This is a Super8 film from May 1986 that my buddies and I made (and starred in) for a project for Mrs. Beckman's New Media class at Naperville North High School. The same cast of characters, and the same protagonist as in Ninja, our other hit video, with which this film evinces intertextual connections.
This film was shot on location in McDowel Woods, off River Road in Naperville, and edited with tape and that splicing implement on loan from the top floor of the library. We all wish we made the film a bit longer. I distinctly recall being cast as a preacher, and I came to the shoot in my '78 Buick Park Avenue with a blue suit on and my hair completely hairsprayed down, but somehow the monkish theme became irresistible -- let alone suffocating and noxious, as you will soon see.
That said, it's fair to say that there's something appropriately surreal in its brevity -- all the way to its irresolute ending. Then there's the weird broadside at the beginning credits depicting some celestial irruption in the medieval fashion of a flaming face shouting at you unnecessarily, breathlessly, and extremely loudly from the heavens after coursing through the darkest reaches of goddamn where daemons and spheroids alike are borne in their inbreathed comminglings: it's come to say you suck, so smile!
Oh, I'm not sure why the sound is so low. It was fine in the original file.
Name the tunes!!!
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3 comments:
here's the music from your video!
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/bwv-996-bourree-by-bach-in-e-minor/84426860
great video!!
st.
"We shall sell no wine before it's time"! Chriss!
I was one of the writers and also the director of this film. It was a follow-up to our vastly(within the confines of that school semester) popular "NINJA" video. It was the final project in New Media class, and expectations by our classmates were elevated. "What piece of cinematic wonderment would they come up with now?" is probably what we thought they were thinking. Or maybe they weren't thinking of anything . We most likely didn't give a shit. Either way, "NINJA" gave us clout. A pass, you might say. We had given something to our school that was roundly embraced and would eventually get us end of the year awards.
This was our "Art Film". We really did it for ourselves.
In fact, as "Bouree" played, some smart aleck commented, "What is this, Masterpiece Theatre?"
YES, YOU FUCKER!!!
EXACTLY!!!
We knew that Super-8 film would work well asthetically within a forest setting, and by feeding the masses a similar plot line as "NINJA", we could explore, expound, and exploit the primal emotion of fear and of being chased by the unknown. It could also be a subconcious comment on repeating on past success, being cocky about it, and basking in the ensuing disapproval, disappointment
and general confusion it would provide.
I feel that we were able to do all of those things judging by the collective "oh-kayyyyy???" that our classmates gave us. Our teacher(God bless her- she might not have liked it but she 'got' it)gave us a passing grade for the class- an 'A' if I recall correctly.
There are some fundamental differences in the two pieces, however, that should be noted:
The protagonist in "NINJA" starts off in the institutional confinement of the school-Sunday detention. He defies the rules and a morbid figure, the grim reaper with a tough stance on the rules, stalks him relentlessly in an attempt to issue the boy's "day of reckoning". But a stealth hero emerges, sends the reaper "BACK! TO! MIDDLE-EARTH!!!", and while waving one of our most beloved symbols of the institution itself- the American flag, tells the boy how to repay him. And how is that? To follow more rules,of course! All is good, safe and balanced, and the viewer can feel good about themselves for having taken the ride.
"Verify the Alternative",an unofficial followup, takes the protagonist outside of man-made institutions- the wild. His stroll through woodsy splendour unfortunately is beset by a new dangers- unknown activities by an unknown group bound by ritual and subjugation- the dawn of institutionalism itself. By running from what he witnesses, he is not really rejecting it as much as he his becoming self-aware. Survival instinct most likely triggered by the reptillian brain causes flight from fright, as it were. Alas, he is not as fortunate in this instance. The robed figures capture him and the 'id' and carry him off to an unseen fate, most likely to the submission of ego , leaving the super-ego to the indoctrination of the institution itself. Verify the alternative, indeed. Like the opening credits suggest, what's new, pussycat? With a flaming faceball of fire hurtling towards the earth, there really isn't an alternative.
Heady stuff, I know.
Looking back on it (again thanks,GBDH for sharing it with a new audience)it could be that we were just a bunch of weirdos in the woods with a movie camera and a bucketful of wise-assedness...
The intro in this blog entry mentions brevity, and I could not agree more, but for nostalgic and selfish puposes, I wish we had made it longer and even weirder.
Still fun, though.
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