It's been a few months but our home made improv group got back together yesterday to make some new short films. It was decided judiciously that 90 degree weather was no place to stand under hot lights in heavy costumes so we took a seasonal hiatus. Yesterday we reconvened to make two five-minute pieces and shot about an hour of footage.
This all started last year. Andrew and I were watching the extras to 'A Day at the Races' on dvd and parodying the documentary. Somehow this mixed with the idea of a comedy team consisting of two Zeppos. Within three months we had a script, a cheap digital video camera and a screening at Two Boots Pizza for thirty people. The momentum kicked in after that and nine months later we have about 25 films.
I love this process, ever changing though it is. Sometimes we have a full script, actually learn the lines and get someone else to direct. Sometimes we improv off the script and use whichever works best. Yesterday Bill had a one-word idea while we were waiting for Brian to show up.
Stage improv frustrated me because I couldn’t get over feeling that the audience would be watching nothing for five, ten minutes at a stretch. When it’s on film, you can cut out all the exploring and use the one good joke in a scene. Making these films taught me more valuable lessons in writing screenplays than anything I’ve done before. The hardest lesson was cutting good stuff because it’s in the way of the story (our favorite film died with an audience because it was eight minutes too long).
Last night at dinner, the four of us discussed what to do next. Should we have another screening? Tackle a feature length film? Experiment with stop-motion animation and Flash? The one thing we all agreed was to host these films on a full website. There’s no reason to try this hard if no one can see it. We hope to have something soon and once we do, I’ll link the holy hell out of it.
By the way, the above illustration was done by Pilar for our first film. She’s a fantastic animator and you can find out all about her here.
5 comments:
ONION!!!!!
i want to see play cole...
In addition to all the short films we've done, it's probably worth mentioning the one very serious piece we shot recently.
I'm speaking of a documentary called "The Lazzaris." It's an expose that reveals, for the first time, a US government-funded attempt to genetically create an 11-year old boy in the laboratory.
The experiment was a partial success. Something was created. But what that was remains the government's darkest and most troubling secret. Not human, not animal, the creature is simply called "The Lazzaris." And Playcole's new documentary shows this hideous creature to the world for the first time ever.
I have made an initital three-minute and thirty-second edit of the material, which will be submitted to a film festival later this week. However, the final film will lose these time contraints and be posted online, so that the world can see the horror that is the Lazzaris.
It can't be true. The governement would never do something like that and cover it up. Is this another one of those phony conspiracy theorys like Area 51, the second Kennedy assasin, and existence of "earthquakes"?
BTW, I've been hearing about some new "Stevens" movie coming out. It's supposed to be a special effects blockbuster.
I can't wait until the next screening!
You know, the Two Boots could be an annual event.....something to work toward and even invite other budding basement film-makers to submit.....thus spreading the word and feeding the fire of the creativity burning inside....I think it would great! Not to mention good pizza!
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