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Short films are quick fixes
that satisfy our
unnamed need.
Shoot them fast;
love them
for a long, long time.
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| sNotes |
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sTitles
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Destiny lives
Down the Road (excerpt)
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It is sticky complicated to
explain the process of Destiny.
We had a lot of ideas of how we wanted to shoot our feature
"Chalmatia!,"
and we wanted to test those out on a smaller project.
Elektrik Muse Dominique Thompson plays the part of Destiny, and the
story is loosely
based on something that happened to her.
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We've
always liked the idea of shooting in real locations and using real
people to play themselves. It's not exactly guerrilla filmmaking. It's
not even about being frugal. It's
more about capturing something that is real and letting it loose within
the fictional world of
the film. And, in a weird sort of way, this
technique really informs the storytelling. You wouldn't
do it, say, in a movie set in outer space. But, if you're shooting a
kind of social realism,
it makes things really interesting.
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In real life, my mom (just
below) helps Mr. Joe (above) take care of his wife Mrs. Dussy (below
mom). Mr. Joe has let us photograph him several
times.
He gets a kick out
of getting his picture taken.
One time his son was trying to arrange an
appointment with him that conflicted with our shooting. Mr. Joe said:
"I
can't do it then. I'm having my picture taken."
His face has amazing
texture, and you can
see the course of his 96 years outlined on it. Mr. Joe has also
appeared in "Little
Baby Eyes"
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When we were writing the
script, we wanted Destiny to work three jobs, so it was a natural
progression to write Mr. Joe and Ms. Dussy into the script. And, while
we were at it, we wrote my mom in as the carer of these old people who
employs Destiny to help her with housework. |
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This is Mr. Joe's & Mrs.
Dussy's bedroom where we shot Dominique folding clothes.
Following on
about shooting in real locations: there is a sensitivity that's
involved with using other people's space. We don't go in and take over
the place. We make ourselves
small in the space and they carry on living in it. Then,
whatever they are doing is incorporated into the filmmaking.
There is a
lot of research involved in finding the right place, of course. We
spend time with people before turning the camera over. Our special
talent is disarming them
quickly and making them forget about the
camera. I
believe this comes
from our documentary background and our real desire to get to know
people and their amazing stories. Everybody has at least one story.
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OK, in terms of crew, what you
see in this picture is it except for the guy behind the camera
(Patrick, of course). I don't think we will ever be this skeleton
again. It was amazingly fun but incredibly exhausting. Plus, there's no
one to blame for your screw ups.
That having been said, making this film was a communal experience. We
were helped by a tremendous amount of people. I can see Royce's camera
gear in this picture. I can see Gerard's
tripod and Dama's car in
the background. Christy,
Amelia's mom, took the kids for
McD's when they got cranky, and my whole family got involved. We held
auditions in the St. Bernard Council chambers, shot
in Chalmette restaurants and trailer parks. We got my sister and the
boys out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to play the extras on the bus. And so many
others were involved.
We were and are truly blessed.
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short film below------------------------ |
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| sTitles |
Mrs. Carmella
Prays: this is a clip. This is only a clip. "Mrs. Carmella Prays" is
entering her festival run, so we cannot screen the whole thing here at
this time.
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The universe has sent us many muses. One of them is Mrs.
Carmella: age 91, depression baby,
good
Catholic, Marigny native, storyteller.
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She is nearly beatified:
in the yard,
cutting grass,
with a sickle.
She is 89 years old.
A ripe age for
remembering.
And she tells me a story from kindergarten.
from the Great Depression.
She tells me the first time she ate graham crackers…
crumbled in milk.
She even remembers yesterday
and last week.
She is a ripe age for remembering.
She is walking the double infinity.
She is halfway to Heaven.
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We are very, very interested in
what Mrs. Carmella has to say. She is our guide for when we get old.
She shows us a way to be in the face of sweet death. She tells us to
plant seeds for Jesus. We don't know exactly what that means, but it is
something that gives her comfort.
And, because she is comforted, our
own anxiety about the end lessens. Maybe death is not the end. Maybe we
can extend ourselves after. Or maybe we will swirl into the void.
Whatever happens, it is most likely that she will go before us. And we
will see her on the other side
where she will tell us stories of what
happened before we arrived. And, she
will remember us, and we will know
who she is.
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Daybreak
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| sBrags |
Official Selection
The London Short Film Festival
"Love on the Road" Series
(2008)
Official
Selection
Festival Distribution
The British Council of Arts
(2008)
Official
Selection
Arrivano i Corti
International Short Film Festival
(2008)
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This was a co-production with
Rickshaw Films. We hauled in a wrecked
car. We had a rain machine.
There were driving shots through four
hundred books strewn about on the road. There was a clown and a fairy and lots of
Christmas decorations.
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now for something completely different-------------- |
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Fragile
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Spencer had been wanting to
shoot
something with us for a long time. He had an old Bolex that shot 100
ft. rolls and some messed up
lenses. We totally tortured Vonda Barns,
the lead. This was a great crew: Justin on Makeup, Marija on Costumes,
Robert as the 1st A.D., and Kara as Vonda's beautiful torturer.
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Don't ask me where this script
came from. I think we wanted to do something non-narrative and edgy. I'm not sure what it
means. The crying woman in the beginning is me. Something I taped when
I was having my nervous breakdown
in the late 90's. I had kept the tapes as a document, and Patrick
re-discovered them. I guess this is one of our early attempts of blurring the line between fact
and fiction.
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We needed a really grubby location, so I asked our
landlord who owned a ton of flats in Central London. This place was an old butcher shop. The texture
of the place really grabbed us, and we were able to throw fake blood
and blue paint all over
the place. There was also a lot of mouse poo.
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We had met Vonda on Robert's
feature London Voodoo.
I still can't believe that she agreed to this shoot as she got slapped and stapled and thrown
around and covered in fake blood
and blue paint. She was a trooper even when we asked her to fake vomit
in the extremely gross toilet.
"It's OK," she said. "I've got sanitizer that kills 99.9% of bacteria."
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My Life: A Film by Dominique
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I am going to try my best to
describe what this is and why it is on our website. Quite simply, it's
a collaboration with my
niece, Dominique Thompson, who is the sort of director of the piece.
You may
have seen her in such films as "Destiny lives Down the Road," "Little
Baby Eyes," and "The Kirmann Project."
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There
is something interesting here. Something about growing up in a small
town. Something about the state of the American teenager today.
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| sEnds |
this is the end.
go back home. |
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