Scotopia Pictures - NEWS - Slamdunk For Local Filmmakers

EASTSIDE JOURNAL - February 5, 2001

Slam dunk for local filmmakers
White Face wins Audience Award for best short film at Slamdance Film Festival

By Doug Margeson
Eastside Journal Reporter

Movie Making 101. Day 1. Lesson 1.
1. Every movie should have an identifiable story, with a clear beginning, middle and end.
2. The audience should understand the story.
3. If they don't, it'[s your fault, dummy.

At least, that's what Day 1, Lesson 1 should be. But with a lot of the movies these days, you have to conclude it isn't. Or maybe the filmmaker just slept through that part of the class.
Brian McDonald and Kris Kristensen stayed awake. And they took notes.

The result is ,'White Face' a 14-minute movie that won the Audience Award for shorts at the recent Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Note that that's Slamdance, not Sundance, which is down the street and which, some say, is no longer the forum for independent films it set out to be. They think it's gone Hollywood, hence Slamdance, which is strictly for independents only. Some 2,300 movies were submitted for Slamdance last year. Fifty were accepted and shown at the January festival.

'White Face' was one of them. It's a monograph on bigotry; in this case the ridicule and mockery directed at one of America's least understood minorities, clowns.

"We left the old country to escape the prejudice, then when we got here the only jobs we could find were in the circus where people made fun of us," said Clarabelle Confetti, one of the clowns interviewed for the mockumentary.

But clowns persevered, according to noted clown historian Prof. Barnum N. Bailey. As often happened with minorities, however, once clowns successfully established themselves in a profession, the mainstream minority muscled in. So circus buffoonery was soon was taken over by non-clowns wearing white-face makeup. With no way to make a living, clowns hit the road, thus creating that familiar character of American folklore, the hobo clown.

Immigrant's dilemma

For all that, clowns embraced the American dream with a will. But they also faced the classic immigrant's dilemma of trying to maintain their cultural identity. The problem can be particularly agonizing for foreign-born clowns when their children marry outside the race.

Clarabelle's son married a mime.

"I can't understand a word that woman says," Clarabelle complained. Even in today's supposedly enlightened times, clowns are confronted with the old prejudices. Dr. Howard Blinky is a distinguished physician who still finds patients becoming hysterical when they see him scalpel in hand. Oh well, that's just what you have to put up with, he says until one day his son gets in trouble at school for "clowning around."

"I actually thought I'd overcome it all. I went Harvard, for pete's sake. What a fool I've been," Dr. Blinky says, blue greasepaint tears dotting his white cheeks. And so it goes; the clowns telling their stories with sincerity and humanity, the audience ignoring it all and laughing at them for the color of their skin and their size 37 shoes.

Wait a minute. This isn't quite so funny anymore.

"That's the general idea," said writer/director McDonald. The Seattle filmmaker got the idea years ago while listening to some clown jokes. Meanwhile, he had seen minority kids at school get blamed for fights they didn't start. Racism is still very much a part of American life, he realized. Its methods have just become more sophisticated. The question was, how to express that message without being preachy.

"People become preachy because they preach rather than dramatize the idea," McDonald said.

Which brings us back to Movie Making 101, Day 1, Lesson 1: Have a story, tell it clearly. Many independent filmmakers don't, which McDonald and Kristensen realized with epiphanal clarity when they viewed some of the other short film entries at Slamdance. The movies didn't make any sense.

In some cases, they seemed to have an interesting idea - two guys having a Mexican standoff with loaded bazookas, for example - but that's about all. The gag ran its course in a minute or so, leaving the filmmaker with 14 more minutes to fill.

Do they get it?

In other cases, the filmmaker appeared to have had an interesting dream that he thought would look good on film. The suggestion that the resulting movie, if that's what it is, is unintelligible to anyone but him is, well, so plebeian. If people don't get it, it's simply because they are too dumb or too square to understand his great artistic vision.

So, a least, a lot of independent filmmakers seem to be saying. McDonald and Kristensen think it's an artistic copout; a convenient excuse for being too lazy to do the hard creative work of telling a story that makes sense. After all, telling a recognizable story means it has to be worth telling. And you have to tell it well: With wit, style and poignancy; the sort of things that challenge an audience and, when it goes right, takes them someplace they haven't been before. That's a big responsibility. And a big risk. It's much easier to be feign artiness and claim everybody else is hopelessly unhip.

It is becoming easier and easier. Video technology is simple, cheap and improving all the time, particularly now that you can link it to editing programs on personal computers. Almost anyone can make a movie. For McDonald and Kristensen, that equated to a budget for 'White Face' of about $1,000. That does not mean everyone involved in the production worked for free, although many did. The actors are members of the Screen Actors Guild. They will be paid once 'White Face' turns a profit. So will others involved in the production.

'White Face' was shot in Seattle, much of it a few blocks from Kristensen's Capital Hill home. The school where Dr. Blinkey's son gets in trouble is the old University Heights Elementary at Northeast 50th Street and University Way. Variety praised 'White Face' as "an exquisite satiric short about the discriminations faced by a race of clowns." McDonald and Kristensen are gratified by the praise. They are more gratified by the Slamdance Audience Award. It was the result of ballots passed out to audiences at the screenings of the shorts. It indicated to McDonald and Kristensen that their movie did indeed click with people who watched it. They had succeeded at telling a story.

Distribution deal signed

McDonald and Kristensen recently signed a distribution deal with HYPNOTIC.COM, which will distribute the film through its Web site; sell it to foreign markets, pay and cable TV and airlines and explore the opportunities for releasing it theatrically through its partnership with Universal Studios.

Very nice, very nice. McDonald and Kristensen hope that kind of success will help them in their efforts to raise money for a full-length feature film ( MRS. BAKER ) they are working on. It's a horror movie about a young woman who finds her body being taken over by the mind and soul of an older woman. They've budgeted it for $1 million - incredibly cheap by feature film standards, incredibly expensive when you are actually trying to raise the money. "But we know it can be done," Kristensen said. "We can prove we know how to make a movie people want to watch."



		Please Note: The working title for Inheritance was Mrs. Baker.		EASTSIDE JOURNAL - February 5, 2001 Slam dunk for local filmmakers White Face wins Audience Award for best short film at Slamdance Film Festival By Doug Margeson Eastside Journal Reporter Movie Making 101. Day 1. Lesson 1. 1. Every movie should have an identifiable story, with a clear beginning, middle and end. 2. The audience should understand the story. 3. If they don't, it'[s your fault, dummy. At least, that's what Day 1, Lesson 1 should be. But with a lot of the movies these days, you have to conclude it isn't. Or maybe the filmmaker just slept through that part of the class. Brian McDonald and Kris Kristensen stayed awake. And they took notes. The result is ,'White Face' a 14-minute movie that won the Audience Award for shorts at the recent Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Note that that's Slamdance, not Sundance, which is down the street and which, some say, is no longer the forum for independent films it set out to be. They think it's gone Hollywood, hence Slamdance, which is strictly for independents only. Some 2,300 movies were submitted for Slamdance last year. Fifty were accepted and shown at the January festival. 'White Face' was one of them. It's a monograph on bigotry; in this case the ridicule and mockery directed at one of America's least understood minorities, clowns. "We left the old country to escape the prejudice, then when we got here the only jobs we could find were in the circus where people made fun of us," said Clarabelle Confetti, one of the clowns interviewed for the mockumentary. But clowns persevered, according to noted clown historian Prof. Barnum N. Bailey. As often happened with minorities, however, once clowns successfully established themselves in a profession, the mainstream minority muscled in. So circus buffoonery was soon was taken over by non-clowns wearing white-face makeup. With no way to make a living, clowns hit the road, thus creating that familiar character of American folklore, the hobo clown. Immigrant's dilemma For all that, clowns embraced the American dream with a will. But they also faced the classic immigrant's dilemma of trying to maintain their cultural identity. The problem can be particularly agonizing for foreign-born clowns when their children marry outside the race. Clarabelle's son married a mime. "I can't understand a word that woman says," Clarabelle complained. Even in today's supposedly enlightened times, clowns are confronted with the old prejudices. Dr. Howard Blinky is a distinguished physician who still finds patients becoming hysterical when they see him scalpel in hand. Oh well, that's just what you have to put up with, he says until one day his son gets in trouble at school for "clowning around." "I actually thought I'd overcome it all. I went Harvard, for pete's sake. What a fool I've been," Dr. Blinky says, blue greasepaint tears dotting his white cheeks. And so it goes; the clowns telling their stories with sincerity and humanity, the audience ignoring it all and laughing at them for the color of their skin and their size 37 shoes. Wait a minute. This isn't quite so funny anymore. "That's the general idea," said writer/director McDonald. The Seattle filmmaker got the idea years ago while listening to some clown jokes. Meanwhile, he had seen minority kids at school get blamed for fights they didn't start. Racism is still very much a part of American life, he realized. Its methods have just become more sophisticated. The question was, how to express that message without being preachy. "People become preachy because they preach rather than dramatize the idea," McDonald said. Which brings us back to Movie Making 101, Day 1, Lesson 1: Have a story, tell it clearly. Many independent filmmakers don't, which McDonald and Kristensen realized with epiphanal clarity when they viewed some of the other short film entries at Slamdance. The movies didn't make any sense. In some cases, they seemed to have an interesting idea - two guys having a Mexican standoff with loaded bazookas, for example - but that's about all. The gag ran its course in a minute or so, leaving the filmmaker with 14 more minutes to fill. Do they get it? In other cases, the filmmaker appeared to have had an interesting dream that he thought would look good on film. The suggestion that the resulting movie, if that's what it is, is unintelligible to anyone but him is, well, so plebeian. If people don't get it, it's simply because they are too dumb or too square to understand his great artistic vision. So, a least, a lot of independent filmmakers seem to be saying. McDonald and Kristensen think it's an artistic copout; a convenient excuse for being too lazy to do the hard creative work of telling a story that makes sense. After all, telling a recognizable story means it has to be worth telling. And you have to tell it well: With wit, style and poignancy; the sort of things that challenge an audience and, when it goes right, takes them someplace they haven't been before. That's a big responsibility. And a big risk. It's much easier to be feign artiness and claim everybody else is hopelessly unhip. It is becoming easier and easier. Video technology is simple, cheap and improving all the time, particularly now that you can link it to editing programs on personal computers. Almost anyone can make a movie. For McDonald and Kristensen, that equated to a budget for 'White Face' of about $1,000. That does not mean everyone involved in the production worked for free, although many did. The actors are members of the Screen Actors Guild. They will be paid once 'White Face' turns a profit. So will others involved in the production. 'White Face' was shot in Seattle, much of it a few blocks from Kristensen's Capital Hill home. The school where Dr. Blinkey's son gets in trouble is the old University Heights Elementary at Northeast 50th Street and University Way. Variety praised 'White Face' as "an exquisite satiric short about the discriminations faced by a race of clowns." McDonald and Kristensen are gratified by the praise. They are more gratified by the Slamdance Audience Award. It was the result of ballots passed out to audiences at the screenings of the shorts. It indicated to McDonald and Kristensen that their movie did indeed click with people who watched it. They had succeeded at telling a story. Distribution deal signed McDonald and Kristensen recently signed a distribution deal with HYPNOTIC.COM, which will distribute the film through its Web site; sell it to foreign markets, pay and cable TV and airlines and explore the opportunities for releasing it theatrically through its partnership with Universal Studios. Very nice, very nice. McDonald and Kristensen hope that kind of success will help them in their efforts to raise money for a full-length feature film ( MRS. BAKER ) they are working on. It's a horror movie about a young woman who finds her body being taken over by the mind and soul of an older woman. They've budgeted it for $1 million - incredibly cheap by feature film standards, incredibly expensive when you are actually trying to raise the money. "But we know it can be done," Kristensen said. "We can prove we know how to make a movie people want to watch."