Taking Back Sunday| Sink Into Me

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Taking Back Sunday| Sink Into Me What they made instead

Rejected 04/03/2009

Concept

In Tokyo there is a group of people called “cyber-drifters”; they are subculture that has come to live fulltime in the small compartments inside city’s internet cafes. They spend the majority of their time cramped in widowless boxes, using their computer terminals as their soul window on the world.  I would like to create a high energy performace video that is confided in these restrained spaces. 

Synopsis

We open on an exterior shot of a 24 hour internet cafe.  It is night.  The cafe has a huge neon sign with an anime character snoozing on her key board.  We cut to a shot inside the cafe.  There is a long row of cubicals.  Several pairs of shoes sit outside the doors of each unit.

Each of the band members has their own closterphoic cubical filled with cyber-punk style homemade looking modintors, loose wiring and Manga posters.  The band plays instruments that look like steampunk versions of Guitar Hero gear.  They are literally bouncing off the walls in the small spaces. 

We cut to footage of the virtual lives the band has been leading on their computers.  They are using a crude 8 bit version of Second Life.  A simple narative is revealed in this online world: 

We see each bandmember’s avatar (8bit game character) hanging out in a chat room.  Each avatar looks similar to the original super Mario.  Each character is carrying little 8bit instruments.  A guitar playing avatar strikes up a conversation with a drummer avatar.

GUITAR PLAYER

Hey! Do you drum?

DRUMMER

But of course!

GUITAR PLAYER

Wanna cyber-jam?

DRUMMER

Right on!

[They begin to play.  It’s a two frame animation.  8bit music notes dance in space around them.  Cyber-groopy chicks beging to dance along side them.]

We cut to more live action performance footage.  We then revisit the avatars.

GUITAR PLAYER

Say WTF’s up with that guy?

[To the left of the drummer is an avatar carrying a little microphone.  He is weeping giant tears and there is a broken heart icon floating above his head.]

DRUMMER

His woman left him for a Second Life millionare.

GUITAR PLAYER

Rough stuff.

DRUMMER

Yeah.  He caught them making out in the guy’s sweet virtual condo.

[We see a shot of the 8bit Singer avatar hiding in the bushes outside the window of a crappy 8bit condo.  It looks like something out of the original Leisure Suit Larry.  Inside the condo a swanky Don Johnson-type avatar sits on a couch beside a Hot-babe avatar with big hair and red lips.  The Don Johnson avatar puts his arm around the lady, causing little red hearts to swirl around her head.]

GUITAR

Do you think he’d like to jam?

DRUMMER

Yeah he needs it!

We cut to more performance footage.

We cross cut between live action footage and the fully formed digital band rocking out.

As the song finishes we cut to a wide shot of the band in their cubicals; they are just as active as before but no sound other than the clicks from their digital instruments is heard.  It is revealed that the band’s huge music is completely isolated in their headphones.  We close with a shot of a young asian girl visiting each cubical with a tray of refreshments.

JE


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Wax Manequin | Something to Hide

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Wax Manequin (2009) | Something to Hide  What we made instead...

Rejected by VideoFact: 04/02/2009

Approach

The video begins like a short film complete with ambient noise as Chris makes his way to an outdoor performance in the middle of nowhere.  The music will not begin until Chris’ character begins to perform in the story.  Additionally, there will be dialog overlaid in subtitles as three characters attending the show chat during his performance.

Synopsis

We open at sun-set.  Wax Mannequin walks across the huge gravel parking lot of the Chandelier Place Banquet Hall in Hamilton.  The stones crunch under his boots.  He wears a black suit and is carrying a burgundy suitcase.  Ahead is a bonfire of wasted food the hall’s management have set alight.  In front of the the fire is theater seating for about 20 people.  Littered around the area are small trays of burning fuel.  Wax approaches the scene; he pulls decorative invitation card from his pocket double checking the address.  Wax arrives at the velvet rope stanchions surrounding the seating.  A scruffy looking young man in yellow t-shirt greets him; he is wearing Italian leather shoes and no socks.  He smiles warmly at Wax and ushers him up the isle to the bonfire.  Awaiting the musician there, is an amp and an old fashioned microphone stand.  The young man in the yellow shirt takes a seat beside a bearded fellow and young girl in the front row; clearly they are friends.  The bearded fellow’s date is a tween-age girl wearing a sequin dress, heavy amounts of cheap make-up and sparkles.  She looks extremely excited to see the show.    

Even though there are only three people in the audience, Wax begins to set up his equipment tensely.  He opens his suit case revealing a guitar that’s been folded in half by way of a hinge.  Wax unfolds the guitar and plugs it in to the amp.  At he moment he hits the microphone the music kicks in.  Wax begins delivering a thunderous performance to the small group.  As he plays Yellow Shirt and the Bearded man strike up a conversation:

BEARDED MAN

How did you get Wax Mannequin??

[the Bearded Man wraps his arm around the Tween girl.  She look beside herself with excitement.]

YELLOW SHIRT   

We promised him a chest tattoo.

[As Yellow says this we cut to a vision of Wax’s chest.  Tattooed roses and vines snake across his skin.]

[We cut back to Wax performing.  He kicks a flaming melon that has rolled out of the bonfire.]

YELLOW SHIRT 

He also asked to see the Leviathan.

BEARDED MAN

that old thing??

YELLOW SHIRT 

Yeah it’s weird.  People still love it. 

TWEENIE BOPPER

Where is it?

YELLOW SHIRT

Stuffed in the trunk.

[We see the rear of a bronze Cadillac parked off to the right of the audience.  An ethereal pink light is spilling out from the seam of the trunk and the car bouncing softly to the beat of the song.]

[More Wax performance.  At his side, in the distance, a group of bats drift by.]

BEARDED MAN

Jesus you’ve got bats out here??

YELLOW SHIRT 

They aren’t bats.

[The Tweenager sings along with the song]

YELLOW SHIRT

Check this out…

[Yellow pulls a sliver snub nose revolver from his waste-band.]

BEARDED MAN

Whoah, that’s sexy.

[Yellow shirt aims carefully in the sky and fires a shot.  A white and pink animal falls to the ground.  Upon inspection it looks like some kind of albino bat, except with much larger eyes.  The Bearded Man looks on without comment.  Wax stares intensely.]

[Nudging his Tween date, the Bearded Man encourages her to pick up the fresh kill.]

BEARDED MAN

Shame to let the little guy go to waste.  Go toss it in the back of Mr. Nathaniel’s car.

[The Tween looks at the Bearded Man uneasily, but stands up as if she has no choice but to comply.  Wax rocks on, keeping a close eye on the bat.  Delicately, the Tween picks up the kill and walks towards the trunk rocking quietly nearby.  We see a wide shot from the side as the girl opens the trunk.  At a distance we see a snake like monster squirming around in the trunk snapping it’s jaws.  It’s emitting a pinkish light.  The girl tosses the bat to the beast and runs back to her seat.]

[Wax Mannequin looks disturbed by the scene.  We close on a shot of his face as he raises a hankerchief to his mouth.]

Cut to black.

J

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Busta Ryhmes | World Go Round

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Busta Ryhmes | World Go Round  What they made instead...

Rejected 04/03/09

Synopsis

Busta is working as a waiter at a swanky mansion party filled with beautiful ladies.  The billionaire throwing the party is an eccentric recluse who watches his guests through a tinted screen; his silhouette is strikingly similar to Michael Jackson.  The billionaire’s party room is filled with exotic caged animals.  As if this weren’t impressive enough, each of the beasts has been encrusted with diamonds and gold a la Damien Hurst. 

Busta makes his way around the party attempting to chat up girls while he serves drinks.  Each time he’s shot down with the same excuse.  ”I’m with the host.”  It looks like it’s not going to be Busta’s night, until a sudden change of fortune comes to pass.

Near the dancefloor is an indoor hot-tub.  Beside it a large glass aquarium with a hungry looking shark covered in rubies floating in it.

One of the women begins tapping on the aquarium to attract the shark; she’s startled when the creature bursts through the glass and dives into the hot tub. The vulnerable girls in the water fight to get out
of the tub. Busta reacts immediately; he tosses his jacket heroically aside and dives in to wrestle the shark.  Everyone watching is awestruck as Busta pulls the shark’s jaws apart, killing the animal like King Kong.  He emerges from the tub carrying the sharks metal jaws and it’s ruby dorsal fin.  The women are giving him crazy amounts of attention now.

Above the scene the silhouette of the billionaire paces back and forth frantically. He’s enraged at the loss of his pet shark and jealous of the attention his girlfriends are lavishing on Busta.  We see a shot of the billionaire’s crafty eyes, and then a close-up of his sparkled glove as he presses a button to release the rest of his dangerous pets from their cages on to unsuspecting guests.

The locks on the animal cages are blown off in a cloud of sparks.  On one side of the room, a jewelled anaconda springs from it’s enclosure onto the bar, breaking martini glasses and sending guests scrambling away in terror.  Elsewhere a jewelled koala leaps out and mauls a guest’s face.  On the dance floor, a case full of diamond-studded tarantulas are spilled out.  Finally at the back of the room, near the lounge area, the jewelled version of the spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park appears.  He is met with more screams and panic.

Fearlessly Busta takes action.  Using a coffee table as a work bench, He takes the shark jaw and fin he acquired earlier and combines them with a nearby lamp post to form a spear.

Busta now begins to work his way around the room hunting the escaped creatures and taking their jewelled hides as trophies.  By the end of the sequence he’s dressed head to toe in a kind of sparkling
animal-skin bling.

Once the animals are dispensed with, Busta turns his attention to the evil host.  He marches up a staircase leading to the billionaire’s sanctuary.  Following him is a gang of angry looking party ladies.
Busta and the ladies tear through a paper screen wall, where the billionaire is cowering.  The last shot of the video is from the POV of the billionaire as Busta, looking like a terrifying jeweled urban-warrior, charges towards him and stomps his face with a pelt covered shoe.

J

Thinskin | Strip Me Down

​Fritz the Cat by R. Crumb

​Fritz the Cat by R. Crumb

Thinskin | Strip Me Down  What they made instead... 

Rejected 06/09/2008

Summary

For Strip Me Down I would like to follow the exotic-dancer angle Mr. Harvey suggested, but with a twist.  I would like to make a quasi-tribute to Robert Crumb’s Fritz the Cat comic by making the strip club patron into a suave, collage-age, hard-partying tom-cat.  Overall mood of the video will be weird and funny without being goofy, energetic and sexy, albeit in a very unusual way.  :)  We will handle the cat character in a naturalistic way similar to Spike Jones’ Dog-boy in Daft Punk’s Da Funk…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JZQ_vSDXXXI

Technical Treatment

The actor will wear a mask with an articulated mouth and eyes so that he can make facial expressions; his body will be relatively human and be dressed in typical city street wear.  As for the image quality, aesthetic we will try and achieve is a grainy 16mm look.

Story

​We open the classic Saturday Night Fever shot of our Fritz the Cat character marching down the side walk of some sleazy rundown neighbourhood.  The streets are mostly filled with regular humans.  Fritz is dressed in a snazzy blazer; he looks determined and ready for action.  In his hand is an address with “Cindy, Friday night” scribbled above it.  There’s a crude drawing of a pussycat girl alongside.  Fritz stuffs the address in his pocket and continues to strut.  Something catches his eye.  To his left is a large hand painted sign surrounded in light bulbs.  It reads “Cheap Booty! $2 Lappers. Gentleman’s Pleasure.”  For a moment he hesitates.  A cat-girl appears in a thought bubble above his head as he rummages through his pockets; the bubble bursts as exposes a handful of crinkled dollar bills; enough for several dances!  Fritz heads into the shadowy run-down entrance of the club.  We cut to the interior; it’s a cramped space with enough seating for a ten.  The furniture is eclectic. The space has decidedly independent vibe to it.  It’s filled with smoke.  The stage is low and looks to have been slapped together from old wooden skids.  Slightly mismatched red curtains hang everywhere.  A couple of regulars are sitting up against the wall looking sullen and drunk; coloured reflections from the mirror ball slip across their faces.  A few other gentleman are hunched over their drinks, but Fritz can only make out their silhouettes.  Fritz takes a seat upfront in “perverts row”.  The lights flash and the show begins.  The red curtains rustle.  A stripper wearing a feathered bikini slides between the parted curtains on her knees, with her back arched to the point that her head is touching her ankles.  She slides to the end of the stage, nearly hitting Fritz in the face; this sends him into a frenzy.  As she pops up from her back arch, it’s revealed that she’s wearing a baby blue Zorro-cut mask on with anime-style eyes painted on it; it’s the lone oddity on an otherwise perfect looking woman.  Her routine continues.  She spins around on her back like a top with her long legs kicking in the air.  Like a cat, she slinks in Fritz’s direction.  She shakes her bum in his face.  Fritz, wipes the sweat from his brow with a hanky, completely beside himself, giggling stupidly; he pours a beer down his throat.  The stripper extends her long leg and rests it on Fritz’s left shoulder.  She puts her other leg on his opposite shoulder, then lets it slide down his side.  She pulls him in closer so that her leg wraps around him completely.  We see a close up of Fritz from behind.  The stripper’s foot slips into his pocket and comes out again with Fritz’s wallet pinched between her toes.  A crumpled piece of also falls from the pocket onto the floor.  It’s his girlfriend’s number.

Next, the stripper grabs Fritz by the collar and pulls him forward until he topples off his chair and onto the stage.  She begins to ride him like a pony.  We cut to the bored faces of the regulars; they’ve seen it all before. The stripper tosses Fritz against the wall and begins to unbutton his shirt and undo his pants.  At this point the camera begins to zoom in on one of the men slouching in the shadows.  Immediately it’s clear that he’s a dummy built out of news print and masking tape, dressed in thrift-store clothing.  We zoom in on a small camera lens poking out from under his low hat.  At the back of the club, an open laptop computer displays a live internet stream of the action on stage.  Fritz engages in a more and more rediculous routine with the stripper.

As the video closes we then cut to darkened offices and bedrooms around the country with various weirdos watching the streaming video from he club.

J

Estimated Completion: 5 weeks

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Mando Diao | Mean Streets

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Mando Diao | Mean Streets  What they made instead...

Rejected 05/29/2009

Summery

The video will focus on a guerrilla gardener (a person who landscapes ruined cityscapes in secret) as she attempts to navigate the dangers of the Big City while protecting potted plants she’s carrying. Her reactions to various city folk she encounters are expressed through “visions” she has, represented in the video by comic stopmotion animation inspired by Boody Rogers comics.

Technical treatment

The video will be shot at a low frame rate to match the comic jitter of the stop motion.  The stopmotion “visions” will be a combination of claymation and miniatures.

Synopsis

We open with a shot of  a dorky Asian girl with big coke bottle glasses burdened with plants walking through a busy China Town market.  This is Sung Yen.  She looks at the city scape baking in the summer sun.  We cut to a stopmotion animation of a scale model of the city in miniature.  A pair of hands descend on the model and dump handfuls of earth on it, then transplant a big geranium in the center.

We next see Sung Yen on board a subway, her plants piled about her. She is seated across from a distraught business man, who’s face is flushed and clammy. He’s looking downward.  On his lap lay an open dossier holding a blackberry, various foreclosure notices and a soiled Freedom 55 flier.  While staring at him, Sung Yen has a vision of claymation pigs eating money out of a wheel barrow; as it empties the pigs waste away to bone racks.

Standing beside the business man is a lanky, paranoid woman wearing a flu mask. She’s looking at the businessman’s red face and weepy eyes suspiciously.  Sung Yen buries her face into her plant.  She has a vision of a row of mouths passing a purple cloud of comic germs to one another.   

Sung Yen exits the subway.  She’s seems to be in a derelict part of town.  Soon she comes across an abandoned cement planter box from the 60’s.  A homeless man has set up camp beside it.  A handwritten sign beside his bed reads “MITCH-VILLE: no soliciting!!!”  Stealthily Sung Yen sneaks up to the planter box and fills it with greenery and flowers without waking the man. We cut to a cross-section of a human head; the inside of the skull is filled with dirt and litter.  Sung Yen’s hands enter from off screen and flick away the rubbish.  A huge deep-coloured bloom fills up the skull.

Next, on a different street, Sung Yen puts a plant on top of a rusted barbecue can.  Nearby an Asian punk girl with sleeve tattoos wearing huge headphones sits melting the heads of her Manga dolls with a lighter.  Sung Yen has a vision of an action figure version of Johny Apple seed.  It seems to be part of an American Hero’s children’s play set she might own.

Later Sung Yen is seen packing earth into empty soda bottles she’s salvaged from a trash heap.  She strings them up and them become a hanging garden. While walking down a graffiti-ed alleyway a street hustler approaches her.  He looks dopey and unclean. 

    “Great looking hydrangea.”  he says in subtitles.

Their encounter is interrupted by a fat guy with a neck tattoo and a Noam Chomsky t-shirt.

“Buffalo Bill!”  the new guys screams as he belts the sleazy guy in the face. Sung Yen scoots away while the two guys fight.  She has a vision of two claymation chimpanzees exchanging blows, their faces distorting horribly with each strike.

In the final sequence, Sung Yen climbs a rusty fire escape to the top of an apartment building.  It is revealed that she has converted it into a massive green-roof covered in lush foliage.  This is her home base.  Hidden amongst the plants are smalls shrines containing miniatures seen earlier in the video.  Sung Yen sits down in her urban garden and looks out at the city scape. 

Cut to black

Aprx  Completion:  4 weeks

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DVAS | Society

DVAS | Society   What they made instead...

Dir: Jesse Yules & Cameron Tomsett

Rejected 08/28/2009

Premise

A proactive, retro video game based on a well-to-do fellow with 4 arms.  We follow our hero as he attempts to successfully juggle four mundane tasks at once, to score big points.

Synopsis

We start in bed.  A man and woman are sleeping.  The scene is colourful and has jagged edges like an 8-bit video game.  A bird is merely singing on window-sill of the bedroom.  The man wakes up, presses the button on his alarm clock and throws his slipper against the window to frighten off the bird.  The words Combo! 200 pts! float up from the clock radio. The man pulls away the covers and gets out of bed revealing he has 4 arms.

We cut to the bathroom. Our hero is in a towel.  He is shaving, reading a magazine, brushing his hair, and blow-drying a cat. The words 400 points! Great juggling! float past the screen.

We cut to the kitchen. He is eating ham & eggs, dangling a toy mouse for the cat and collaborating with his wife on the morning cross word. 300 points!  A kind-faced mailman passes by the window, wishing “Good morning.”  Our hero fires him a triumphant thumbs up with his free hand for a 50 point courtesy bonus.

Cut to the car.  The 4-armed man is putting the key in the ignition, talking on his phone, watering the cactus he keeps on his dash board, while adjusting his mirrors…. his wife runs out to give him a kiss. 5-way bonus!  500 pts!

Next he is at work. He is a baker. We see our hero cracking an egg, slicing truffles (secret ingredient), applying frosting to a finished cake, while handing a box with a bow to a customer. 400 points!  As the customer exits, our hero quickly holds open the door for a “courtesy bonus” of 50pts, but misses the mixing bowl with his second cracked egg.  -100pts.  The oven timer goes off.  Suddenly the man has oven mits on all 4 hands. He removes 4 cakes from the oven. They are in the shapes of the letters D, V, A, S. 400 pts!

Cut to our hero at a bar with his friends (a fireman, a nurse and a rabbi).  Our hero laughs as he pours shots for his friends, throws a dart (perfect bullseye), makes a bet on video gambling machine, and hits a trick shot on the pool table that sinks four balls.  Fantastic Combo!  800 pts!  Great friendship!

We cut to our hero, on the doorstep of his house, looking drunk.  He struggles to find the key hole and drops his hat.  -200pts.  :(  His wife opens the door looking angry and pointing at her watch. Slyly, our hero picks a flower from the yard with his free arm.  However, he fails to impress the wife when he delivers the blossom upside down, roots and dirt first. -400 pts.  The wife points to the kitchen.

Cut to the kitchen again. The man is washing dishes, giving his wife a massage and applying the dog’s medicated eye-drops. Recovery! 400 pts! 

Later on in bed, our hero is watching a movie about squids with an arm around his wife. He also is eating popcorn, adjusting the rabbit ears on the tv and opening a bottle of sleeping pills. 400 pts!  Next, our hero notices that a creepy burglar is peeking in the window.  Without much effort, the man moves his hand from his wife’s shoulder and pulls a gun from under her pillow.  He shoots the burglar. Necessary Force 100pts!

Our hero notices that due to his fine multitasking, his wife now has steam-lines coming off of her and hearts in her eyes.  Tossing the gun away, the man strokes his wife’s hair and undoes her blouse.  Revealed underneath is a bra with 4 cups. The man gives a quadruple thumbs up to the camera. 400 pts!  Nice Dexterity!

Stage clear.

Cut to black

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Modern Science ~ Look Where You're Walking

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Modern Science ~ Look Where You're Walking

Summery

The video will focus on a hedgehog rolling around the city, dodging human feet as he gathers supplies for hibernation.  Throughout his journey the hedgehog will speak with various humans (including band members), as he collects the apples and biscuits he’ll need to survive the winter.

Approach

The piece will feature live action footage with puppeteering.  

Script/Shot Summery 

We open with a point of view shot of a balled-up hedgehog rolling down a city side walk.  Pedestrians hop out of it’s path, some narrowly miss stepping on him.  The quill-covered ball rolls into a Asian fruit market to the foot of the cashier’s counter.  An mid-40’s looking grocery lady looks down at the ball as the hedgehog stands up and reveals himself.  The Hedgehog is a cute naturalistic puppet about 2 feet tall.

[dialog appears overlaid in subtitles]

GROCERY LADY

Here for your apples I suppose? 

HEDGEHOG

Yeah.  If you don’t mind Diane. I will need them to live through the winter.

[Looking tense, the grocery lady passes a bag of small apples down to the Hedgehog.  The Hedgehog tosses several gold rings at the clerk’s feet.]

HEDGEHOG

These should cover the cost.

GROCERY LADY

Maybe for the apples.  But what about my pain and suffering these last months??

HEDGEHOG

I warned you not to fall in love.

[The Hedgehog turns and rolls out of the store, leaving the Asian woman sobbing.]

The Hedgehog rolls down an alleyway to foot of a homeless man playing a salvaged electronic keyboard.  Surrounding the homeless man is a make-shift shelter, constructed from found objects and a big blue tarp.  Nearby, there’s a miniature (hedgehog-sized) version of the same shelter.

[dialog appears overlaid in subtitles]

HEDGEHOG

Evening Maxim.  Scored some produce.  Everything alright?

MAXIM

I feel terrible.  You gave me Hoof and Mouth disease, I think.

.

HEDGEHOG

Uff!  Sorry to hear that mate!  Couldn’t be helped.

MAXIM

No worries.  Maybe they’ll let me stay at the hospital over the winter…  Say you best look where your walkin’; the Bike-gypsies were callin’ on you earlier.  And they seemed hungry!

HEDGEHOG

As usual!  But no bother, I’ve just one errand before I den in.

[the Hedgehog rolls off]

 By the way, your rent is due!

As the sun sets, the Hedgehog rolls through a park filled with curious dogs.  The dogs swarm the Hedgehog, sniffing it as it rolls around the sandy park stealing loose dog biscuits.  A lady dog owner steps into the scurrying Hedgehog’s path and collides with him.  She curses, and rubs at several of the Hedgehog’s needles embedded in her ankle. 

[dialog appears overlaid in subtitles]

HEDGEHOG (rolling away)

Look where your walkin’!!!

DOG OWNER

Oh!  That Hedgehog is a menace!

[The Hedgehog continues to gather biscuits.  Outside the dog park we see a two bicycles pull into frame.  Each is cover with strings of coloured LED lights.  Lettering on one of the bikes reads “Gypsy Justice”.]

HEDGEHOG

Ah ha!  This winter’s haul will be the best ever.

As the Hedgehog exits the dog park he runs full-speed into the bike wheel of one of the gypsies. Gold rings and dog biscuits fly everywhere.  A dirty tennis shoe comes into frame and nudges the Hedgehog conscious.  We see a hero shot of Kane and Mike from Modern Science dressed in filthy, funky coloured clothes.  They slouch confidently, looking down from their LED-covered bikes, frowning at the Hedgehog.  Kane picks the drowsy Hedgehog up by the scruff of the neck.

[dialog appears overlaid in subtitles]

KANE

At long last, Master Hedgehog, you’re mine.

MIKE (laughing)

What terrific pie our mother will make of you!

[Kane drops the Hedgehog into a large cage mounted on the back of his bike and begins to ride off.  We close with a zoom in on the Hedgehog as the bikes speed away, glowing in the night.]

HEDGEHOG

Fools.  Your mother is no match for my charms.

Cut to black

J

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Lionheart Brothers ~ Hero Anthem

Lionheart Brothers ~ Hero Anthem

Rejected 5/25/2008

Summary

For Hero Anthem I would like to chronicle an epic feats-of-strength triathlon between a mad-Victorian boxer and his identical twin.  The footage for this will be grainy and have a limited colour pallet similar to 70’s cinema.  The action in the piece will be dark and mad-cap, similar to the feel of the old Pop-eye cartoons. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ox5mzTtYfK0&feature=related

Technical Summary

We will be using double exposure photography and digital compositing to create the evil twins from one actor.  Postproduction computer effects will be used to squash and stretch the characters as they compete, as if they were cartoons.  The actors in the shoot will be wearing anime-style cartoon eyes as part of their costumes.

Scene list

Round 1 | We open with a shot of the rival brothers seated at a picnic table in a rustic area.  Each of them hold a giant beer stein; each has fire in their eyes.  A young woman, dressed in burlesque-style clothes (also with cartoon eyes) dumps a pitcher-worth of beer in each man’s stien.  Immediately the pair drain their glasses, slobbering beer foam everywhere.  The two drink 3 more rounds before the second stage of the race.

Round 2 | Our burlesque ring-card girl fires a pistol into the air.  Both men take off for a footrace through rolling hills and meadows.  We cut to an animation of dandelions spelling out round “2”.  The brothers arrive at a beachhead.  They stand in the silhouette of a giant sea serpent with a bright red and white target around it’s neck.  Near-by, two large circles are drawn in white chalk with a harp oon lodged in the center of each.  The rivals grab their harpoons and heave them at the beast.  Both miss the target completely and hit the creature in it’s fleshy eye-balls.  They lob two more harpoons in unison; our camera follows the harpoons as they travel down the monster’s throat and into it’s heart.  The beast keels over and the brothers turn their harpoon’s on each other.

We cut to the ring-card girl.  The flowers spell-out round “3”

Round  3 |  Mounting bicycles and still holding their spears, the brothers begin to ride at each other like a medieval joust.  They crash horrifically but are unharmed and undeterred.  Both men then leap to their feet and square off in an old school bare-knuckle boxing match.  The two are of equal strength and vulnerability.  Each punch landed is more devastating then the last and makes the receiver’s head distort horrifically.  After several hits by both brothers, the fight descends into a wrestling match on the floor.  In the end, we leave the twins hemorrhaging on the ground biting one another’s ankles.

In final sequence we cut between the twisted bikes and the slaughtered sea serpent, before ending on the ring-card girl.  She’s napping in sunshine, sipping a giant beer with an extra long straw.

J

​

Jesse Yules CV (aka Jesse Ewles)


Adam and the Amethysts ~ Prophecy (postponed)
Ohbijou (Stage Visuals) Metal Meets Tour 2011
Ohbijou, Stage Visuals, 2011 tour
Kathry Calder ~ Who Are You? (File Under Music)
We Have Band ~ Love What You’re Doing (Naive Records)
Anarbor ~ Gypsy Woman (Hopeless Records)
Aesop: Kingdom of Frogs, short film (BravoTV)
Reverie Sound Revue ~ You Don’t Exist
In Case of Fire ~ Enemies (RCA/Jive)
Of Montreal ~ An Eluardian Instance (Polyvinyl)
Michael Zapruder ~ Ads for Feelings (Sidecho)
Ten Kens ~ Worthless (Fat Cat)
Moros Eros ~ On My Side (Victory)
“My Toronto” ad spot (Spacing Magazine)
Evans Blue ~ The Pursuit Begins (Hollywood Records)
Grizzly Bear ~ Central and Remote (Warp Records)
Final Fantasy ~ He Poos Clouds (Tom Lab)
Wax Mannequin ~ The Price (Infinite Heat)
“Terraform” Student Film April 2004

Screenwriting

Meme Dump (in development)Genre: Vonnegut, mundane scifi.
Old Smith Rupe (in development) Genre: Western, survival horror.


Producer Filmography

Dinosaur Bones ~ NYE (Dine Alone Records)
 

Exhibits


Animator / Compositor

Great Lake Swimmers, Director Scott Cuddmore
Ohbijou “New Years” Director: Exploding Motor Car
Milo (2004) Director: Cameron Tomsett
Modest Mouse “Off the Deep End” Director: Christopher Mills
Rush “Far Cry” Director: Christopher Mills


Screenings

Phase3 Videoart TV (Germany), February 2012
Short and Sweet, Showcase, June 2011
Hamilton Film Festival, November 2010
Contra Vision Film Festival (Germany), September 2010
Portable Film Festival, August 2009
Director’s Notes Showcase, UK, July 2008 
49th Krakow Film Festival, 2009
Museek Film Festival, St. Petersburg 2009
Gay and Lesbian Film Fest 2007
Canadian Youth Film Fest 2006


Awards

Much Music Indie Video of the Year 2011 (nominated): Tokyo Police Club - Wait Up
Hamilton International Film Festival: Best Experimental Film 2010
videos.antville.org “Best Unsigned Director” 2008
Spacing Magazine “My TO” 2005 People’s Choice Award
Canadian Youth Film Fest 2004, First Runner-up

Collaborators