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).

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...

Video To Alex - CraigoClassic 17

NOTE: It's set to private. Read below.

Ahhhh... dearest Alex.

Here is a photo video I made for her when we were dating. As many who know me are aware, Alex was my first "true love". We met at a German Language camp in Bemidji Minnesota. (A place I highly recommend going. They have different villages that teach dozens of languages. You can get a full year's school credit in a month, and you actually learn the language. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and not just because I met Alex... but that is another story).

Back to Alex. I was a Senior in High School. She was a Freshman. And we were a fantastic match. She lived in Minnesota. I lived in Texas. So after camp we wrote love letters for months, talked on the phone, sent gifts, wrote poems. It was pretty much the perfect, super romantic, high school relationship.

I went to visit her in snowy Minnesota over Valentines day. (Her parents were super cool to let me visit. I was a really nice guy. Our whole relationship was very PG). But it was pure, awesome, wonderful love...

... so I made this video of it.

And honestly, it's too personal to show here. Not cause it's some sleazy video, but because it's so sweet. I know it's silly, I've put up videos of me and my fabulously dorky friends from Jr. High, me with my perm, us trying to improv... but this is different somehow.

After many years of losing touch with Alex, going our separate ways and living our separate lives, I decided a week or two ago to see if she was alive, see if she was okay, and see how things have turned out for her all these years later. And after quite a bit of internet detective work I found her! (or at least her Facebook profile). I actually cheered when I did!

She is married, lives on the other side of the country, and seems to be doing well. As of now she hasn't responded to my Facebook message to her... and I didn't really expect her to. Sure, I was hoping to reconnect. Not to restart any love affair or anything. It's about knowing she's still Alex, only all grown up. To know she's happy and doing well.

Even if I don't hear from her, it's still great to know that she's still smiling. And it'll never tarnish any of the fabulous memories of her... some of which are in this video... which are only for me. Sorry faithful viewers (all 3 of you :).

CraigoClassic Begins...

Hey Team,

So there have been a number of requests to see some of my old films online, films from college in Iowa and even high school in Texas and before... Okay, I'm exaggerating, I have a few friends who want to see my college film "Stryker Reed and the Exploding Vampyre Whores" (and who wouldn't?) Because of that, my friend Dan Kraus' "Francis Ford Iowa" blog, the fact I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and that this year I will be shooting a new feature horror film called "Straight On Till Morning", I decided it was time to revisit the past and bring to you:

CraigoClassic

A series of "films", some good (relatively speaking), some not so good (more accurate), and some downright terrible (brace yourself for "Plate Techtonics"), that I'll be posting here over the coming months. It's a chance to walk down memory lane (for me) and a chance for all of you to laugh at me (or at yourselves) as you witness the history of my filmmaking "career" thus far.

I'm going to post them (more or less) in chronological order, which means you get some bad ass high school action (with me doing some acting no less) and then we'll drift into the college films and on through my first feature film (what?), which will be broken into nice and easy 10 minute or less segments for you to view at your leisure. CraigoClassic will stop before 2001 and the making of "The Closer She Gets" (www.theclosershegets.com). That, after all, is another story entirely.

I promise nothing. In fact, many of these I haven't seen in quite some time, so I might be more embarrassed than expected when I post them. But I'm going to post them all, without editing, for better or worse.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy (I hope)

CraigO