the entertaining and the odd take a ride together in
Gracie's newest
collaborative feature film, Cold Lampin'.
The story again takes a backseat to the process in this
Somewhat Rapid Movie Project. The task was fairly simple.
- gather everyone you can to make a movie
- you have 72 hours
but actually it was a little more complicated
- put themes into a hat
- figure out who wants responsibility for each of 3 teams
- draw 2 overarching themes for the entire project. ("cultural wasteland" and "lamp" were drawn)
- each crew leader draws at least one theme for inspiration
- return the next day at specified time for screening of your short
- humor/humiliate your friends if necessary
- choose new teams
- draw from hat
- connect the scenes from the day before
- return with finished product in 24 hours
- figure out beginning and end
shoot it edit it and show it before the 72 hours are up!
For our movie we created a series of characters and employed the assistance of a Plaid Pantry Sales Representative and a Manager as well as a late night doughnut shop (night shots... thank you (voodoo doughnuts)
The movie starts out with an exuberant Sex Industry worker Lemmy Jenkins checking his answering machine hearing approx 40 video titles are overdue and incurring fines. (All of which happen to have the word "Anal" in them) Also there is a message from his employer who puts Lemmy on the case of a string of sex worker killings.
The scene changes are designed to be awkward, interesting or somehow involve 196.745.286 a light green color I am told. Other scenes include a heated debate between a liberal firebrand and an right wing "top down authoritarian" (played by a local Pacific Green Party Activist), a pair of invasive street lamp vendors, and a number of awkward interactions with a whiny sniff-happy introvert, and a helpful gregarious, slightly homicidal former TV star from the Cosby Show.
Interlaced in all of this are cutaways to a conversation between head producer and head editor regarding the nature of narrative and its importance to the viewing public.
Will Lemmy find out the true killer in time? Who cares? the important thing is we had a good time producing a piece of fairly well crafted hastily made film.
more info, including a blog, a wiki (including all the themes in the theme hat!) and more available at http://72.gracies.org