Last modified: Friday, October 5, 2007 12:42 AM EDT Starring role for home in Foxboro BY MICHAEL GELBWASSER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - Neringa and Frank Bryant put up their Christmas tree in July, and they won't take it down. They even had 100 people over for a Christmas party - in the 90-degree heat. True story, and they have the pictures to prove it - a movie that's been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, of all places. A 29-minute, 25-second, romantic comedy called "Third Date" was filmed July 27 and 28, partly at the Bryants' 16 Edwards Road home and their 92 Central St. apartment building. Shooting also occurred in Uxbridge and on Cape Cod. The Bryants weren't paid for their effort, Neringa Bryant says, but that's OK. The film had its world premiere last Thursday at Showcase Cinemas in Worcester, where screenwriter Tom Henrickson and producer Kristen Lucas live. The Bryants said they enjoyed the filming so much that they've kept up the Christmas tree used during one scene. And specks of fake snow still dot their front lawn, even though the real stuff is still some weeks away. "I'd just like the moment to be extended a little bit longer. They were so much fun," said Neringa Bryant, a screenwriter, herself. The cameras and cast came to Foxboro after Neringa Bryant suggested it to Lucas. They had worked together on a film for "The 48-Hour Film Project," a competition in Providence. Henrickson had written "Third Date" and connected with Lucas through a friend. Lucas says she needed two locations that were close by, "to be efficient with our time." Bryant suggested her house, and the apartment building where her son, Steven, lives. They wound up shooting scenes in the Bryants' living room, attic and front yard, and around the apartment building. "She started showing me pictures of the house," Lucas said. "I said, 'That's perfect!'" Bryant says her house was so crowded during filming that "you couldn't cross the living room. You had to go up the stairs, around, and down, because there were people shooting." "It's like having a house holiday party with everybody sleeping over," she said. "There were people everywhere. The director's wife was over there, (leaning) over the railing, watching her husband. "You just sit there, and hope you're not in the way of a camera." They even had uninvited guests: crickets. Trying to shoot a Christmas scene with crickets chirping - which doesn't happen in December - was challenging. "We got most of them quiet," Henrickson said. "We put a little background music in to drown them out." Also, Lucas says the "police showed up" during the Saturday night work "because apparently we were making too much noise." "Somebody called the cops. They thought it was a domestic abuse thing," Henrickson said. And "a lot of our extras did not show up because they were stuck in traffic" from the country music festival at Gillette Stadium, Lucas said. "We had to take crew members and dress them up," Henrickson said. Lucas said she will learn in early December if Sundance has accepted "Third Date." Either way, she plans to attend the festival. She's looking for investors to fund making the full-length, 90-minute version of the film. "We would completely re-shoot it," Lucas said. Neringa Bryant says she hasn't seen the short film. Her husband, Frank has, though. And he likes it. Which speaks volumes. "My husband knows movies," she said. MICHAEL GELBWASSER can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com. For more information about Third Date, visit www.thirddatemovie.com.