Even though I couldn't be on Anthony's 48 Hour Film Project Team, I was still hoping to get involved somehow in some local film projects. When Anthony told me he needed some girls for a music video with a 70s roller disco theme, I jumped at the chance. I also jumped at the chance to interview a local filmmaker as I peppered him with questions about his latest film project and the music video shoot.
Anthony started answering my questions by explaining the music video and how it is related to his latest film -- a full length feature called Gore-E-ography (rhymes with "choreography") The Making of Death Harmony. "The movie is a mocumentary of the making of a low budget horror film. The whole thing is actually like a huge experiment. The entire film is improv-ed. We partnered up with "Mad Cowford Improv"to shoot the film," Anthony explained. A quick note -- The Mad Cowford Players have shows every Friday at 8pm at Northstar Substation downtown. If you're not familiar with improv, it's a comedy show that the players make up as they go along. If you've ever seen "Whose Line is it Anyway?" -- that's improv comedy. Improv is really fun to watch and I plan on going to a show just as soon as I can. Learn more about Mad Cowford Improv at http://www.madcowford.com/
Okay, back to Anthony's explanation of Gore-E-ography. "So we started with a handful of actors and set out to make an improvised film -- all we decided before we started filming was that we wanted it to be a mocumentary about the making of a low budget horror film called Death Harmony. Then we just started doing fake interviews with the actors. Whatever those actors came up with during the interviews -- that's what we used to base the rest of the movie on. It was a lot of fun. It turned into a vampire, zombie, ninja flick. Oh yeah, and its a musical."
I was already fascinated. "What a great time to do a movie with vampires in it!" I laughed.
"Oh, it was so awesome to film," Anthony continued. His enthusiasm was contagious. "So we finished the film over three different days of shooting, and right now we're working on the editing. Somewhere along the way, I came up with the idea of making a soundtrack for the film inside the film. So my friend Damon and I wrote the soundtrack and we started recording."
Hold up. "You wrote an entire soundtrack? How many songs?" I asked breathlessly.
"Fifteen or sixteen."
Wow.
"So this is where the music video you will be in comes in. One of the songs from the soundtrack is called Open Skate (Zombie Disco). We're going to shoot a music video of the song to help promote the movie. We also plan on submitting the video to be in a local music video showcase at the Five Points Theatre August 6th from 6-9pm. http://jackdiablo.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/music-video-contest-862010/
"What should I wear?" I asked.
"Just something 70's inspired. If you've never seen it, check out Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive video on You Tube to get an idea of what we are going for," Anthony instructed. Although I love the song (you simply can't listen to it without dancing), I'd never seen the I Will Survive video, so I did as Anthony suggested and checked it out online. You can watch it here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBR2G-iI3-I
The music video is so sweet and simple -- for most of the video it's just Gloria, dressed up in glittering black, her strong, defiant voice belting out those empowering lyrics we can all recite in our sleep. Then from time to time the shot will cut away to a thin black woman wearing a white bow around her neck, a glittery red tube top and red leggings, on roller skates, skating around to the song. The concept seemed simple enough, but what to wear?
I panicked as I went through my closet Saturday morning. I googled "70s disco outfit" and the pictures all seemed to feature Farah Fawcet hair (which I tried in vain to impose on my thick, straight mop), and tight clothing with lots of glitter. I ended up taking a red glittery dress I'd once worn in a dance recital and cutting off the skirt, making it into a tube top. I put on a jean skirt with it, and a rainbow colored belt I'd borrowed from my awesome friend, Effie who seems to have everything when it comes to clothes.
The shoot was set for 2pm at WJCT studios downtown. I left the house about noon, giving myself two hours to buy some roller skates and get downtown. I had thought picking up the skates would be easy, as I headed to a nearby Target. I was surprised to find there were no roller skates at Target -- only Rollerblades, and Anthony had been very specific. He wanted skates, not Rollerblades. I tried to imagine the roller chick from the I Will Survive video in Rollerblades. Nope, wouldn't work. Rollerblades are early 90s, definitely not 70s. So I headed over to Wal-Mart. I then discovered that the Wal-Mart on 103rd does not sell any kind of skates (Rollerblade or otherwise).
Now I was running seriously short on time. I made a last ditch effort, zipping down Blanding to Sports Authority. I tore into the store and made a beeline for the first employee I saw, begging in a breathless and slightly panicked voice for roller skates. She must have thought I was completely insane.
I mean what kind of person has a roller skate emergency at 1:30 on a Saturday? Turns out they had a few pairs of skates and just happened to have one pair in my size. They were bright white with purple wheels.
Perfect.
Thirty minutes later, I was standing outside WJCT studios and meeting Andy , the director of the music video. He was soft spoken and good natured, smiling easily. I was a wreck when I arrived -- I'd been keyed up and nervous/excited all morning about the music video, then my nerves were frayed by the last minute roller skate chase. Somehow, meeting Andy put me very much at ease. Arriving at the same time that I did was Courtney Gardner, one of the stars of Gore-E-ography, and (as I would soon find out) somewhat of a local film icon, having just won "Best Actress" in Jacksonville's 48 Hour Film Project. Courtney was friendly and very pretty, she had long, straight brown hair and wore a cute black tube top with black pants.
Andy had a magnetic key card that he used to gain us access to the WJCT building, and after some brief introductions, he buzzed us into the studio.
I was already starting to feel like a star.
I can't even tell you how cool it was walking into WJCT studios. I listen to NPR (broadcast from WJCT) in the mornings on my way to work, and I occasionally tune in to some of their shows and documentaries. http://www.wjct.org/ .
After we headed into the building, Andy led us down a short hallway and then into a large film studio. The room was huge -- it was like a large warehouse, with a gray cement floor and black walls and ceiling. The walls were covered with various different pieces of film equipment, and the ceiling was covered with hundreds of different lights. Only a few of the lights happened to be on, and the place had such a dim, quiet surreal quality. I was tingling with nervous excitement.
Another actor that would be in the video, CJ Forrest was waiting for us in the large studio. Like Andy, CJ also works at WJCT. CJ and Andy set about adjusting the lighting and setting up the camera while Courtney and I chatted. Courtney seemed to me to be a very talented, ambitious and intelligent person. She talked with confidence about film acting, and her dreams of one day making it to Hollywood.
"I want to go to LA, but I want to do it right," she told me. "So many people go there with little experience or plan, and end up having to come back within six months. I really want to build my resume and portfolio, make contacts, save up money and do my research before I go."
"Winning Best Actress at the 48 Hour Film Project must be great for your resume," I cut in. "Tell me a little about that."
She smiled. "The team I worked with was from the Jacksonville Film Institute. The film we shot is called Smooth Move, and its a love story about a guy who works in a smoothie shop in San Marco. He's in love with a local wine connoisseur. It won several awards including 'Best Overall Film,' and 'Best Director.'" You can watch the film here: http://vimeo.com/12922281
Courtney also spoke so passionately about Gore-E-ography. "In Death Harmony, I play a zombie queen who falls in love with a vampire prince. The zombies and vampires are at war, so its hard for us to be together... then there's the Ninjas, who are trying to break up our alliance..." the both of us were laughing while she explained it. It must have been so much fun to film.
Soon it was almost time for us to start filming our music video and I realized that the outfit I'd put together would look ridiculous. My outfit was bright and multicolored, and Courtney and CJs outfits were understated and black. Then Courtney pulled a gold sequin dress out of her bag. "I found this at Goodwill. Try it on!"
It fit perfectly -- I loved it. Next, I laced up my skates and started warming up by skating around the studio. The last time I was in roller skates was last fall for a roller rink birthday party, so it had definitely been awhile for me. Also, the studio floor was a bit uneven. Still, after a few laps around the studio, I felt pretty comfortable on the skates. While I warmed up, Andy and CJ tied a huge disco ball to a fixture on the ceiling and set about adjusting the lights to get the best effects out of the ball.
"Okay, I think we're ready," Andy finally announced as he hoisted a huge camera up onto his shoulder. Andy is a slim guy and that camera looked so heavy. I was impressed that he was able to hold it up as well as he did for the three or four hours we worked. CJ and Courtney took their places directly in front of Andy, prepared to dance and lip sync to Zombie Disco. Andy's hands flew over the various controls of the camera expertly as he adjusted for the shot.
The butterflies in my stomach stepped up their game by this point. "What am I supposed to be doing?" I asked Andy, "Should my face be serious, like the skater in the Gloria Gaynor video, or should I be smiling?"
"Just skate around the outside for now," Andy instructed. "You should be smiling, this is a fun song. Don't worry, we'll take lots of footage and shoot it several different ways. For now, just smile and dance around while you skate. Do whatever you feel like. Can you hit play on the stereo?"
"Ugh," Courtney mumbled, "We recorded this song just last night... it's my voice on there. I don't have that much of a singing voice."
I skated over to the stereo, unsure of what to expect, and hit play. Then I stood, drew a deep breath, and started skating.
Okay, let me just say this:
Zombie. Disco. is. FABULOUS!
It's a fun, upbeat, sexy song you can easily dance to. In fact, I don't think it would be possible to listen to it without dancing. Courtney's voice sounds fantastic -- I swear I thought I was listening to a top 20 hit. I'm serious, this song could be a big hit. I mean, how many Halloween songs do we have? Monster Mash and that's it? This song beats the PANTS off Monster Mash. I can't wait for all of you to hear it. As soon as the video gets finished, I'm posting it on The Out and About in Jax Facebook fan page (see the link on the side of the blog to join) and I'll post a link here in its own separate post.
I don't think this music video shoot would have been near as easy and exhilarating as it was if the song had not been so much FUN! My dancer side took over and and I smiled as I skated around the outside of the actors, grooving to the song and occasionally throwing my hands up in the air or clapping . As I skated around them, I stole glances at Courtney and CJ. Courtney looked perfectly at ease, lip syncing the song to the camera, alternately smiling and putting on a serious sexy face. She looked well rehearsed and natural. CJ was fantastic! He danced around her, doing all kinds of Saturday Night Fever -esque disco moves.
We ran through the song again and again, each time doing something a little different. During one take of the song, I skated up next to CJ and Courtney and danced with them, in some takes, I skated in front of them as if I was intentionally trying to upstage them. One of the many things that was so much fun about the shoot was that everyone pitched in ideas and we all tried them out. For example, at one point CJ got the idea of lowering the disco ball so that he and Courtney were positioned on either side of it singing to each other. They would then playfully bat the ball back and forth like a tether ball and then do some Matrix - like backward bends to avoid the ball.
We got occasional breaks while Andy and CJ adjusted the lighting, but for most of the time I was skating. I really got a workout. I got maybe a small glimpse of what life is like for Hollywood types. For every two or three minutes of easy action and dialogue you see on the screen, there are untold hours of hard work and repeating the same thing over and over.
Andy and CJ worked really well together. At one point, they got some footage of just me skating, and CJ pushed Andy (still holding the camera) in a rolling chair around the floor following me to give the the illusion of a moving camera.
Near the end of the shoot, CJ had the idea of doing a little "insert" (that's what he called it) of me skating up to him while he was dancing, and flirting with him. He would then dip me backward, but when we both came up, there was Courtney looking angry. Courtney would then grab my arm and fling me so I would sail off to the side. This was really fun to do, but took lots of practice to pull off. It was really hard to start and stop on skates on that floor, so CJ would have to catch me when I skated over. Also Courtney had to really pull hard on me to fling me off to the side. All of it took real muscle power and lots of practice. In the end, I have no way of knowing if it will even make it into the final video, but it was still really fun to film.
It was all so much fun and I hated for it to end, but after about three and a half hours or so, Andy announced that he had all the footage he needed. I gathered the three of us for a quick group photo, and then Courtney and I got changed back into our regular clothes. CJ and Andy walked Courtney and I out even though they would have to stay to put away equipment. "Talent leaves first!" Courtney teased.
"Is that what I am? Talent?! I laughed. Nobody's ever called me that before!" I also pestered CJ... "So, are you going to give me a tour of WJCT someday?"
"Probably not," he deadpanned.
Actors.
We all laughed. I thanked all of them profusely and left. Since then, I've been giddy about the whole thing. I can't wait to see the video, even though I fully expect that after all of the editing, I'll probably only be in like, 5 seconds of the finished video.
I also can't wait for the Gore-E-ography premiere, and all of the events surrounding it. Anthony has a few things in the works. One of the things he's doing is taking the soundtrack and giving it out to local bands to record covers of all the songs. Anthony will then use those cover versions to make a CD which they plan to sell and donate all proceeds the Greater Cultural Council to help fund the "Off the Grid Program". This program takes unused space downtown and gives it to artist to use for hosting art shows.
Anthony also hopes to have some cast members and volunteers dressed up as zombies and vampires holding up signs about the film walking around the First Wednesday Art Walk.
"The biggest event of all will be the premiere October 28th," Anthony told me. "We will have a local band doing live versions of songs from the soundtrack. So there will be live music and drinks. A lot of people will dress up as vampires, zombies or ninjas for the big night. It's going to be an awesome party."
I for one can't wait. I plan on being there and writing about it. Anthony was kind enough to show me just a few short clips from the movie and I laughed the entire time. Trust me, this movie is going to be awesome!
Check back here often, because I plan on posting here when the music video gets finished and I'll let you know if it ends up being in the lineup for the Music Video Showcase at the Florida Theatre August 6th. In the meantime, I'll let you know about any events I go to related to the movie, so you can come out and look for me-- I'll be the one wearing the gold dress and white roller skates...
that sounds SO fun! Can't wait to see the video! Congrats, talent!
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