Movie positioning

GPS not just for cars anymore

By Jamie Forsythe on December 6, 2007

If you haven’t seen local filmmaker Eric Colley’s “GPS” movie yet, then you need to get off that lazy ass and come out to  Capitol Theater Friday, Dec. 7, for a screening and filmmaker Q&A.



The Tenino native is the director, writer and mastermind behind the film, which is based on the premise of GPS hunting. Most know GPS stands for global positioning system and is a navigation system for cars, but what the heck is GPS hunting? According to Colley, it’s actually a huge phenomenon where people hop in their vehicles outfitted with GPS and hunt for treasures. He describes it as a really fun, family-oriented, adventure-type sport.



He thought it would make a good story for a feature-length film and ran with it. His friend Hallie Shepherd jumped on board along with another writer, and the movie “GPS” was born with a script that took three years to bring to life.



Colley, 35, and Shepherd, 27, who worked on a couple of short films together before “GPS,” are co-founders of FireShoe Productions, a Fircrest-based company that produced the independent film.



The story for “GPS” centers on a group of college friends in the Northwest wilderness on a GPS scavenger hunt in search of hidden money, but what do they find instead? A grave with a coffin inside, and as if that isn’t bad enough — the coffin doesn’t contain a dead body, but rather photos of a woman tied up and masked. To top if off, there is a message on the photos: “Please Don’t Let Me Die.” The friends are left to decide whether they should follow the new set of GPS coordinates and go deeper into the forest or turn around, save themselves, and let the woman fend for herself.



The movie, whose budget was under $1 million, was filmed in various locations around Washington including Seattle’s Key Peninsula, Black Diamond and Vancouver.

Colley hoped “GPS” would be well-received. And it has been with 12 screenings thus far, many of them sold-out shows. The 98-minute movie even won the Best Local Film award from the Tacoma Film Festival. “Everyone seems to really love the movie,” Colley says.

He describes the suspense-thriller as a cross between “The Goonies” and “Scream.” “It’s a fun, adventure movie,” he explains, “but at the same time it has suspenseful, scary moments and a lot of comedy as well.” He promises it won’t depress you or make you think too much.



Colley, who has wanted to make movies since he could walk, enjoys the challenge of filmmaking and the collaborative effort it takes to turn a simple idea into a film.



The Centralia College graduate has come a long way from shooting videos of his little brother with an 8mm film camera. So come out and support our hometown boy’s first feature film “GPS.” 

For more info about the film, check out www. gpsthemovie.com.



[Capitol Theater, Friday, Dec. 7, 6:30 p.m., 206 Fifth Ave. S.E., Olympia, 360.754.5378]