It’s obvious when someone hears the words “film location,” they are more likely to think of Hollywood or New York City than Des Moines.

The spotlight has once again, however, cast itself upon the Midwest as filmmaker Thomas “Mas” Gardner will be showing his most recent project and directorial debut — “Boone Style” — at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in April.

Gardner has had experience working on the sets of large Hollywood features — like “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” — but for his first time as the director on set, Gardner returned to his hometown of Des Moines to film “Boone Style,” a story about a dysfunctional Midwestern family seen through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl.

Gardner knew he would be shooting in a small location. After some budget cuts, however, he says he also found himself working with an unexpectedly small budget.

“We came into town with half a million dollars that got axed [to approximately $100,000] about two months before we started shooting,” Gardner says. “We lost most of our L.A. crew, so we used locals which was nice as well.”

Gardner says one of the main focuses during the film production was keeping the budget low, which he achieved by cutting the story down to one location.

“Primarily we had to make it one location — to do that we didn’t have to move the company,” he says. “We didn’t need big trucks to move all the equipment.”

Gardner says local community members and businesses helped make the movie by making small donations of their money and time.

“It [donations] all adds up,” he says. “It cut it down quite a bit — we got a willing crew because a lot of them haven’t worked on a feature before.”

Gardner had multiple story ideas of what to shoot for his first film, but chose “Boone Style” because of its single shot location, the cut budget and the fact that the people portrayed in the film were very reminiscent of a Midwestern family — even if wasn’t intimately based on his own.

“It could be anyone’s family — a Midwestern family,” he says. “It’s a loving family that has its issues and quirks, but it’s a tight family in a loving community.”

John Houghton, an Iowa-based filmmaker, worked with Gardner on the project as his director of photography. Houghton says the film’s tight budget constraints made it a unique filming experience.

“It was a good time — it was not quite guerilla filmmaking, but it was close,” Houghton says. “It’s fun sometimes. If you’re working on a huge picture and money is no option, it all gets done. With an independent picture, you have to be creative.”

He says Gardner had a specific idea to get across in the film about Midwestern dynamics.

“Mas [Gardner] had a great vision for what ‘Boone Style’ should be, and it was up to me to get it across on the screen,” he says. “He really wanted to put down the story of a Midwestern dysfunctional family.”

He says the film portrays its conflict without any special effects or car chases — rather, it is a character-driven film.

“It’s all about how people portray themselves as a family to others and how the family sees itself,” he says. “On the surface of any family is a normal Midwestern family, but if you scratch the surface a little bit, you might find out Uncle Bob drinks too much.”

Houghton says Iowa is an ideal place for him and others to live, despite the hub of their trades thriving on the coasts.

“It’s interesting that working in this business — as I do — is it’s very difficult to work here in Iowa,” he says.

“I’m here by choice — I have two teenage kids, and there’s no better place to raise children than Iowa.”