ABOUT THE FILM...
An aging weightlifter struggles through injury, loss and unrequited love to strive for one last chance at Olympic glory.
Casey Murray (Zack Telander), is a former Junior World Champion coming to the end of his Weightlifting career battling injuries, the urge to take PEDs, and his grieving Father/Coach (Bill Sage) who just wants his son to retire before Casey destroys his own life. After sustaining an injury he meets a talented rising artist, Natalie Winthrop and is inspired to rise to new heights.
Set and to be filmed in Buffalo, NY. The Weight is a unique coming of age story that explores manhood, the price of ambition, and for the first time on screen the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. One of the original Olympic sports full of blue-collar heroes, scandal, and politics.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Coming Together
ADAM SCHEINER
Writer/Director/Producer
Adam Scheiner is an award winning Director, Writer, and Producer originally from Buffalo, NY. He graduated from Temple University in 2010 with a Major in Film and Media Arts, and a Minor in Cognitive Psychology. After the modest festival success of his senior thesis film at Temple University, Adam moved to New York City and started an intentional odyssey to learn the industry inside and out from the ground up by working in almost every single department.
12 years into the business later, Adam has achieved his goal of working in every department and across all media platforms by paying his dues and then some. From scripted television and films to Commercial TV and Web. He’s worked Ultra Low Budget feature films, as well as, Major Network Television, Commercials and Studio Films. His work has taken him through all 48 states of the continental United States and he’s lived and worked in LA and NYC. He’s been a part of IATSE Unions Local 52 and Local 161, the latter of which he is a current member.
Adam’s second short film, The Artist & The Olympian, (A precursor to The Weight) has received acclaim for both its quality and popularity. To date, the film has amassed nearly 250k views and counting on Youtube and Vimeo and received both the “Staff Pic” and “Audience Favorite” recognition.
Adam’s first feature screenplay, The Weight, has won the Gold prize in Drama at both the 17th Annual Filmmakers International Screenwriting Awards and The World Series of Screenwriting. The script has also placed in the top 1% of major festivals such as the Atlanta Film Festival, Final Draft Big Break Contest, We Screenplay Competition, Screenplay Fest, among others.
ZACK TELANDER
Lead Actor/Producer
Zach was a film and television studies Major at the University of Vermont where he played four years of varsity lacrosse. Upon graduating in 2013, he moved to his hometown of Chicago and pursued filmmaking.
While acting in student films, Zack started training in Weightlifting and educated himself to become a coach. In 2015, he pursued a career as collegiate strength and conditioning coach and worked at Northwestern University and Texas A&M. During this time he acquired his USA Weightlifting Level 2 coaching certification, as well as, the NSCA-CSCS personal training certification.
In 2017, Zack decided to change his focus entirely from S&C coach in to becoming the best possible Weightlifter and Weightlifting coach he could be. In this time, Zack started a YouTube channel that was centered on the sport. Over time, the channel grew and grew and has accrued over 9 million total views with nearly 70 thousand subscribers. This success has given Zack 40 total athletes, 3 of which qualified for the USAW National Championships. Zack’s combination of athleticism, acting talent, and overall intelligence is what makes him born to play the part of Casey Murray and his knowledge and support of the Weightlifting world make him an invaluable Producer to the film.
JOSH BUNTING
Producer
Joshua Bunting graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2010 and is a member of the Florida Bar. He began his career practicing insurance law in Florida, but interrupted his practice after a year to pursue his lifetime goal of a career in film.
Joshua’s first worked as an associate producer on the feature film, Roswell FM, where he met producer Carl Lucas, who brought him on Calvin Lee Reeder’s The Rambler, the following year. After the success of The Rambler, Carl and Joshua formed EchoWolf Productions and began working on a slate of original properties for the company.
Joshua has producing credits on Louis Mandylor’s The Blackout, the indie drama Cortez, the independent horror film Fender Bender, My Name is Myeisha, and most recently the sci-fi fantasy thriller, The Wave starring Justin Long.
DOMINIQUE LEFEBVRE
Associate Producer
Dominique Lefebvre has been involved in the film industry one way or another since her teens. In her native Montreal, Dominique graduated with honors from Concordia University with a BFA in Film Studies and a minor in Irish Studies. During that time, she was also the assistant of producer Martin Paul-Hus (Amérique Film). Her work there allowed for many opportunities, including working with master filmmaker Nicolas Roeg's last film, Puffball (2007) as well as assisting in the development of the script for the film that would become Slut In A Good Way (Sophie Lorain, 2019) which screened at Tribeca this year.
In 2008, Dominique moved to New York to continue her film education as an MFA candidate at Columbia University where she would Write, Direct and Produce a number of successful short films. After graduating, she started her journey on set where she earned a reputation as the best Paperwork PA in New York and was sought after on a number of high profile productions in New York including The Following, The Good Wife, Mr. Robot, The Blacklist and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In 2017, Dominique was accepted into the DGA (Director's Guild of America) and has been working as an Assistant Director ever since. She most recently completed additional photography for the pilot of the upcoming Jordan Peele produced series The Hunt for Amazon.
Dominique’s experience and task management skills are second to none. She will be in charge of mapping out the tight 20 Day filming schedule, running set to keep the film on time, and generating daily production reports to assist in keeping the film on budget while making sure we get the footage we need.
RYAN VERBEL
Cinematographer
Ryan Verbel, is an award winning American Cinematographer whose work has been screened around the world in film festivals in Los Angeles, Rome, Toronto, Chicago, and New York City.
Ryan’s career started at Temple University where he won the Lew Klein Grant for Excellence in Media and was selected to shoot over a dozen senior thesis films. Verbel was also personally mentored by Academy Award Winning Production Designer, Paul Sylbert (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kramer vs. Kramer, Heaven Can Wait).
Upon graduation, Ryan relocated to LA and quickly moved up the ladder in the Grip and Electric departments becoming both a Gaffer and Key Grip on major studio films and TV series for Hulu, Netflix, and FX. In May 2014 he was the Key Grip on an Audi commercial featuring Breaking Bad’s, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul for the Emmy's. In June of that same year, he completed principle photography of his first feature film Good Grief starring Eric Michael Cole (White Squall), Rachel True (The Craft, Half Baked), and Jordan Ladd (Cabin Fever, Death Proof). Since then Verbel has photographed 6 feature films, 18 shorts, 3 web series, and 9 music videos.
Verbel is an active member of both IATSE Local 600 and IATSE Local 728.
RICK CHAPMAN
Editor
Rick Chapman is an award-winning Editor and musician. Upon graduating from Temple University in 2010, Chapman moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he worked on such projects as The Guest, The Last Stand, and The Signal among many others. He joined the Motion Picture Editors Guild in 2013.
In 2014 he relocated to Los Angeles. Shortly there after he won Editor of the Month for The Monthly Film Festival with his work on the short film The Last Transmission. Since then he has edited three feature films, over a dozen short films, music videos, and commercials. Chapman is also an assistant editor for scripted film and television; most recently American Housewife on ABC, The Unicorn on CBS, and Splitting Up Together on ABC.
Chapman is apart of the MPEG (Motion Picture Editors Guild) IATSE 700. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.
