As part of the 25 Days of Sine Fine Films extravaganza leading up the 25th Anniversary I have decided to write a series of posts celebrating the 25 actors who have been the most dedicated by participating in the most productions.
Actor of the Day: Tanino Minneci
Tanino was part of the company from the very beginning when we filmed Destiny. He has participated in 8 productions as cast and/or crew.
He's one of what I call the Founding Members. They were all part of the adventure in a cornfield on the night when we first had the idea of making a movie. Although the original concept was nothing like the actual script, Destiny is what resulted from that night and Tanino had a starring role.I first met Tanino (and others) in the Urbana Park Districts Youth Summer Theater production of Finian's Rainbow in 1995 where he played Og the leprechaun and I played Finian. That was a magical summer that introduced me to not only Tanino but also Annamarie and the MacLeods. The origin story of Sine Fine Films is best told in stick figures and I'm not going to get into it now.
I wrote the part of Esteban for Tanino but he was initially just a sidekick to Ketlan. After the first film shoot in the summer of 1996 I realized there was a lot more to Esteban, or maybe it was just Tanino charisma that made me want to explore the character. Whatever it was I went home that night, gave Esteban a backstory and wrote three more scenes for him. He emerged as a mentor and eventually became a hero in his own right.
Obviously I had to make another movie. I wrote the next script in the fall of 1996 and we filmed it in the winter of 1996/97. Esteban's character was just so cool and I needed to explore the relationship between Esteban and Balthazar. So I guess you could blame Tanino for Destiny II simply because he was just too awesome not to film with again? Damn you for being so amazing, Tanino!
Anyway, Esteban came into his own as the movie explored his complicated past and introduced new characters. It was the first time Jen Weber got to play a real part and the scenes between her character and Tanino were very funny. Tanino seems to have great chemistry with everyone he's on screen with.
By the time I decided to film Destiny III in the summer of 1997, I think Tanino was getting a little tired of the "francise" so he asked if he could have a death scene. I figured three movies was enough - it was a good trilogy - and killing off Esteban seemed like a good way to wrap it all up since he ended up being the titular character somehow.
Tanino is hilarious to film with. His bloopers are always hysterical and he's just a nice, kind, funny, outgoing, and very talented guy. He's also one of the biggest camera hams ever in SFF history. His talent and personality were on overdrive when he appeared in SFF's next movie - the epic disaster known as Frumpy Gets It.
Frumpy Gets It is movie without a script where everything is improved and unfortunately all the actors are talking over each other. Tanino puts in a brilliant performance as James Frumpy, the broke broadway producer and son of the elderly and despised Mrs. Frumpy. If you want to know more details about this epic disaster check out the Production Diary.
He also appeared in the short film I made for the Television Production class I took at Parkland College in the spring of 1998. I need to make a music video so I decided to edit the nightmare montage from Destiny II on an actual machine and not just two VCRs and it looked great. Tanino appears in it, of course, but he didn't shoot any new footage for it. It's officially a short film so it still counts.
What I did film new footage for was the Destiny Mini-Series. After learning how amazing it is to use a machine that was actually built for editing and now working part time for PCE-TV/PCTV (Parkland College (Educational) Television) I wanted to re-edit and air the Destiny Trilogy as a TV show. In the spring of 1999, I took the opportunity to film some of the "missing" scenes that we weren't able to film when we shot the original movies for various reasons.
Tanino was exactly as awesome in the reshoots and he was in the original. It was only two years later so that's no surprise. And he's consistently awesome so that's also no surprise. It was really great to work with him again. I didn't realize how much I missed filming with Tanino - or even just hanging out with him - until then.
Sadly for me, but awesome for Tanino, he graduated from high school (in 1996 I think) and went to college, so it's no surprise I wasn't able to film with him much at all after Destiny III. I was really lucky to catch him home on winter/spring break to film the scenes for the mini-series.
I somehow managed to talk him into being a guest star in Episode 16 of Pandora's Box. As the Underworld thief, Gregor, he only need to film for one shoot that took about 5-6 hours and was filmed over winter break. As talented and hilarious as ever, it was a blast and a half to film with him again and if I could have made him very small (an in joke on the set) I would have put him in my pocket so I could film with him anytime. Okay that sounds creepy. I should probably delete that. But I won't. I truly believe most people would want a Pocket Tanino if the universe allowed it.
He moved away from CU and I went to college down south. We lost touch after that and I assumed I probably wouldn't be able to film with him ever again, although I never truly gave up hope. I was able to reconnect with him via facebook sometime after 2008 and actually met up with him in CU when I went with Annamarie and Jen to watch and improv group. When I begged and pleaded sent out a casting call for people to film with me at the end of June in 2010 I was shocked and amazed when Tanino tentitivley said "yes". Rachel Zoralee, another person I love filming with also said yes.
OMG! I was so excited I actually screamed in delight and I think I woke up my baby nephew from his nap which was made my sister upset, for good reason, but she didn't understand! No one who hasn't filmed with Tanino and/or Rachel Zoralee understands how exciting it is, and just the thought of filming with BOTH of them made me feel like I'd died and gone to heaven!
I had the perfect script for both of them to star in and I wrote The Devil & Kitta Gray specifically for them. I cast Tanino as the Devil and Rachel as Kitta Gray and I was so excited I think I scared them. Tanino was as amazing as he has always been. Why do I keep being surprised by that? Even ten years later Tanino is still Tanino and he is all kinds of awesome.
He's never had the chance to play a real villain before in an SFF production although he did get to play an evil version of Esteban in Destiny III. I'd always wanted to see him play a villain and casting him as the Devil to Rachel's Kitta was perfect. He was wonderfully wicked and artistically angry as the character.
Getting to film The Devil & Kitta Gray with the two of them is one of the highlights of my filming life. Which probably tells you something about my life. I was so excited about the shoot that I made an Easter Egg for the DVD about how amazing Rachel and Tanino are. If you want to learn more detail about this amazing film shoot check out the Production Diary.
Tanino is a wonderful, amazing, talented, compassionate, and hilarious guy who can make anyone laugh and brings out the best in whoever he is around. Given how busy life is for everyone these days I know that I will probably never get to film with him again, but I will never completely give up hope because you just never know what will happen.
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