Palo Alto's Young Filmmakers

The Film, Palo Alto

A coming of age film described by the producer, Daniel Engelhardt, as “a movie like American Graffiti or Breakfast Club, it is a story that defines my generation.” Taking place in the small town of Palo Alto in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is a story of four college freshman on their last night home during Thanksgiving break. A somewhat anecdotal tale of four boys and their experiences as they share a night of bonding, heartbreak and excitement, Palo Alto is sure to touch at the heart of today’s youth.

Daniel Engelhardt

About Daniel Engelhardt

Currently an Economics major at UCLA, Daniel already has a long list of credits to his young name. As the producer Palo Alto, he is responsible for “providing the resources necessary to bring out the creative vision the writer and director have,” explains Daniel. For a low budget, independent film this can be quite an undertaking. “The producer brings together all the elements that need to get pulled together to make the movie,” he proceeds to clarify, “these range from raising the money, getting the equipment, locking the cast, securing the right locations, scheduling it all out to the point of making the movie in a realistic timeline.”

Certainly he is the man for the job as his interest in filmmaking started as far back as middle school. As Daniel describes,“I got assigned a video project in class once, and I thought it is was the coolest thing in the world. I then started making my own home videos, shooting things at my house and editing them together. Then, when I met Brad my sophomore year in high school, we bonded instantly with our mutual appreciation for filmmaking. It was helpful to have a partner when you are trying to develop the knowledge and experience because we would push and motivate each other.”

Brad Leong

About Brad Leong

Brad Leong is a film major at USC and the director of Palo Alto. After a trip home one Thanksgiving, he began collaborating with Tony Vallone, the writer of the Palo Alto script. Tony, Daniel, and Brad all grew up in this suburb of the Silicon Valley area and began their interest in filmmaking at a very young age. “Well, I've always known I wanted to be a filmmaker, evenr since I was a little kid. I used to take my parents home video camera out into the backyard and make little "movies" with my model planes. Making a coming of age story seemed like an appropriate project for our first film. It was something that we all knew well and could personally connect with, making it easy to bring to life in a realistic manner,” says Brad.

Interview Questions

What motivated your interests in filmmaking?

Daniel: I think it is exciting to pull a group of people together in a room and figure out their creative ideas and throw ideas around and move their ideas along. It is an exciting process to be involved with, and I like to have my creative input, but I think it is more interesting for me to be there trying to figure out how to make a movie happen.

I can’t imagine going anywhere else but the movies. I definitely want to be a producer, and the reason I am an economics major is I feel like I am learning production and filmmaking by doing it; whereas it is helpful for me to have a more complex business understanding through school. I think the two skills I am learning in the real world and at UCLA perfectly compliment each other and help me out as I do more with bigger projects.

Brad: I've kind of known it's always what I wanted to do. It's just been intuitive.

What is your vision for the future?

Daniel: We basically just want to get the film Palo Alto out there to see where that leads us. I do think, with the huge following we have already generated, this film has a huge chance to succeed. What is also interesting about the movie, because it was created by a group of young filmmakers, it is very accessible. It is not this huge budget Hollywood production where there is no way to get to the director to ask him a question. So I think our movie has a real and genuine feel to it, which is also interesting to our audience. I think that is what will carry it to succeed.

Brad: Right now I can't think about much besides just finishing this film, but after that we have a family movie in development and a teen melodrama TV pilot. I want to continue to work with the team of filmmakers that we've been building with Palo Alto and make more films.

Who were your mentors?

Daniel: My dad has been amazingly supportive, and he has some experience in the film industry. Plus, with his work in Silicon Valley and Wall Street, he has a lot of experience in all types of businesses, so he has been there for advice and the introduction to various contacts. We wouldn’t be here without support from various people who have more experience in the film industry.

Brad: My parents.

How did you find your cast?

Daniel: Early on in the casting process, we hired a professional casting director. He has been casting for 30 years, so he has a lot of experience and a huge amount of relationships with some of the bigger agencies in LA. We started pitching the project around town and created a huge buzz around the script. The script is really well written, so when actors started reading it, they really enjoyed it and wanted to get involved. Throughout casting I was getting calls from major agencies saying 'you've got to get my client involved in this thing.' So, there was a huge interest from young actors in LA and that developed a momentum to where we started to get people like Ben Savage and Autumn Reeser.

The reason we were able to get the cast that we did was because the script was so well written and involved characters that young actors are interested in playing. Then, once we had the creditable young actors involved, it created a situation where actors like Tom Arnold would be interested.

Give Thanks

There is no doubt these two appreciate all the help and support they have received during their early start into filmmaking.

Daniel: One interesting element of the production is that the majority of the crew actually came from Culver City High School in Los Angeles. One of our mentors taught there, so we have been involved with the school for sometime. It is amazing to see how one key grip who was only 16, how he managed a crew of 10 people and a huge amount of professional equipment, and was getting compliments from the actors how impressed they were with the crew.

Brad: Please mention Kevin Gasca and Danny Walker, our editors. They are the ones who are really making this film happen...plus they spend weeks locked in an editing bay.

External Links

For more information on the movie, cast and crew visit their website at:

• Palo Alto the Movie.com