The International Writers Magazine: Film Talk - Vancouver June 2005

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THE UNITED 8’S CRAZY 8’S DIRECTORS TALK TO KRYSHAN RANDEL ABOUT THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CRAZY AS THEY RUSH TO COMPLETE THEIR FILMS

Film in Vancouver 2005

Crazy 8s is off to the races again! The five short films picked to be produced this year all look like they are going to be terrific (and completely different from each other). I can recommend at least two of them, “Unwritten…” and “Crazy Late”, as I shot some behind the scenes for the former, and played a bicycle cop in the latter. Both have highly entertaining (and original!) stories, great casts and crews, and amazing sets: “Unwritten…” created a room from scratch with the production value of a Hollywood feature, and “Crazy Late” took over a suburban neighborhood in New Westminster that looked like it came straight out of “Leave It To Beaver” or “Pleasantville”. If the finished films turn out half as good as they looked watching them live on set, then they’re definitely film festival ready.

The rules for this fast film event (but not too fast) are: 8 days to shoot and edit the short from a pre-existing script, $800 provided to spend on the film (and not a penny more), $40,000-$50,000 worth of favors donated from various Vancouver film industry sponsors (cameras, editing time, props, etc.), and the limit of 30 minutes of digital tape stock to shoot with. More info about the event is at www.crazy8s.cc.

I asked five questions to each of the five directors, as they hurriedly complete their production marathon before the screening, this Saturday June 4th at The Vogue Theatre.
The Q & A is in alphabetical order.
IN ONE SENTENCE, WHAT IS YOUR SHORT FILM ABOUT?
GUY JUDGE: "All In" is the story of 4 buddies, from mixed ethnic backgrounds, at a night of poker where they discover they may not know each other as well as they had thought...
KAARE ANDREWS: “Unwritten…” is about an old man desperately trying to finish his great novel before death knocks on his door.
KELLY-RUTH MERCIER: “24/7” borrows heavily from classic and cheesy newsmagazine structure, and highlights the un-reasoning behind the downfall of celebrity anchor Roch Braun.
TRACY SMITH: In “Sandra Gets Dumped”, Sandra is making a video letter to her boyfriend until she finds out he dumped her, forcing her on a wild ride through the seven stages of grief until she gets over it.
ZACH LIPOVSKY: “Crazy Late” is about a groom who wakes up five minutes before his own wedding, with four blocks between him and the rest of his life.

HOW WAS THE CRAZY 8’S PROCESS DIFFERENT THAN IF YOU WERE TO DIRECT YOUR
FILM WITHOUT THEIR INVOLVEMENT?
GUY: Crazy 8s has helped us in an amazing way. They sponsor us and provide us with an opportunity to show what we can do. They help provide us with all of the equipment and answers that we need to make a successful production, and were very good about allowing us to keep our creative freedom on the project. Though they help produce our film, they weren't looking over our shoulders. They allowed us to do our film, how we wanted, with complete trust that we would do our best to make a film that would stand up to the standards Crazy8s films in the past have set.
KAARE: Crazy 8s has pushed me in every area of filmmaking. Before this event I've never had the opportunity to work with such a large crew, such a great team, I've never been able to build a set, use practical special effects, rehearse with actors... If I did this film on my own it would be at a much smaller scale. I really appreciate the opportunity, and have tried very hard not to squander it.
KELLY-RUTH: Three things: Money, time and profile. Money - hard to find, I would be using my own without their support. Time - we charged through the edit yesterday like a herd of elephants. The film looks like there’s a ton of coverage, but there isn’t. Profile – when you’re working as an independent, generating the buzz takes as much time, money and effort as making your film. Crazy 8s takes care of all that.
TRACY: Without Crazy 8s, the film would not have been nearly as polished or professional. The event attracted a higher calibre of cast and crew, and greater willingness and support from the film community.
ZACH: Everyone in the industry knows about Crazy 8s, so it makes getting sponsorship easier. We needed a lot of additional sponsorship.

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR SHOOT LAST WEEKEND?
GUY: Watching the dailies with the other members of the writing team (D.J. Parmar, Ian Ronningen who also acted in the film) was an awesome feeling. They weren't sure what to expect, and to see that they were happy with what had been done made me feel great. KAARE: David Barkes, special effects co-ordinator, gave us all the highlight of our shoot late Saturday night at Terminal City. Come to the screening and you'll know which shot I'm talking about!
KELLY-RUTH: The moment when my mind was swinging like a pendulum - I was walking around and thinking “what if the film doesn’t cut together?”, then I thought, “what if this doesn’t suck?”, and even, “what if it goes to Cannes?” It epitomizes the directors’ state of mind between whether it won’t work at all with an audience, or whether it will be a big hit.
TRACY: When wrap was called. The 1st AD and the producer made sure thatthe entire crew was in video village for the last scene. When I heard the eruption of cheers at the end of the shoot, I burst into tears, along with many other members of our mostly female crew.
ZACH: The feeling of having over one hundred cast and crew members come out and support you for the excitement of the project. It’s hard to describe the gratitude I feel right now.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SETBACK TO HAD TO OVERCOME DURING YOUR SHOOT?
GUY: The heat. Because the story takes place in the evening, we had to tent off parts of the house we shot in. We set up the night before, so it was very stuffy, and it was also two of the hottest days I've seen all year, not to mention the heat of the lights and camera. Another problem we had was the fear of running out of tape. Crazy8s only allows you to have 30 minutes of digital tape, and that was quite a restriction. Halfway through the shoot, we stopped slating because we wanted to save every extra second we could.
KAARE: Some of the camera choices I made delayed us from getting any kind of shot off until 5 p.m. on our first day of shooting. We were originally scheduled to start at 12 noon! But the results from those choices have really paid off in the long run. I was also incredibly sick the whole shoot and probably infected the entire crew with sickness. Sorry guys, hope everyone's better by Saturday night!
KELLY-RUTH: I felt like Rob and Amber on The Amazing Race – we kept being in luck. We had some crew bail, but it was workable. We didn’t have a script for three weeks, and finally I wrote it myself, but even that was workable. So far, so good… The biggest thing (and it’s so not) was the neighbor who wouldn’t stop doing laundry next to our set.
TRACY: Nothing went wrong, because all of our producers have obsessive compulsive disorder. We were so organized and ahead of schedule that we had naptimes and massages on set. The shoot was like taking a warm bath, and our motto was “come on in, the water’s fine”. ZACH: The changing sun – every take the sun would change, so the shadows would change each time – you can’t rehearse for that. Our film was one uninterrupted 10-minute Steadicam shot that took place in two houses and over four city blocks, and which ended in a crane shot of a wedding that had over fifty extras. For the entire take, we had to keep the camera, sound and AD departments out of sight – including their shadows. We adapted a live theatre mentality; “the show must go on”, no matter what happens.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BEHIND THE SCENES STORY TO DATE?
GUY: At the end of the shoot there was a little wrap party here. It was good to see the cast and crew kick back and relax for a couple of hours after a long day of mayhem. They earned it. It's nice to see people in high spirits after such a long day of hard work.
KAARE: I'm gonna be honest... it's all a big blur right now. Personally the most memorable moment is hooking up with my Producer, Mel Weisbaum. I told him in the beginning to feel free to push me to higher levels and let me tell you...he not only pushed, he picked me up and threw me over the mountain.
KELLY-RUTH: I got a job in February as an in-house visual effects producer at Artifex. I told them my idea, and they loved it and went for it. Right now is the most memorable experience - we’ve closed shop for five business days, and they are working around the clock on this, doing “Dateline” style full motion graphics, 3D tracking, and all kinds of other stuff. I treated them as part of the production, I kept saying “you tell me” when they asked me what to do, and now I can’t make them go home. These guys are artists, and they are exploding in scope and possibility. We all plugged our noses, jumped over the cliff, and decided to see how deep the water is.
TRACY: Our crew is 85% women, and the 15% men on set all had to dress in drag to be on the crew – wigs, aprons, etc. It was quite the sight!
ZACH: The shot that we used has the sound of a train throughout it - over nearly half the footage. That was because one of our one-ton trucks was parked on the train tracks, and the train kept honking until a crew member moved it. We still used the shot because it was the funniest take.
www.crazy8s.cc.
© K Randell June 2005
kryshanr@hotmail.com

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