The Plaza Theater in Burlington was packed Thursday night for the special showing of a movie filmed locally and the release of the trailer for a second also shot on location in Kenosha and Racine counties.

Both are the work of independent filmmakers Richard Blake and BJ Rayniak, western Kenosha County natives who have been making films together since second grade and now both own their own production companies.

“The Rocket,” based on Blake’s true-life experience, is about a high school student who suffers a severe head injury that forces him to trade his football cleats for cross country running shoes. It was filmed at Central High School and other western Kenosha County locations.

“Blame,” a murder-mystery thriller in which five college friends seek shelter in an abandoned school after being stranded in a snowstorm, is set for release in early 2020. It was filmed at the former Wilmot Grade School, various spots in downtown Burlington, the Welcome Center in Pleasant Prairie and at Silver Lake Park.

Melinda and Butch Conrad, of Wheatland, said they had yet to see “The Rocket,” which has been streaming through Amazon, and wanted to see if they could recognize the locations where filming took place.

“We are very excited to see it,” Melinda, whose son has been involved in some movie filming in New York, said.

She was looking forward to seeing how they used the former Wilmot Grade School as a setting as her granddaughter attended the school through second grade.

Susan Toll, of Burlington, thought it would be a great outing with her son Timothy Machroli, 30, who graduated from film school at Columbia College.

“I thought, ‘What a great opportunity to see something that was produced right here in our town,’” Toll said.

Rayniak, who made his directorial debut with this film, and Blake, said they were overwhelmed by the turnout at the event, which included a Q&A with them after the showing.

“It makes me want to keep doing what we do when people come out like this to show their overwhelming support,” Rayniak, said.

Blake echoed his comments.

“It adds fuel to the fire to keep going because it shows we are doing something that people are responding to or are affected by,” Blake said.

Addressing the audience

Many of the questions asked by the crowd had to do with the difficulties they faced while filming the movies.

Rayniak garnered laughter from the audience when he said making a movie about runners is not easy — especially when you’re not a runner.

“I was like, ‘Oh great, I have to run after these children’ with the camera,” he said.

He said the runners were not to happy with him after the first take of a scene that involved running uphill.

“They went a really long distance and it was beautiful, except I never hit record,” he said to another round of laughter.

True to life

Blake said about 70 percent of “The Rocket” is true to life.

“As far as the accident, that is exactly what happened to me,” he said.

He said the WIAA threw an unexpected wrench in their plans two weeks prior to filming. Turns out they could not use any actual high school cross country runners because it is a for-profit production. Participation by those runners would disqualify them.

“We almost weren’t able to do it,” Blake said, adding they were able to find replacements through an emergency social media casting call. “Lesson learned, didn’t know that.”

Blake, a 2001 graduate of Central High School, said he wrote the script for “Blame” more than 12 years ago when he and Rayniak, a 2001 graduate of Wilmot High School, were roommates in Los Angeles. He sold it to a production company that eventually folded, at which time he regained the rights.

Challenging weather

Weather posed a challenge during filming.

“It was negative 40 on some days,” Rayniak said. “We had (hand warmers) taped to the camera batteries.”

But, the weather also provided the perfect backdrop. Almost on cue, the Polar Vortex provided weather conditions the filmmakers couldn’t have staged during filming last January.

Blake said they plan to continue to work together. He said he has two scripts done and other in the works.

“We have a lot in the cue,” Blake said, adding they will be rated for PG-13 or under. “We want to make movies that anybody can see.”