Stan Harrington: A man with a plan

"Searching the skies,
with unwavering faith,
for that crack in the clouds
where my rainbow will appear" Stelios Georgiadis

Stan Harrington has produced ten films in Los Angeles, and each film has earned at least one award from various film festivals across the country, but aside from his growing collection of trophies and plaques many things separate this actor, writer, director from mainstream Hollywood producers, beginning with his address. Stan has called a windowless twelve by twelve store room at the rear of the Stella Adler school for acting in Hollywood his home for the past fourteen years. On the pros side of this particular living arrangement, as the manager of the Stella Adler theater, Stan has a really short commute to work, on the cons side, if he wants a hot shower he has to walk about four blocks to his neighborhood gym.

Born Stelios Georgiadis in Melbourne Australia to Greek immigrants, Stan left a comfortable life down under 16 years ago to pursue a career in film. In that time Stan Harrington has mastered the art of Guerilla film making, he has even written a book on the subject aptly titled A Guerilla in the Midst published by the Sundance Media Group in April of 2007. The book is essentially a how-to manual on ultra low budget film making, and in it Stan utilizes his first full length feature “Bred In The Bone” shot for the bargain basement price of five thousand dollars, as a blueprint. “Bred” earned Stan Three awards at the Action On Film Festival of 2005 including “Best In Show” beating out among others, a two million dollar indie film starring Eric Roberts. Bred also provided Harrington with his first taste of editing, learning Sony’s Vegas Pro series editing program on the fly, when the editor he hired backed out.

Stan writes all his scripts, casts all his films, acquires any equipment, scouts his own locations, and coordinates all shooting schedules. Along with a place to hang his hat, his affiliation with the Stella Adler has also provided his one man Xristos Production company with an assortment of skilled, hungry young actors. Stan has also managed to pepper his casts with some solid veterans like Holland Taylor of Two and a Half Men fame, and John Saxon, from Enter The Dragon who plays Stan’s father in his second full length feature The Craving Heart, which once again, despite it’s shoe string budget, impressed at film festivals garnering twenty three nominations, and ten awards! CBS Film reviewer Todd Schwartz wrote of Craving Heart, "A resonant depiction of human desire and interaction. This is an example of independent cinema at it's most solid, proof that you don't need a sizeable budget to create a film of worth and intelligence."

Stan is currently busy on his latest Xristos epic Creed, he also has two films coming out in 2010 that he only acts in, Kerberos, and Stacking Chips, films Stan earned the opportunity for, by forging relationships at movie festivals all over the country. That’s sort of the point really, work creating more opportunity, which will hopefully lead to, at the very least, a much shorter walk to a hot shower. The Legendary acting teacher Stella Adler once said, “The streets of Los Angeles are littered with the bodies of lazy actors”. Stan Harrington won’t ever be among them.