James DiLullo

While James DiLullo is a proud Batavia native who just brought in a cast and crew from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Bergen, Waterloo, and yes, his own hometown, to film “Kitty,” the short work he scripted and produced at John Kennedy Intermediate School, he likes to tout the idea of regional versus local.

After all, he introduced all of those out-of-town visitors to a taste of this area, literally, through the food and beverage businesses that treated them aesthetically, as they commuted from their residences and experienced the scenery, Thruway system and landmarks in and around the city of Batavia. 

“We were showing a lot of these regional people what Batavia is, and, you know, many of them don't see it from off the Thruway. They only know the Thruway exit. So it was cool to show local families Batavia is more,” DiLullo said Monday from his family farm in Cattaraugus. “I would like to thank the teacher whose room we used and district leadership and facilities director Chad Bliss and Jason Smith for allowing this to occur.”

The city school district, parks and police department, and GO Art!, which awarded him a $5,000 grant, Batavia Players and Pat Burk were all on board with the project and helped make it a smooth effort, he said.

It was two days of filming at the Vine Street school, with a cast of 19 children from Rochester, Bergen, Waterloo and Batavia, and the lead feline character, Bunny Pitbull Buzzkill, who has experienced her “first and last acting performance,” he said. 

Not that production was in any way negative, he said. In fact, he was quite pleased with excellent performances by a primarily youth cast. It went “better than planned,” he said. 

“Beyond better. It blew my mind what what we did this weekend, it was just, it's really accomplished all my goals. As stated in the previous article, we got a lot of positivity and a lot of inspiration. We had a special set visitor one day — both of our lead little girls in the film play hockey; they're both 8-year-old hockey players. So I had Mr. Gerry Meehan visit the set  … he's a business associate of mine, so I had him visit the set and provide some inspiration beyond film for those children. So that was excellent. It was excellent to be able to include a local legend in the filming process. He's not part of the crew or anything, he was just a visitor, we called him to set a little perk for our girls because they were hockey girls so it made sense.”

He wanted to treat the two young actors who are involved in hockey to a surprise, so Meehan, the first captain for the Buffalo Sabres and former general manager, stopped by for a surprise visit. 

DiLullo made the six-and-a-half-minute film and invested the grant money here in Genesee County. Meant to pique the curiosity and imagination of an audience, this short film is based on DiLullo’s childhood experiences with pets and how perceptions may differ from those of adults. Putting the four-legged star into action had its trials, he said.

“It was a challenge. Dealing with animal talent is never easy,” he said.

Part of his goal was to focus on the regional aspect of the project — working locally here and putting Batavia in the center “geographically as well as economically,” he said. While stationed in Batavia, he also brought in talent from other areas in Western New York.  He went through a Rochester casting agency and struck gold for finding what he needed.

“It’s local and exposing local, but the talent is regional,” he said. “The region has the primary talent. And it was excellent. I couldn't have asked for a better performance.”

After relaxing with family for the Fourth of July weekend, he will head back to his home in Los Angeles and work on post-production — audio, music, post-sound, color correction, and making important connections. 

“It’s locating an executive producer that can help expose the film to more people, so all the post production has to occur,” he said. “And we're hoping to do that very quickly in order to have a finished product by the beginning of September so that we can start to send that out to various film festivals and get some attention on the project and the wonderful creatives and technicians who executed it from Western New York.”

He’s grateful for the support of four businesses, Cinquino’s Pizza, The Yngodess Shop, Pub Hub Coffee Shop and Everybody Eats, he said.

In turn, he likes to reciprocate when possible by doing business here, purchasing local goods and services, and even treating the crew to some local fun when it’s available. Once filming was wrapped up, several of the Kitty crew attended Barracuda at Batavia Downs, DiLullo said.

While it may seem like an aside, he sees it as an extension of what he’s always trying to do: strengthening the local economy by bringing in outside dollars. He did just that by treating his crew to a concert at Batavia Downs.

“It was the best way to end a hectic shooting schedule; it was just to relax and slam some blues with 4,000 boomers. And just have fun. That was a great show,” he said. “So shout out to Batavia Downs for their concert series and bringing the quality acts that are relatable to many generations, right? 

“Several of us, including producers, attended the Heart show, and it was excellent. We had a blast. So there’s a lot going on in Batavia. There’s a lot happening; it’s just harnessing that and then bringing the dollars from outside in,” he said. “That’s my goal, bringing the dollars, show the world it can be done here and it can be done efficiently and economically.”

The film is dedicated to the memory of Florence Lullo, a longtime supporter of baseball in Batavia and DiLullo’s grandmother.