BROWNSBURG — Steve “Papaw” Pyatte has been a community leader here for years now.

As an author, motivational speaker, and filmmaker, Pyatte has striven to get people — especially young people — to reach for their full potential and avoid the mistakes that can hinder it. Pyatte isn’t just some vocal optimist. He lived many of the missteps he now preaches against.

One specific error in judgment he’s addressing is underage drinking. Ask just about any teenager today, and he or she will tell you how rampant it is.

“There’s a lot of it,” said Tyler Hergott, a junior at Brownsburg High School. “You can’t come to school on Monday without hearing about at least one wild party that happened over the weekend.”

Pyatte has worked with Daniel Risk, a Brownsburg graduate who’s now in film school, on projects before. One of Risk’s friends is Robbie Nix, a senior at BHS. Nix was aware of Pyatte’s “Crossroads,” a movie about drinking and driving that’s become mandatory viewing for convicted drunk drivers in the county. Nix presented Pyatte with a script he wrote about underage drinking titled “End of the Road” and asked if he’d help turn it into a film. Pyatte immediately jumped on board, rewriting the script and calling it “Choices.”

“My goal is to raise awareness about teens and alcohol, and the adverse effects when you combine the two,” Pyatte said. “Teens have choices, and they need to understand there’s consequences to every choice they make.”

“Choices,” produced by Pyatte’s Frankenstein 1931 Films in association with Ace Productions and Risk Productions, makes its debut at 7 p.m. Nov. 13-15 in the Brownsburg High School auditorium, 1000 S. Odell St. Admission is free. The feature also will be available on DVD for a $10 donation, with all proceeds going to the Hendricks County Substance Abuse Task Force.

Though the 30-minute “Choices” is educational in nature, it’s unusual in that it features a cast of mostly teens, and that there’s a high entertainment quotient. Hergott plays the lead role. He’s joined by Risk and classmate Kate Butz — all of whom are making their acting debuts. Pyatte appears in the movie, as do D. Shane Christopher and Jennifer Wilkins.

Pyatte is proud of the cast and crew for pulling together so effortlessly during the two-day shoot.

“They took direction easily,” he said of his teenage actors. “I hope it was a good enough experience for them that it will be the catalyst if they ever decide to pursue this type of work professionally.”

The production was aided immensely by the community. Two Brownsburg police officers — Andy Watts and Dirk Fentz — also contributed their abilities. Jason Starkweather and Cheryl Persinger at Extended Play Studios loaned equipment to Pyatte with no strings attached because, he says, they knew what the group was trying to accomplish.

“This was definitely a community project,” Pyatte said. “Everyone rallied around us. No one said no to what we were doing.”

What they’re doing is trying to get an important message across in an entertaining way. According to Pyatte, “Choices” has a little of everything. There’s action, drama, love, even a touch of appropriate humor. But there’s also death and gore, in the right doses.

“The message is strong, but not so strong that it takes away from the message,” Pyatte said. “We’re not sugarcoating anything.”

Hergott likes the realism “Choices” conveys.

“It has a lot of what goes through a teenager’s mind every day, and it happens that fast too,” he said. “I can see this being inspirational on one level. This is the kind of movie people talk about after seeing.”

That’s what Pyatte hopes happens.

“I wanted something that teens would be interested in watching,” he said. “It’s entertaining, but it also has a message. And even if one person gets nothing out of it, hopefully he’ll like it enough to tell his friends to see it and they’ll get something out of it.”

That’s the ultimate goal. Pyatte would like to see “Choices” screened at other county schools, then eventually all over the state and even the nation.

“I want everyone to see this,” he said. “I want parents to know we’re serious about curbing underage drinking. Most of all, I hope teens will see this and take charge of their own destinies — and save peers from making bad choices.”

Hergott is proud to attach his name to the cause. He and his fellow cast members are getting nothing but a free copy of the DVD and a good feeling. That’s enough.

“It seems like you hear only bad things about teens,” he said. “This is something that shows we’re capable of doing good things too.”

For more information about “Choices,” call Pyatte at 289-3242.

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Online:

www.stevepyatte.com

www.frankenstein1931.com



wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com