It was ten years ago when Tom Baldinger and his wife, Kelly, moved to Hillsborough Township with their two children.
Around that same time was when Baldinger created his own production company called 624 Productions, LLC.
Baldinger has since produced various featured and short films, like “Two Sides of Love,” which won Best Homegrown Short Film at the Garden State Film Festival in 2014.
The Hillsborough resident is now in the process of finishing another project called “UN$UITED,” a potential TV comedy series that he filmed a pilot of this past month in New Jersey.
“It’s been going great,” Baldinger said about filming UN$UITED. “We have been mildly successful, which has allowed us to work with some heavy hitters on this pilot.”
UN$UITED centers around a young man named Greg Mucha who walks away from his inheritance to become a professional poker player. Unbeknownst to Greg, he is terrible at the game and is unaware of the risks and implications his decisions will have not only on himself but also his family and friends.
This will be the third project that Baldinger and 624 Productions have filmed in New Jersey and around the local area.
Baldinger shot his first feature film “Who’s Jenna…?” in parts of Somerset County, saying it was nice to “utilize the residency parts of the area”.
Recently, Baldinger and 624 Productions helped Hillsborough’s heavy metal rock band, Nuse, film the music video to its new song “Swept Away”. Actor and Woodbridge native Ronnie Marmo of “Criminal Minds” and “General Hospital” fame appears in the music video.
Baldinger said that the Nuse music video is one of the best projects 624 Productions has done and something he is “very proud of.”
Marmo is part of the UN$UITED cast and also helped 624 Productions produce the two-part pilot that was filmed across New Jersey for seven days.
Filming took place in parts of Mercer, Middlesex and Monmouth counties, as well as scenes shot in Atlantic City.
“Shooting in New Jersey was great,” Baldinger said. “People said it felt like they were on the set of a Farrelly Brothers movie.”
Baldinger added that the crew will fly to Las Vegas in September to finish shooting the pilot.
The whole idea for UN$UITED came about for Baldinger last year during the coronavirus pandemic when Kent Radford pitched him the idea based on the original story he wrote.
Baldinger was working on another project at the time, but as things stood still on production because of the pandemic, Baldinger decided to take up Radford on his idea and began writing a script earlier this year.
Following a couple of months of developing a script, Baldinger and his team were able to partner with Marmo and Emmy Award-winning casting director Judy Henderson to start off the production process.
A full slate of actors were then cast for the two-part pilot, which included Dan Lauria, Tony Denison and Carmine Giovinazzo.
The pilot will be two 22-minute episodes, Baldinger said, which will be the length of each episode if the show is picked up.
Baldinger and his production team have signed a deal with VPE to help distribute the pilot to potential networks and streaming companies once post-production is complete.
According to Baldinger, AMC, Sling, Paramount+ and HBO Max are among the networks and streaming companies that the series will be pitched to.
Baldinger said it would “mean the world” if UN$UITED is picked up and 624 Productions is able to work with the platform to produce or co-produce the series in any way.
A possible screening of the two-part UN$UITED pilot could be shown at the next year’s Garden State Film Festival, added Baldinger.
“It would be fantastic if the series is picked,” Baldinger said. “The ultimate goal for 624 Productions is to make this whole series.”
