Culture & Community | Film | Arts & Culture | Film & Video | Flint Street Theater
Fire Capt. Troy Frost. Bottom: Carlos Cernak, Roberto Carmon and Javan Morales. Nelani Mejias Photos.
The crunch of popcorn from crinkled bags and the fluttering clicks of flashing cameras greeted those walking into Flint Street Theater on the first of this month. Those attending said hello to friends and actors in the lobby, buying concessions from some of the young stars themselves before taking their seats in front of the screen.
The excitement was palpable as locations like Union Station, Woolsey Hall, and even interiors of people’s homes began appearing on the screen. It grew louder with the introduction of each new character, collective applause and cheers erupting from the crowd.
That scene welcomed viewers at the premiere of Ding Dong Ditch, a new thriller series from MaxVision Films that casts New Haven as one of its central characters. The adrenaline-laced brainchild of New Haven Fire Lt. Derrick Meade, who writes under the pen name Noz, it features several of New Haven’s first responders during their time off the clock, as actors-turned-detectives trying to solve a kidnapping case.
“All in all, everybody’s going through the same struggles inside the first responder ranks,” Meade said during an episode of WNHH Community Radio’s “Arts Respond” the day before the premiere. The series “gives hope, definitely in the time that we are right now, it reflects a lot of things that are going on within our system.”
Based on Meade’s eponymous book and the Halloween prank of the same name, Ding Dong Ditch is set in the near future in the “Big East,” a stand in for New Haven that has many of the same issues, including deadly gun violence and devastating homicide rates.
On the police force, Detective Charlie Dawson (real-life New Haven Fire Captain Troy Z. Frost) can’t let go of a cold case that has dogged him for years. He wants to know if three rookies on the force, played by Victoria Grace, Michael Smith, and Terrance Logan, can help him figure it out. Despite the fact that he’s initially skeptical of their skills, they’re what he’s got to work with—and they’re going to do all they can to crack the case.
“It is powerful to understand characters that you might not align with, in values and in background,” said Daniel B. Roderick, who plays antagonist Thomas Caldwell. “And really what I’ve learned … is learning how to empathize and seek out the entire truth, or the ‘truth,’ of a character. You have to take a step out of your own shoes and take a step in another person’s.”
Maybe because Meade is a first responder himself, he spent time teasing out the details of the film, just as he did when he was writing the book. Prior to filming, firefighters spent time with members of the New Haven Police Department, who provided them with tips and resources and answered their questions. They mapped out New Haven, placing the series’ narrative atop a personal geography that all of them also had.
They also looked to New Haven, rather than New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta, for a talent pool that already existed within the Elm City. That fits into the mission of MaxVision, Meade said—“bringing big films to the Big East.”
On screen, the work came alive, revealing several New Haven Easter Eggs for those who knew to look for them. First Caldwell, played by Roderick, walked through Union Station, the sign outside announcing New Haven in thick, bold letters. Inside the station, the circular wooden benches and chatter-filled waiting area came into focus. There was a sense of arriving in New Haven, just as people had arrived at the theater that night.
Soon after, that sense of the city expanded before the audience’s eyes. Dawson, played by Frost, walked up the steps of Woolsey Hall, the stately, domed building transformed into a police precinct in the film. There was a cameo from Meade, visible in the frame as he walked someone down the building’s steps.
Back inside, Frost was watching his worlds collide, as his New Haven—the city that raised him, and which he has responded to emergency calls, gotten devastating news, and given back to kids and elders dozens of times over—became part of Meade’s story.
“It was thrilling—nerve wracking—because it’s something different,” said Frost, 22-year veteran of New Haven Fire Department, at the film’s premiers. For him, and for so many people who worked on the series, Ding Dong Ditch was and is as much a personal geography as it is a love letter to New Haven.
When he stepped back into Woolsey Hall, for instance, he remembered cutting through the building as a kid in New Haven—but also going as a firefighter to investigate a bomb threat. While he calls the city “third not heard,” meaning that it’s not as prominent as New York, he still considers it “full of gems.”
“A lot of times as a firefighter, we see streets as situations that we had to deal with,” he said on WNHH the day before the premiere. “They’re no longer streets. It’s like, ‘Oh, I remember this incident here. Oh, I remember this fire. Oh, I remember I helped deliver a baby here. And being born and raised in Connecticut, in New Haven, a lot of the places are places we walked, or we played basketball at. Literally, one of the houses is one of my family homes.”
“We walk these streets, and we work these streets, so we see it twofold,” he added.
As cast members noted Friday, the filming experience itself was also an opportunity for community building, one of the goals behind a cast that is very much made in New Haven. One of the younger actors, Jovan Morales (in the film he plays a character named Jake) said that the process of reading scripts, rehearsing and filming “took the shyness out of me.” Several young actors, who are in high school, also include Roberto Carmon and Carlos Cernak.
Victoria Grace, who played Detective Emily Hunter, chimed in that Meade’s “chaotic energy is what kept us going.” Meade is not someone who easily throws in the towel—and neither were they.
After a screening of the first episode, actors fielded audience questions, from the inspiration behind the book and film to how actors got involved. After one attendee asked why acting seemed like the right outlet, Logan (or as he’s known on screen, Detective Omar Johnston), said it was basically hereditary for him. “Acting is in my family. It’s something that made me smile,” he said.
Longtime friends and family members of the actors also expressed their pride for their loved ones. Frost’s mother, Stephanie D. Frost, noted how proud she was of the series, telling her son it was like, “watching you in the backyard.”
“We want to show the youth that you can do anything,” Meade said. “It’s possible. You just have to keep God first, and keep your focus on your goals and not your problems.”
“This film is just to say, ‘Hey, we’re here,’” he added. “We’re gonna give you something that you can’t look away from, and you can’t ignore.”
You can follow the series and the work of Instagram and Facebook. Listen to the WNHH episode above.