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Shea Sizemore describes his latest film as a "very New River Valley type of movie."

And how.

"Sable," a Civil War period piece which was filmed over the course of several weekends in January and February, boasts a director and actors from Radford, scenery courtesy of Giles and Craig counties and an entire regiment of Civil War re-enactors, many of whom hail from Galax and Blacksburg.

"I just wanted to use the beauty of this area," said Sizemore of the filming locations.

The filmmaker, who is studying media productions and cinematic arts at Radford University, can now list "Sable" among the other projects he has completed with his production company, Speaking to the Dead, which he operates alongside Paul Metzger and James Gray.

"Sable" will premiere in Radford at the Bonnie Hurlburt Auditorium at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

"Sable" opens with a huge battle re-enactment scene, which Sizemore filmed during a visit to Endview Plantation in Virginia Beach.

The film's two main characters, brothers Eli and Russell, who are fighting side by side during the Civil War, wind up separated during the carnage of the skirmish.

Russell, the devil-may-care and thrill-seeking counterpart to his more cautious older brother, comes in contact with a mortally wounded courier, bearing a message that he was attempting to deliver before being caught in the middle of the battle.

After the courier dies, Russell makes the dangerous decision to abandon his unit and deliver the message himself.

When the brothers are reunited, Eli has no choice but to accompany Russell on this quest, knowing that both of them are risking their lives in the process.

After Sizemore finalized this screenplay, which was an expansion from his original and much shorter draft, the director approached several local re-enactment organizations to participate in the filming.

However, he found that many of these groups were less-than-willing to serve as extras for the film.

Frustrated, Sizemore was ready to scrap the entire film. Fortunately, a chance encounter at the Christiansburg Barnes & Noble bookstore resulted in a connection to an indispensable ally.

At the suggestion of a fellow bookstore dweller, Sizemore e-mailed Virginia Tech Alumni Distinguished Professor of History James "Bud" Robertson with the hope of getting some much-needed advice.

Robertson had one suggestion for Sizemore: Frank Moseley.

After contacting the Blacksburg resident and member of the 24th Virginia Infantry Regiment, Sizemore suddenly not only had the cooperation of more than 20 trained Civil War re-enactors, but all of the props and wardrobe he needed.

"If we were painters, you would've been our paint, my friend," Sizemore said to the painfully modest Moseley.

Moseley and his colleagues with the 24th Regiment played such a crucial role in nailing the historical accuracies of the film that Sizemore considered giving Moseley an assistant director credit for "Sable."

The 24th Virginia Regiment, which also doubles as the 83rd Pennsylvania Regiment and is equipped to portray both Confederate and Union soldiers, has participants who hail from as far as Bedford and Tazewell, but the professionals made the long commute to film in Giles County without complaint.

Moseley, who has served as an extra alongside his regiment for feature films such as "Glory" and "The Last of the Mohicans," said that Sizemore was just as professional and capable as the big-name directors he's worked with in the past.

"He was no less talented or prepared than anyone else," Moseley said.

The self-proclaimed Civil War buff who calls the re-enactments "the greatest form of escapism" said that appearing in "Sable" wasn't a demanding task.

"We come outfitted and trained. We know what we're doing. All we need is someone with the creative genius like Shea to tell us where to be," Moseley said.

With the task of nailing down the extras and the props for the film taken care of, Sizemore didn't need to look much farther to complete his cast for "Sable."

He wound up casting his longtime friend and fellow Radford University student Joe Davidson in the role of Eli, and Davidson's own younger brother, aspiring actor Stephen Davidson, took the part of the impulsive Russell.

Joe Davidson said that the chance to realize his dream of acting in a film was made even sweeter by working with Sizemore, of whom Joe Davidson has long been a huge fan.

"He's just whimsical and spontaneous, and that's what I love about him," he said.

Filming "Sable" took up the majority of Joe Davidson's free time for several weeks, and he wound up missing out on a few important events at home, including his wife's birthday.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be making that one up to her for awhile," he said with a grin.

He explained that he wouldn't have been so accommodating for a different director on a different project, but he went the extra mile for Sizemore because he believes so deeply in the filmmaker's work and potential.

Besides, the filming wasn't exactly terribly hard work.

"I got to get dressed up and go out and play in the woods," Joe Davidson said.

This cooperation of the cast and crew made the filming of "Sable," which Sizemore called "the most ambitious thing I've ever done," a much more enjoyable experience.

Sizemore's previous work has been much smaller-scale than "Sable," such as his abortion drama "The Quickening," and "The Ninth Ward," his documentary about the destruction to the New Orleans neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina.

"The Ninth Ward" recently won half of the awards at the first annual Highlander Film Festival at Radford University in February.

For the filming of "Sable," which is Sizemore's first period piece, he had to spend extra time planning the course of the production. He also found himself doubly motivated because of Moseley's involvement in the film.

"We didn't want to waste his time," Sizemore said.

Still, Joe and Stephen Davidson wound up ad-libbing portions of the script, with good results.

"Everything I planned, nothing really happened that way, but everything still fell into place," Sizemore said.