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