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You have location scouts who go out and search for the best landscape and sites on which to film, and you have people who look for vintage cars or any other items large or small necessary for your movie.

Commercial films have big budgets, and deep pockets.

Indie films usually don't have pockets, let alone the shirt on their back. They're run on shoestrings.

Like Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois, they depend on the kindness of strangers.

If a problem comes up, they can't just throw money at it and fix it. If a location falls through, they can't just go onto a studio lot and build the set they want.

They have to make do, improvise, or rely on others' generosity.

Which is what a small film crew from Rhode Island is hoping to do here in Naples this summer.

When a group from Uncovered Productions attended the Marco Island Film Festival last year with their film "Freedom Park," they fell in love with the area. So much so, that Georgia Mendes rewrote her script to "Still Green," recasting the New England locale to Southwest Florida's Gulf coast.

It's said that any good movie concept can be stated in one sentence, so Mendes describes "Still Green" as "a teenage 'Big Chill.' "

Instead of a group of long-time friends getting together after the death of a friend, it's a group of recent high school graduates spending one last summer together, before they go their separate ways. They rent a house on the beach, but on the third day, there's an accident in the water.

The crew has rented a beach house in Bonita Springs for some scenes, and they've rented a house for a cast that includes four actors from Hollywood: Mika Boorem (TV's "Dawson's Creek," "The Patriot," "Blue Crush" and "Sleepover"), Douglas Spain (HBO series "Band of Brothers," "Star Maps"), Ryan Kelley ("Mean Creek," "The Dust Factory" and "Stolen Summer") and Noah Segan ("The Brick," "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Visitation").

But they're still looking for local people to donate housing for crew, which includes the lighting design team, the make-up artists and production assistants.

"If anybody has a house or rooms to donate for a month, please let us know," says Paul McKinney, one of the film's producers. "We have some local actors from Florida who came here thinking they had a great place to stay, and now they're sleeping on couches. It's for one month, through Sept. 16, and we would give them a special thanks in the movie credits and on our Web site."

Because the actors would need to have quick access to the set, McKinney says they're looking for donated space in Bonita Springs or in Naples close to US. 41.

"It's a low-budget independent film that is basically using every resource we can help to make it through the production," he says. "It's a (work) of passion, it's a labor of love. People donate food, or flowers. If we could get a restaurant to donate food, or if people want to help cook on the set, that'd be great," he says.

Though their co-director of photography, Brian Crane, and Roy Wagner, with whom he's worked in Hollywood, they've managed to get good deals in renting cameras.

"We're using high-definition film and cameras," McKinney says.

The company has also run into another problem that can't be solved with duct tape and ingenuity: They discovered they can't shoot any scenes on the beach at night because of the sea turtles.

"So we're looking for a private beach with no sea turtles where we can shoot at night," he says. "We have three night scenes we need to shoot."

Those who want to donate a free room or house, or even a stretch of beach, should call McKinney at (239) 793-8091.

You might never get to act in a movie, but this is one way to get your name on the big screen.

Nancy Stetson can be reached at nrstetson@naplesnews.com.