'Our Very Own' director lauds new DVD

With "Our Very Own" released on DVD today, Shelbyville native Cameron Watson, who wrote and directed the film, is already looking ahead to other projects, including possibly another job directing a movie.

Watson told the T-G he was excited about today's DVD release. "I hope everyone runs out to get their own copy. I have always said the film is a valentine to our town, and now that valentine can be shared and treasured by all."

Now that the film has finally been released to the public, Shelbyville is starting to see some national attention. Watson has been giving interviews to a variety of entertainment publications about the process of getting the movie to the masses. In an interview with Movieweb, Watson looked back at the past three years of bringing his story of his hometown to the screen and what his future now holds since finishing the film.

Watson said he has been traveling back and forth between Atlanta and Alabama after being hired to adapt "a beautiful Southern novel into a screenplay."

While Watson told Movieweb that he "can't really say what the novel is," only it had been on the stands "for awhile." Watson said he was hired by a producer "... who if he can get it all put together, wants me to direct it as well."

"I hope that that's the next thing. It's very much down my alley in terms of sensibility. Not that I'm just a Southern director but it certainly makes sense that they would want me to be involved with this project because of the tone."

Watson also was featured in recent episodes of Gray's Anatomy, adding to his appearances on TV shows as Wings, NYPD Blue and several feature films. The Shelbyville native said he has been directing a lot of theater and has had "some really good opportunities come up since the movie."

"I'm working on a couple of other scripts that I would like to direct. At this point in my life, I don't know that I have it in me to do it from the ground up again," Watson explained.

Talking to 411mania.com, the director said there was never an option to shoot "Our Very Own" anywhere else but Shelbyville. "I just knew we could never capture that sense of place anywhere else. It's almost a character in the movie. It actually is a character in the movie. The setting of where they are is such a character."

Watson mentioned while the film could have been shot outside of Los Angeles and cleaned up to look like a Southern town, all of those involved in the production agreed that you could never capture "it" unless it was filmed here.

While Watson said he was disappointed there wasn't a theatrical release of the film, they are getting a very positive reaction from the DVD release. "In some ways, because it's such an intimate film, it really fits on DVD beautifully. I think it will play in people's homes beautifully."

"It was a story that I knew I always wanted to tell," Watson told 411mania.com about the film. "But I just didn't know how I would tell it. It's a story of the heart and very personal to me."