The Closer She Gets -- Now on Youtube

Today is my mother's birthday.
She would have been 71 years old.
It's amazing to think about that.
71 years old.
She'd be a grandma. She'd  be lively. And she'd still be proud of her boys.

But that's not how the world worked.

Instead the time has come to officially release my award-winning feature documentary "The Closer She Gets", about my mother's battle with cancer.

The movie has screened at festivals like Slamdance over the years. It has been shared on DVD with folks who asked for it, or at private screenings. And now I'm going to put it out there into the world on YouTube.

I have to admit, this has been a difficult thing for me to do. This isn't a movie you watch in pieces. Or something you casually have on in the background while you're checking email. And I've been worried that people will watch it that way. That they won't take 90 minutes of their lives to meet my Mom and understand how wonderful life and love can be. And how terrible.

I hope that you'll set aside some time to watch it. To leave your comments. To know my Mom.
She was the most amazing woman. She taught me so much. And I wouldn't be half the person I am today if not for her love and support.

So grab some kleenex, and a warm blanket, and take a journey with us... I know you'll be glad you did.

 

UNTITLED Film Production 1 Project -- Craigoclassic 22

In fact it does have a title... sort of.
"Goodbye". Or is it "no time for Goodbye". That's probably a better one.
This was for film production 1. It was shot on 16mm reversal film. Anyone remember that?
This meant you shot it, they developed it and sent it back to you and that was ALL YOU HAD. No negatives, no reprints. You screw it up, it's screwed up. I still have this, and the other 16mm film prints in cases in my house. I haven't seen them in that format since college, which is too bad because they looked great (compared to the crappy video transfer here). Oh well.

I challenged myself to make a film that looked like it was sync sound, but we shot it with non-sync film equipment. There's some appearances of some of my college favorite actors, Nikki DeSalle and Mike Ford. Clearly influenced by Evil Dead, hopefully it gives you a bit of a creep out.

I remember the teacher saying I hands down had the best film in class. So that tells you something about how good the films were, I'd say. :)

I paid off my student loan so.... Here's the College films!

Yep Team, I paid off the student loan!
yahhhhhooooooooooo!!!!

So in honor of that momentous and 15+ year adventure, I'm going to post the rest of my college films here with a little bit about them. It might be one entry. It might be a couple entries. I'm not sure, but I stalled out posting the craigoclassic's and now it's time to finish. Because I'm SURE you are all waiting with baited breath.

I can assure you this. MOST of the films from my University of Iowa days are better than the home video style stuff from the first section of this series. Most of them. :)

Without further ado:

THE FOOT...










Okay, so ironically, the first one is a home video style. Ha ha ha.
It's silly. It's screwing around back in Dallas one summer during college. Chris Borden's memorable turn as a fierce assassin has given him a nickname for the ages. And the car chase... MAN this shit is crazy! It might be the best car chase ever filmed. I'm not kidding. The French Connection has got nothing on this.

And it also has many references to such hits as "Army of Darkness" and our favorite B Movie of all time, "ROTOR". Oh yeah. Get ready to get rocked!

(Okay, I'll do one post for each video).

1-900-DIAL GOD -- CraigoClassic 20

Oh boy, Intro to Media Production Continues. (As does my ever irregular blogging about these old movies. In theory I was going to have all these posted well over a year ago. Guess I've been busy...)

So in Intro to Media Production we had a Video/Film section, a Radio/Audio section, and this gem, the Live TV section. So we had to do a 30 second live TV piece, complete with graphic (Just 1, please note I tried to pull off 2, somewhat unsuccessfully I might add). As well as a superimposed graphic.

I can tell you, calling live TV, with the "prep camera 1. Go camera 1. Prep Camera 2. Hold on Graphic. Go Camera 2" isn't that easy. Now you can just press buttons on a TriCaster and choose your shots yourself. But back then it was a bit more complicated. Might explain why there are two takes and flub. It was fun that Iowa had this though.

My idea is pretty straight forward. Making fun of 1-900 ads (Remember those!!?? Anyone young enough reading this to have no idea what I'm talking about? :). Anyway, Daniel Kraus was a good sport being the Reverend. (You'll see a lot of him in the upcoming college film). And we had Jesus on a computer rather than a phone because we couldn't find a prop phone, and well, cell phones basically didn't exist. But who knew we were being so prescient in predicting that eventually all things would be online, through the computer, just like this video and blog you're reading now...

wow. We were good.

the downward spiral - CraigoClassic 19

Ahhh college kids and their suicide videos. It's sort of a film school joke that everyone has to make a suicide video at some point in their college career. (Not that suicide is a joke. It's actually pretty depressing, and in my opinion not an option).

BUT...

that didn't stop me from making mine!

This was for Intro To Media Production, fall of Sophomore year. It was a class split into radio / tv / and video. This was for the video part. I used a song from NINE INCH NAILS (as I'm sure many of your recognized. I'm sure Trent would be so proud!)

Anyway, watching this made me wish I had a steady cam. Or a dolly. Or a wheelchair. It's funny, I still think I'm moving camera's super steady (and I'm a lot better at it), but it's rarely exactly as I imagined. But it has a certain charm to it's roughness.

Ahhh Molly. My friend Molly Neylan was one of my favorite actresses in college. I thought she was always very real, or pretty, or both. AND, if you think you recognize her, it's because she's in Trespassing On The Lot #4 "Family Ties"! (Tied up in a trunk...thanks Molly!).

As for the other actor, well...I laughed out loud when I rewatched this. Mr. Brian B. isn't the best (and I'm pretty sure he would agree :), but he was my friend, there for the shoot and up for playing the part of the shocked, angry lover.

Perhaps the best part of this is the fact that somehow this college kid who is so depressed about grades, money, being dissed by her friends and dumped by her boyfriend (what other motivation do you need?), was able to get her hands on an UZI to blow her head off! A fricking UZI!!?!?! I couldn't goto wal-mart and get a toy gun that could possibly be something a college kid might get her hands on!?!? Apparently not! And this actually is something I STILL occasionally do, (not use Uzi's), but I'll say "ahhh, this is what I got, it's good enough" rather than going the extra mile on props or production design. Hmmm... maybe I should learn my lesson.

You might have noticed the Hitchcock pull out, zoom in shot after she shoots herself. Yep, I was being clever. Of course it works better if you have a dolly.

The tear looks awesome though.

It was fun to see Hillcrest, my old dorm again. I'm heading back to Iowa in a few weeks for the first time in 10 YEARS, so that was a great blast from the past. Oh, and that crazy steam whistle from the power plant at the beginning.

And finally, the black angel. That grave has so many ghost stories about it, I figured I'd give my own. I can't remember the real story... maybe there isn't one. Or maybe this is the real one...

The Running Man - Craigoclassic 18

Here it is faithful viewers!

After a long absence from posting, due to the efforts to make the feature film "Straight On Till Morning", I am back! Posting my college films to much fanfare (wooo, yeah!). This is in honor of my FINALLY returning to Iowa City this fall after being away for 10 years! (10 YEARS MAN!!!!). It's been far to long, and so going down memory lane with these classics will be fun. Hopefully for you as well.

This first "film" from the college days was for Intro To Media Production. The class had 3 parts. Radio / sound, Live TV, and Film/video. This was a continuity project for the video portion. It has no sound.

That's my buddy Mike Ford running along. And he cruises past Sherry Moore (Now Sherry Eich) at one point. It was great to see those friends again (even if it's on a little VHS shot movie).

On top of continuity, we also proved once and for all that the massive pillars of the old capital building on the University of Iowa campus are hollow.

Enjoy,
craigo

The Matrix - CraigoClassic 16

So here's a story about some heroes who create a device to dismantle their molecules so they can be sent into the Matrix where they battle evil in their search for paradise. No BS: We came up with this story long before NEO existed, somewhere around 1992. So I think we deserve some credit as well as monetary reimbursment from Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers.

You will no doubt see the similarities: The action, the pacing, the fight scenes, the IDEA is ours. With my incredible hair, I am a dead ringer for Keanu. We have a snappy montage of building the device (aka: Neo learning Kung-Fu. Sure we took it from Army Of Darkness, but still...). You can "reprogram the chip" to change your life...(um hello!!!) It's pretty clear once you see it that someone saw our video and ripped it off (not pointing the finger at Mr. Wachoski-s, but still...)

Things we did better than the "remake" you might have seen in theaters: Amazing use of dissolves. Creative ways to make one "actor" appear as two "characters". (Mr. Smith eat your heart out). We have an NIN classic SIN shirt as a wardrobe, which is way more hip than Tinity's leather. We quote ALIENS, which is, well... not really relevant to the Matrix, but still. That is an NES Entertainment system that carries us to the great beyond, which if far more realistic than an array of computers jacked into our nervous systems. (Lame!).

So, for you purists out there, here's the REAL Matrix. And though it might not be quite as good as the OTHER Matrix... It is better than the two sequels.

PS: This also marks the end of the High School section of Craigoclassic. (Can I get a hallelluja!) Next stop: University of Iowa... with a quick pitstop in Minnesota.

Here's Where The Story Ends

...But in fact here is where it begins. For this is the moment when I realized that I wanted to make movies in my life. It was this video done for class, edited on reel to reel VHS tape and using a video/fx box, cutting shot to shot and watching the magic actually come to life that I thought "This is so amazing. People get paid to do this? Awesome."

And here I am, many years later, making movies, telling stories and living a great life following my dreams.

Now, this movie ain't perfect. It's really funny to watch it now and realize how POORLY it's edited, when that was the thing that I was so excited about. I mean, really, how much time does the guy need to get up before he charges? Is that like a minute? Dude, what are you waiting for, just go after him and attack!

We got a 98 on this project. And once again, it's a Craigoclassic, that I wasn't often holding the camera on. But I was the main person doing the editing, so I'm finally making my mark. Cole Haney (sp?) was the tough looking guy, I still remember his name. And our main hero, Trevor Lissauer (who's probably going to wonder what the heck I'm posting this thing for) has actually been a working actor out here in LA since High School. We were so excited when he got "The Skateboard Kid". I still mention occasionally, and my Mom brought it up to, how great Trevor was in our high school production of "A Chorus Line" back in the day. ("I can do that!").

Anyway, we got a 98, not a 100, supposedly because the editing was a little slow. Really? Hadn't noticed.

Moving on... the book in there "When Knights Were Bold" wasn't from the library. It was ours. And that's my high school girlfriend Stacey Inman playing the princess in the woods. (Not the princess in the library, you might have noticed a slight difference in looks there).

This video has always had a soft spot in my heart. That Sundae's song is sweet, the story is nice (though why he always imagines himself failing is a choice we made for a reason I don't remember anymore.) It brings back some great memories of high school and friends, when the future was endless with potential. And honestly it still is. It really truly still is...

The Fridgidaire

HELL YEAH.

This movie was born from all our b-movie nights, where we'd rent a couple b-movies and watch them and make fun of them while they went along. Nothing different from what any other high schoolers did really. There were so many. This being a parody of THE LIFT, which was about a killer elevator. We thought that few things would be dumber than a killer elevator...except maybe a killer refrigerator!

Oh, this one is a beauty. We really expanded our storytelling. It's got a fantastic prologue which sets up this horrifying tale of a cursed killer refrigerator. In it we see some NEW ACTORS (Holy crap! Holy crap!). We've got Chris G (wearing his signature marble bag ball hugger shorts), Tracy, and the best of them all, my wonderful Mom. She only showed up in a couple things like this (in fact this may be the only one), but it makes me smile to see her being so silly.

We've got a monster credit sequence, with REAL BLOOD. Yep... we sacraficed for our art. I bled on that page. (I used to get nose bleeds all the time...just so happened, I bled all over our credits).

So we have the set up....

...and not much else.

We kinda did this a lot (you've probably already noticed). We'd set it up, and I guess just get bored, or someone would have to go home and that would be the end of it. We would plan on doing it another time, talk about it for a few weeks, and it would just die.

Oh well. It's a great opportunity to see inside Chris G's house (a rare, warlock like lair with no open windows). You get to see my High School girlfriend Stacey. And of course the fine reappearance of Tom, Borden and myself. Dave's car shows up but he's not really in it. Maybe he's the Fridgidaire!!! (cue evil laughter).

We had plans to have a barbie doll fight a model fridge and fall into the empty pool in the backyard. As well as other rediculous kill scenes. But in the end...this is all that remains.

Beware the next time you open your fridge...
Be very aware.

PS: The date in 1995 is incorrect. This had to have been made in 1990 or 1991.






ROTOR...the best of the best.

The Dark Night 2 -- Get Off Da Ship!

Ahhh...obsessions.

At this point you might say, "man those kids sure got f-ed up by the Shining".
Well that's not the only one my friends. Alien. Aliens. Perfection.

I still love those movies. They are two of the best movies ever made. PERIOD. Neither is better than the other. They are amazing. Everything about them. So naturally we had to do OUR versions. You might remember Dark Night, (you might not since you were so filled with terror you may have blocked it out). Well, here's the "sequel"...sort of. Homage perhaps?

It's basically a web cam video before web cams existed. Recording on "vidi-disc" before vidi-disc existed. I know this was high school because of the nifty visual effects on the screen which were done with Borden's camera he spent a lot of money on and we rarely used. In fact this was the first video we shot on that.

This one is particularly famous for Borden's intense line at the end "Get Off Da Ship!", which we still quote to him from time to time. In addition to the fantastic dialogue "If you see this I'll be dead...unfortunately", which still makes me laugh.

So prepare to be terror-fied...

...and Get off da ship!

Prelude To Neurobashing

Sooooo.....

We're not in the living room anymore! Woooooo! Not that there weren't some amazing films that took place in Tom's living room. But now my friends... we have driver's licenses. Yep! It's late 10th grade and we have finally caught up with the "1st" CraigOClassic "Neurobashing".

So this is the video we shot spontaneously before deciding to do the epic chase adventure in it's entirety. Really, it's just 2 minutes of us cruising around Richardson, TX before coming up with a joke that was the pivotal moment in the full length film. Still, it was sure fun to see the streets, cruise the alleys (that was a big shock upon moving to Texas from Colorado was the strange fun alleys), and watching Tom nearly drop the camera out the side of the car when going over a dip!

Richardson's finest make a cameo, as does my high school, J.J. Pearce. (Yep, the same one Jessica Simpson went to... a few years after me. Same one Shane Caruth, director of "Primer" went to. A few years before me. As well as a number of other working film professionals who I also have no contact with.) Tom and David's high school, Richardson, is featured in the longer film. (Yep, the same one David Gordon Green, director of "Pineapple Express" went to, who my friend Dan Kraus knows from North Carolina.) It's a small world, but a big state.

The end of this makes me wonder why I didn't have much luck with the ladies in high school. I mean, we're so smooth, it's a wonder, really, really a wonder.

Tom actually shot all this, so I'm not sure I can call it a "CraigoClassic". Perhaps its a "THOMclassic", but whatever, there aren't really any rules here. :)

Oh...and the perm may be gone, but DAMN, my hair still looks good.

Random Stuff...

Yep...as random as it gets. This is 53 seconds of avante guard amazement.
pure...
complete...
unadulterated...
video...
art.

period.

Super Ginormous Final Jeopardy

Oh Jesus...

I think it took me so long to post this one because I feared the boredom and dullness of this episode. I'd like to point out that again, the only ones of these junior high movies that I truncated were the two "Jeopardy" episodes. Why? They might very well be the dullest things ever put on film. I mean...wow...wow, we just aren't funny in these. There's no chases, no real jokes, no real...

well, there is real hair. That there is.

And yes...sooner than later there are going to be more fun things to watch. I promise.

The Shining -- Part 3

Ahh Obsession,

How it is when you're a kid and all you can think about are your favorite movies over and over again. (No I don't talk about "Aliens" or the "Terminator" like that. I don't!).

So here we took the Shining to a whole NEW LEVEL! Yep...Jack chasing his "wife" and son (who for some reason we call "Sammy" and not "danny"). Yep, chasing. Chasing, and more chasing. The beautiful POV shots, the ghosts, random reincarnation. This one has it all. Including breathtaking reviews from some real movie critics!

Jason Distel is in this one. A fun addition. As is the crew of David, Tom, Borden and Me. (sometime soon, I promise, we'll be onto a different location...well, maybe not). Jason's actually better at improv than the rest of us were. That's for sure.

Now you might ask yourself: Guys, how many times did you watch the Shining back then? And I'll tell you, only once for me. And it was in two parts. We were watching in the game room at my old house and had to stop halfway through to take Lolly home for her curfew (but that begs the point, could we drive? And this was 9th grade, so definitely not. Oh shit...maybe we watched it more times than I remember! Ahhh! Obsession! Obsession!)

As any of you who have seen The Shining know (especially as a kid) that movie is scary as hell. Those damn kids. Jack Torrance. Overlook hotel. I had nightmares.

"come play with us, forever, and ever".

I'm sure you'll have nightmares after watching this one...you can count on it.

Commercials: Acme Brick & Memorex

So team,

We're still hanging out in the living room. (Not mine, but my buddy Tom's) Yep, we're doing commercial parodies. Like any good kid does with a video camera. We bring our skills to bear on the legendary ACME brick and of course Memorex Tapes. The smooth jazz is particularly nice, as is the ode to classical composer Schubert.

There's not much to say here. It's been a bit delayed in the posting because I've been out of town on a cruise Raging it up in the Bahamas. :)

And damn...that hair is sure looking good here. Mean's it's still ninth grade. Like seriously, did I really think it was a good idea to go for hair like this? I wanted my hair to look like Michael J. Fox's on "Family Ties" (The TV show, not my short film), and I think...I think I was really close. Just a few more perms and I'd have it.

Super Ginormouse Jeopardy

Wow...Wow...

I'm really sorry about this one. Boy we thought we'd be clever making fun of a gameshow, but what we quickly discovered is we have absolutely no ability to improv WHAT-SO-EVER! I mean Jesus, we even LOOK bored doing this one. Is David asleep?

I admit, this has actually been "edited". No kidding. The raw footage of this one was like 15 minutes long. And when I made a collection of all these high school and Jr. high videos for my friends a few years ago I trimmed this up...but really, a pile of poo is still just a pile of poo.

But damn, my hair looks good. That close up is incredible.

The Shining -- Part 2

The Terror, The Horror, The ...Rip off.

So we called this "The Shining Part 2" but it's pretty much just us making a parody of "The Shining" Part 1, you know, the Stephen King one. For whatever reason I'm the mom (again). Dave plays a very scary Jack Torrence. I'm quite impressed with our clever play on REDRUM with EDICIMOH. And for some reason the big chase scene isn't in this one... I don't know where it went. So it's a cliffhanger.

Tom's brother Mark makes a cameo here, as the genuinely creepy little boy in the doorway. And it has one of the best lines of dialogue ever, delivered by Tom on the porch.

And yes, my hair is still awesome.

Transporter Tests

Okay Team, this one barely qualifies as a film. Like most kids with video camera's in the 80's and 90's, before computer editing, home studios and youtube, we did the magical video of "transporting". You know, making you disapear, WOW, and appear SOMEPLACE ELSE.

And took keep the Star Trek theme going, we had these Star Trek original phaser guns that worked like Laser Tag (you remember Laser Tag right? How about Photon?) where you shot each other and they made noises when you hit. One of these collectors items is featured in the film.

Full of amazing technological advancements, this is a quick one. Alas, there's no Craigo Hair in this one, sorry folks.

DARK NIGHT

DARK NIGHT



Like a good star trek episode, this one is about time travel. Okay, it's not, I realized after I started the blog that Neurobashing was NOT the first of the CraigoCloassics that I had in my possession. I had in fact a whole slew of videos from...drums please...9th Grade!

Yep, the time when I had the most incredible fricking hair ever. You thought Neurobashing was good hair, wait til you get this. And wow, the glasses were cool. The other guys just look really really young.

This is the first of the videos we did with David, Chris, Tom and myself at Tom's house. (You'll get to recognize the location in upcoming thrillers). We experimented with some amazing special effects, and had our typical "too much exposition" issue before we got to the true "horror" of the piece. It even includes an amazing David Lynchian shot of a fan.

With a lot of these early films it's hard to claim that I was the sole "director" or creator of the piece, because I'm really not. It was a collaboration of all of us wanting to make movies the way that kids do when they've got time on their hands. And the joy of making these was incredible. Sure they all suck, but it's wonderful to get creative with friends and just screw around.

Now from the plot of this, and others, you might think we watched "Alien" & "Aliens" a few times...and you would be right. In fact a lot of our early films will have very familiar plots. I think I'm still trying to make movies that good. Ridley Scott, James Cameron...watch your backs dudes.

PS: The Enterprise model is the same one J.J. Abrams has on his desk in the "Star Trek" extra features. So maybe that's a sign...maybe not.

Neurobashing

NEUROBASHING

Here we go!

It's time for "Neurobashing". Brilliantly named after the main song we used in it. (Hey, you gotta start somewhere). This isn't actually our "first" movie, but it's the first one that didn't just desentegrate partway through into us running around the house yelling "danny, no!" as if we're in the Shining. (Those may show up later, we'll see).

My friends Tom Milian, Dave Warner & I had gone to my girlfriend's house one Sunday afternoon with Tom's video camera in tow. (For whatever reason I didn't have a video camera growing up. Which is either a bad thing, thinking of all the sure to be masterpieces I could have made, or a good thing, thinking of all the sure to be masterpieces I could have made). Anyway, on the way home we started shooting this video about being late for school. It was all edited in camera, and was about 2 minutes long.

Well, we liked it so much, we thought we should do a movie from waking up and racing off to school. We shot in order (no editing machines for this), and came up with skits along the way for it. We then used Tom's audio dub VCR (anyone remember those things?), and added music and very high tech sound effects.

You can see here why perhaps I chose to be behind the camera rather than in front, then again, my hair is pretty incredible.

Enjoy

craigo