Locally filmed 'Hidden Agenda' premiers in Maitland

Shadows draw in on the man slumped forward from a plastic chair behind a gray table, a coyly guilty look darkening his narrowly lit face.

“Where is she?” the detective half-shouts, clenching back frustration behind his teeth. Detective Matthews knows the man in front of him kidnapped a girl. She may be dead by now. But he can’t prove it.

The light blasting from the narrow beam above blinds the center of the room. Tension tightens in on the moment when Matthews will get what he wants. The suspected serial killer can smell the whiskey on the detective’s breath. He stares back, eyes darkening, and a grin twists upward. End scene.

It’s dramatic, it’s dark, and it’s all the culmination of a dream to make a detective drama in Central Florida. Hans Hernke, who has amassed dozens of credits as an actor and producer, did both for “Hidden Agenda.” Getting to shoot at locations he’s known since he was a boy was a nice touch.

“We tried New York, but it’s so expensive,” Hernke said. “Orlando seems so independent-film friendly.”

Flashing up on the screen as the credits roll, thank yous go out to Oviedo, Winter Park and more. "Hidden Agenda" got its big premier screening at the Enzian in Maitland at the end of March, with Hernke, Warren, costar and producer Laura D'Orsi — who played a subversive TV news intern — and associate producer Steve Flores on stage to answer questions.

For Hernke, there was no question that the premier would be in Central Florida. Though it's set in Miami, the movie criss-crossed the area throughout production.

The interrogation scene was shot inside an empty storefront right next to an Oviedo hair salon. The shouts inside made the nervous hairdressers want to call the cops.

Funny thing about that: Most of the cops on screen were real when the film borrowed them from the police department in Madison, a city halfway between Lake City and Tallahassee. Shooting on location at the Madison police headquarters, the cops inside are real cops.

Hernke gives a shout out to Officer Chris Cooks, as writer-director Aaron Warren talks about yanking cops off the beat for a quick scene. Former Maitland Police Chief Gary Calhoun, who was Madison’s chief during shooting, had officers on call — in the line of duty, and on set.

“[Chief Calhoun] could get on the mic and say ‘Officer 342, you’re needed on set, please come back to the precinct,’” Warren said. “They’d shoot the shot, and went back out on patrol just like that.”

When things got wild, that’s when Hernke was back in front of the camera, including being his own wheelman in Madison PD cars.

With multiple location changes and some cops-turned-actors, not everything went according to plan. They shot the climactic raid scene at 6 a.m. at Odin’s Den, the now-closed Winter Park bar. That turned out to be bad timing as a fake crime scene nearly turned into a real one.

“I’m kicking down the back door with a gun in my hand, I’m supposed to be chasing this guy, and these gardeners show up out of nowhere,” Hernke said. The cops were fake, but the looks on the gardeners’ faces were very real, just as the cameras shut down and the producers convinced the landscapers that the ‘raid’ wouldn’t end in handcuffs.

Detective Matthews isn’t sure he’ll get his man either, which brings the allure to the “Hidden Agenda” film. Will Matthews get the killer, or will his spiraling alcoholism and failing marriage get to him first?

The film is expected to have a fall release through Greenway Entertainment in video on demand. Visit painproductionsllc.com for more information.