History Lesson - CREW CALL!!!

[normal josh]

History Lesson

Indie short still needs talented visionaries to join our creative team.

One of our main goals is to make a rather experimental, and (although comical) artistic piece that looks and sounds completely original from anything around. We are also hoping to take the festival circuit by storm with this film and create interesting opportunities for ourselves in the future; therefore high production values are a must.

The piece was written with cinematography and production design in mind, and is filled with many exciting possibilities. There will be a lot of experimentation with camera angles, lighting, sound, costume, and makeup, to match the weird world of our characters.


- 1or 2 talented & resourceful DOPs/Cinematographers with good knowledge of colour, texture, light and composition
o There are 2 shooting periods, each very different in style from another, so each could have its own DOP
o July 8-10 – a series of 30 second commercials (aprox. 9-10)
o July 16-22 – the main part of the script (weird, futuristic, unique)

- 1-2 great gaffers
o the commercials will be lit in a number of ways; mostly classical set-ups
o the main part of the film is located in two distinctive rooms, allegedly lit by TVs alone ; the end will showcase a rather overexposed look

- 1st A.D.

- Sound technicians/ boom ops – onset sound for shoots
- A sound mixer (the sound will also be weird - a mix of overly loud commercials and dialogue at varying levels)

- An assistant production designer

- a locations manager

- a co-producer to enable improved quality


Although the positions are on a volunteer basis, at the moment we have a very talented and experienced team, determined to make this short in a unique style, hopefully to be remembered as our own. We are also willing to work out an alternative compensation system.

We have included a basic synopsis, and we can email a script, concept sketches, detailed schedules etc. to those seriously interested.

Hope to hear from you.

Lexa N. (604-779-3414, lexa_naicu@hotmail.com)
Josh K. (604-783-2547, majorjosh@shaw.ca)

No Name Productions

Genre: comedy/satire with a weird and experimental touch
Synopsis
The year is 2600. Å and ß are 2 androgynous teenagers frolicking through the old part of town, and their experiences will be cross cut. Å is looking for an idea for his/her history paper on life in 2006, and stumbles upon a strange place. From the doorway, emerges an odd looking guy, dressed in a hospital gown and fuzzy blue slippers, with an IV unit attached to his arm. He offers Å some gum and disappears. Intrigued Å goes inside to find a strange torture chamber? (in fact it is a former plastic surgery clinic for celebrities and reality show victims). In the operating room there are many noisy TVs playing commercials and makeover show footage (at unbearable sound levels), there is a book of before & after photos of patients, and many tools and implants on the loose. Eventually Å starts looking in the mirror, makes comparisons with the pictures, and ends up sticking implants under her/his clothes and imagining. Meanwhile ß enters a high rise, and finds a room which smells like a library and hosts many old fashion posters, magazines and also several TVs, tiressley playing commercials for beauty products and preventing us from hearing most of the dialogue. ß, a history fiend, starts reading, while one of the silhouettes in the room comes to life, and it turns out to be a much plasticized, 700 year old Joan Rivers (her face will be a mask). Joan shrugs at the sight of makeup- free ß, and lectures him/her on beauty, but ß is more interested in what these old magazines had to say about life in 2006. Meanwhile she/he doesn’t notice Joan is giving him/her a makeover, and eventually ends up looking like a trashy girl, similar to the Paris Hilton variety. When Joan mentions Botox is necessary, ß follows her next door trying to refuse the offer, and discovers Å posing in the mirror. They laugh at each other and realizing how silly this is, they both leave while Joan is busy looking for a syringe. She is angry to have lost the young flesh, but IV Guy returns with her life-preserving collagen smoothie, that she guzzles down quickly and ends up melting because her trusty servant has poisoned it with real nutrients. Now he can also go on frolicking happily.

Brief description, of design challenges:

Lighting – main action
- indoors - the illusion of several TVs as the only light sources in the room (the goal is an unnatural glow, however clarity is necessary for the many details)
- actually playing commercials on the TVs, during the shoot

Sound – a Huge! part and secondary feature
- a mixture of beauty product, weight loss and such adds in one room, along with reality/talk show footage of makeover madness in an operating room
- the levels will vary depending on the characters’ feelings and interactions
o i.e. they will decrease when they seem absorbed by this world for a moment, since the slogans are becoming engrained in them
- should have a pulsating feeling, giving a sense of pressure building up