The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Sunnyvale house is gonna be in pictures

By Sarah Stanek

It may not become a local landmark like the Libby's can, but 1034 Persimmon Ave. is going to be a star.

The cast and crew of Lloyd, a small independent film, spent a recent week filming interior and exterior shots on Persimmon Avenue in the home of Sam Alvis and Jill Johnson.

The movie is about a shy 10-year-old boy who develops a crush on a beautiful girl, and features a few big-name actors, such as Tom Arnold and Tom Bosley.

The film is scheduled for release in February 1998.

Producer Sam Calvillo lives in San Jose and owns Panache Optical on Murphy Avenue. He has provided eyewear for movies in the past and decided to get more involved with Lloyd for several reasons.

"It's a good family film. There aren't enough children's films around," Calvillo said.

Hector Barron, the writer and director of Lloyd, is from El Paso, Texas, as is Calvillo. After trying to get into USC, Barron worked on a number of small independent films before scripting his own.

The ideas were not hard to come by, Barron said. "I used to be a kid."

After searching for a financial backer for two years, Barron found Calvillo, who suggested the Sunnyvale shooting location and provided several family volunteers to work as assistants and security.

Two of Calvillo's nephews, Eric Squires from Los Gatos and Tony Martinez from San Jose, said they are really enjoying their work and bragging to their friends about working on a movie.

"They don't believe me a lot," Martinez said.

Christine Lojo, a professor at San Jose State and San Francisco State universities and the assistant director of Lloyd, said this is a great experience for the students who are also involved as volunteers.

"It's a chance to learn what a real production is like," Lojo said. "You cannot do that in a classroom."

Barron said a lot of the neighborhood kids have stopped by and offered to help or asked to watch. "The kids volunteer to act, of course," he said. He was able to use some of them as extras.

Alvis, the owner of the house, has also been an extra. He said the cast and crew have been very nice to his family as they overrun his house, and he and his wife are really enjoying watching Hollywood at work.

This week, shooting moves to a school in Santa Clara.

Barron said Sunnyvale has been a good location for shooting, although prone to many of the same problems that any location has.

"The biggest problem, as with every other production, is time and money," Barron said.

He also mentioned small, everyday noises as a minor disturbance.

"This is the lawn mower capital of the world," he said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 23, 1997.
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