Ready, set, action ... Ashburnham!
By Caitlyn Kelleher
Ashburnham will be portraying a quaint

Actors Misty Lockheart and Donna Douglas - known for her role on The Beverly Hillbillies, as Elli Mae - will act in 'Starfish' to be filmed, Sunday, Aug. 27.

New England ocean village in an upcoming TV show pilot.

A local production company is planning to tape the exterior shots of their upcoming pilot episode on Main Street at the end of August. The production company, Purety Productions, is creating a three episode series of a new family drama, The Chronicles of Life.

"It's small and cute," said Donna Dodge, of the production company. "It looks like a seaside village, even though it's an hour away."

Dodge and Misty Lockheart, the co-founder of the company and the female star of the show, are from the region and have shot movies in the area before.

"I want to promote Ashburnham," Dodge said. "People here are friendly and they are open."

The story is going to be how Lockheart's character is befriended by an elderly woman and learns some life lessons along the way. Lockheart's co-stars include Donna Douglas - who played Elli Mae Clampet on "The Beverly Hillbillies" in the 1960s.

"We're going to try to prove something else then sex sells," Dodge said. "It's going to be shopped to networks for family genre. It's strictly G."

Dodge and Lockheart wrote the script for the series themselves.

Lockheart, 18, said she started the production company because she wanted to be comfortable with the message she was sending through her character.

"I've had to turn down six feature films because of content," Lockheart said.

She said the script is not geared to a religious audience and that it is not preaching a message. The script, she said, is simply aimed at families.

The script is developed from experiences Dodge had as a youth leader.

"It's not to preach," she said. "It's to help people to discover."

Dodge and Lockheart made the rounds to Main Street businesses making sure they approved of having their front windows and signs in clips.

They are also looking for extras to star in the Ashburnham scenes, especially some of the senior citizen's in town.

"The whole point is the elderly," Dodge said.

The entire episode - this one named "Starfish" -will be under 30 minutes but will take most of the day on Sunday, Aug. 27 to shoot.

The other two episodes - "The Box and Friends" - will be shot after production is completed on Starfish, Dodge said. These will also have scenes in Ashburnham.

Some of the interior scenes will be shot at the Village Inn, in Westminster and the scenes by the ocean that will be shot on the coast of New Hampshire.

"(The Inn) is a great location to shot," Dodge said.

She and Lockheart have worked in the area before. They shot "Mirror, Mirror" - a feature in film that is in postproduction - in Gardner.

Photos are Courtesy of Misty Lockheart. Caitlyn Kelleher can be reached at (978) 827-3386, ext. 15, or e-mail: caitlynkelleher@aol.com