli, one of the three partners in ''Last Ball.''

Although the movie is small by Hollywood standards, with a budget of $475,000, the people working behind the scenes and in front of the camera have some big credits.

The writer and director, Peter Callahan, a 36-year-old Hastings native, has written several screenplays. In 1995, while living in Los Angeles, he had his first break when he sold a script to Turner Pictures for $150,000. Money was so tight at the time that he had just taken his computer to a pawnshop. When he got back to his apartment, his agent was leaving the news on his answering machine.

Mr. Visalli, 38, decided to go to film school at night on a lark while in the Air Force. The son of a photographer and editor, he ''quickly caught the bug.'' He left the Air Force, where he was a captain, responsible for a satellite system, to work as a gofer at 20th Century Fox. After years of struggle, he found his stride in 1996 when he became coproducer of ''High Voltage,'' a movie that premiered on HBO the next year.

The third partner, Konstantin von Krusenstiern, 35, also got off to a shaky start in Hollywood. He dropped out of college and worked briefly in politics before going to Los Angeles. At the airport there, he spotted the independent film director Henry Jaglom and, after some badgering, got a job in his office. Eventually, Mr. von Krusenstiern joined the union as a cameraman and worked on 30 feature films, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's ''True Lies.''

Wherever he went, his hometown made its presence felt. ''Hastings people always seem to find each other,'' Mr. von Krusenstiern said. ''There was a comfort level and an ease, especially in Los Angeles where there is a lot of posturing.''

While Mr. von Krusenstiern and Mr. Callahan were buddies in high school, Mr. Visalli, who was a couple of years ahead of them, became better friends with Mr. Callahan in Los Angeles. A few years ago, Mr. Callahan started talking to Mr. Visalli about the idea for ''Last Ball.'' After agreeing they wanted to work together on the film, the two brought in Mr. von Krusenstiern, who had left the movie business to manage rock groups.

The chemistry between the three is quirky, but it somehow works. ''Peter jokes that we never fight over big issues like a story point or which actor to cast,'' Mr. von Krusenstiern said of his relationship with Mr. Callahan. ''But we'll fight over the language in a cover letter or where to put the furniture. We bicker.''

Mr. Visalli, who has a reassuring, even temperament, is the ''rock-solid foundation, the calm in the storm,'' Mr. von Krusenstiern, a co-producer, said. (He and Mr. Visalli are mainly responsible for raising money. So far they and Mr. Callahan have obtained about $275,000 -- enough to cover the cost of shooting. They still need another $200,000 for post-production work.)

After the three partners formed Sugar Pond Films, named for a small pond by the elementary school here, they set to work. Special care was taken with the casting. For the lead character, they read thousands of resumes and auditioned 400 actors in New York and Los Angeles.

They finally settled on Charlie Hofheimer, an 18-year-old actor who starred opposite Robin Williams and Billy Crystal in the comedy ''Father's Day.'' He had just finished filming Wes Craven's ''Music of the Heart'' with Meryl Streep when the shooting for ''Last Ball'' began.

He plays Jim Corcoran, a young man who turns his back on the white-collar world of his parents and drives a cab while his friends go off to college. It is a demanding role, for his character appears in every scene. ''It's by far the biggest part I've ever had,'' Mr. Hofheimer said. ''I love the script. Themes echo from the largest concepts down to the tiniest details.''

Other prominent actors with roles in the film are James Rebhorn, a silver-haired character actor who has appeared in ''Independence Day,'' ''Scent of a Woman,'' ''Basic Instinct'' and dozens of other movies, and Leo Fitzpatrick, a slightly manic 22-year-old who starred in the disturbing 1995 Larry Clark film ''Kids.''

The boyish-looking Mr. Callahan, who comes across as both shy and mischievous, said: ''I prefer unrecognizable actors, but once you have one, the dam is broken, and I figure you might as well get as many as you can get because it helps you sell the film.''

Although Mr. Callahan said the screenplay is ''loosely inspired'' by his life, there are striking parallels. Like the main character in the story, he hails from a prominent, intellectual, well-to-do family. His father, Dr. Daniel Callahan, helped found the Hastings Center, a bioethics research center in Garrison. He, too, stayed behind as friends left for college, driving a taxi and taking an apartment in Hastings.

While the film's lead graduated from high school, Mr. Callahan did not. (''The classes started way too early in the morning,'' he said, ''and they went all day long.'') But eventually, he earned a high school equivalency degree, a B.A. from Hunter College and a master's degree from Columbia Journalism School.

Three and a half years ago, Mr. Callahan's world collapsed when his companion of 10 years, with whom he lived in Los Angeles, died from a blood clot the day after giving birth to their daughter. He came back to the East with his new baby to be near friends and family. And he and his daughter live with his parents in Irvington.

''Life was already very hard for me,'' he said. ''I was a depressive, anxious sort, and that just crushed my heart in a million pieces.''

Mr. Callahan said he would never recover emotionally from his companion's death, adding darkly that directing this film was like ''organizing a softball league while serving a life sentence in prison.''

Yet he seems to be enjoying his directorial debut. The hardest part about directing, he said, is not laughing during the takes and having to make decisions about filming indoors or out based on the weather. ''I have to guess whether it's going to rain three days from now,'' he said.

The filmmakers hope to sell the finished picture to a major independent distributor. But whatever comes of ''Last Ball,'' it has given the next generation in Hastings a taste of filmmaking. ''It's a whole new language I've learned,'' James Leddy, 24, a grip and electric intern, said. ''I never realized how much goes into one shoot.''

Ms. Taylor, the resident who lent her house to the filmmakers and plied the cast and crew with her potato salad, said, ''It's a handing down of the Hastings culture -- the intellectual and the arts together and not being impressed by outward signs of wealth.''

Of course, no one would object if the movie did make money. ''That's the score card for a producer,'' Mr. Visalli said. ''We definitely want our investors to get their money back. If we personally don't see a penny, that's O.K.''

And if the film turns out to be the next ''Blair Witch Project,'' will the village of Hastings regret that $25 permit? Nah. ''They have bent over backward to accommodate residents and involve them in the process,'' said Susan Maggiotto, the Village Clerk and Deputy Manager. ''They have not disappointed us at all.''