WASHINGTON — A new movie, called "Wake," might appeal to fans of the Hitchcock classic "Rear Window." In "Wake," a narcoleptic professor believes she witnessed a murder in her neighbor's home at the hands of a popular rapper. She becomes obsessed with finding the truth.
The film was shot entirely in the District. We spoke with the movie's executive producer Tracey Edmonds and production company Octet about bringing Hollywood to the nation's capital.
"I found the script a couple of years ago," Edmonds explained. "The script was super smart. It's a fun thriller. I brought it to BET. We decided to shoot in D.C., and BET introduced me to Octet Productions. They do everything in D.C."
The team behind Octet, Chuck and Bree West, said there is a push to make D.C. more production friendly, and bring more films to the District. Chuck West thanked the mayor for helping bring more films to the area.
"We have been trying to bring film to D.C. for almost 10 years now. We're starting to build the infrastructure here so we can get bigger projects like 'Wake,'" Chuck West said.
Bree West said "Wake" is a big step in the right direction.
"It means everything. D.C. has so much talent, and we're so rich with resources, access, locations," Bree West said.
Bree West also said that as Octet works on more projects, more local crew members join the team.
"When we first stated years ago, we had to import a lot of our crew. Now, through the projects that we've been doing, we've created our own family that's local here... It's wonderful because they can rival any other location, LA or Atlanta, for shooting now," she said.
Edmonds said she has done a lot of TV and film work in Atlanta, and she would love to do more work in D.C.
"Atlanta's a wonderful place to work, but for me visually, it's nice to get a different look to our films. Coming to D.C. gave us a different flavor," Edmonds said.
"Wake" is available to stream now, exclusively on BET+.