The Gifted Babies

[Vimeo 1579899]

Since it’s been a week since the last post I thought I might as well take it upon myself to add another one for the sake adding more content to the site. So here is the link to the film we made a month prior to Bad Vibrations, called Trippers Through Time. It was written, shot and edited in a space of 48 hours as part of Bangor Film Festivals’ 2880 competition which, in comparison to our last attempt at shooting a film in a short amount of time, was a resounding success not only because we manage to complete it but the fact that it also got shown to an American audience much to our surprise. Apparently, Americans are very to please 😛

The prompt for this year was that infamous run, duck and cover video that Southpark lampooned quite a few years back, we were required to incorporate at least 1 minute of footage into our video and ensure that the characters acknowledge the video as well. We received the prompt shortly after midnight on August 9th 2008. myself and Cethan opened up a shared Google document and wrote some of the following ideas:

• Hollywood meeting (Micheal Bay’s remake of of Duck and cover) More Explosions!
• Cast of Duck and Cover: Where are they now?
• The modern guide to having picnics.
• Government meeting, Who will be the Mascot on the War on Terror? A cat?
• The video that contains subliminal messages tricking a bunch of college student into having agrophobia

When Cethan pitched the time travelling story, I honestly thought it was the best idea out of the lot although I may have been slightly drunk at the time. So I went to bed early enough while Cethan essentially stayed up until 5 writing a lengthy 5 minute timeless classic which you can read below:

Opening shot.
Our three friends are setting up a picnic.
Jan: Why are we going for a picnic? I hate Picnics…and outside….and your face. Also did you watch the news? We are at Terror alert: Indigo.
Cethan: Come on. It will be fun. it feels like a Terror alert: Yellow day to me.
Footage of the picnic.
Mother:(Dubbed) Put down that orange! That’s your fathers!
Cut back to the present.
Hayrat: Put down That chocolate Orange? That’s mine.

Cut back to footage
(Dubbed) The REDS! They Dropped the Bomb!
Jan: Terrorists!
Show the footage of ducking under the table cloths
We slowly emerge from the table cloth. We are in back and white.
Cethan: Linen is a surprising sturdy material.
All stand up and look around.
Piratehelm: Oh my god! I’m Colourblind.
Cethan: (check glasses) I’m all monochrome here too.
Jan: Me too, also Why are School kids in the car park?
Piratehelm: Why is there a School in the Car park?
Cethan: Where’s the car park?!?
They turn around.
They see the clip of the woman walking down the road, past the cars.
Cethan: Oh phew, there it is.
Long view of the trio.
Gravelly Narrator: But the carpark was the least of this Trio’s problems. You see it was neither the fault of the terrorists nor the A-Bomb, but time and space merely folding upon itself. By swapping these two set of Happy picnicers, the universe has on a whim sent these Twentysomethings a half century into the past. They have now become… (Title appears on screen at the same time) Trippers Through Time!

Random footage from the clip.
Cut to wandering down roads. (patrick’s hill)
Watch the fire engine drive down the road.
and policeman with kids.
Piratehelm: Man, kids trust older men a lot more here.
Jan: So what do we do now?
Cethan: I guess we are stuck in the 1950s. Lets’ get jobs and through graft and hard work, building a humble but honest life for ourselves.
Piratehelm: Or use our knowledge of the future to get rich now.
Cethan and Jan shrug in agreement.

Title appears. One Week Later:

Show footage of the Turtle Bert, versus the monkey.
Cethan’s voice can be heard: Ah come on!
A loud Shh noise is heard. (how terribly illmannered! is heard!)

Use still of outside houses.
See Cethan and Jan. Jan is at the bar-B-Q, getting ready to cook and Cethan relaxing on a deck chair. We are wearing sensible shirts and ties.
Cethan: Who would you think would win in a fight between a monkey and a turtle?
Jan: It’s a bit close to call.
Cethan: Now the monkey has a tree to hide in?
Jan: Oh the element of surprise. Still The turtle has a shell to protect himself from danger.
Cethan: Now what if the monkey had dynamite?
Jan: Then of course the monkey would.
Cethan: Not according to the cartoon they showed in the Savoy before The Earth Bled Red…
Before Cethan finishes his sentance, Piratehelm sticks her head out the window, maybe wearing the beehive wig and pearls.)
Piratehelm: Boys, Pie is ready. (holding out a storebought pie)
Jan: This is good. Too good. You weren’t able to bake in the future.
Piratehelm: I stole it from Mrs. Pennyworth’s sill on the way back from the salon.
Cethan: that really takes the cake.
All laugh.
The end

Roll credits.

The following morning we had pancakes and croissants, after breakfast we then headed towards the Shandon area to shoot the first scene which was Scene #2, we then went around the area looking for streets perfect for a 1950’s America setting. We also had to film at special angles so certain background features wouldn’t suspend the belief that we travelled through time. For anyone curious about our shoot locations check out the little pointers in Google maps.

So we finished the shoot roughly at around 6 o’clock, the last scene was shot was the first scene, oh the irony. Since it was raining for most of the day, Cethan had to go off and buy plastic bags to put under the table cloth masquerading as a picnic cloth. It was only after we had done filming that the sun decided to come out for the first time. Boo!

With 18 hours down, and 32 to go, we spent the rest of the time working on post production although a good 7 hours was dedicated to sleeping, 2 hours to watching Dark Star, probably 3 hours was dedicated to playing “Sam and Max” and probably another 2 or 3 hours dedicated to the art of procrastination thus leaving the rest on post production work a good portion of which was trying to find creative ways of tying scenes together, dubbing ( here we managed to fit Aida into the film ) and audio synchronization & manipulation. It took almost 2 hours to post the video up online shortly before the deadline, we ended up with just 30 minutes to spare.

Apparently when it was shown at the festival the film was well received despite our scepticism, it’s pretty cool to hear that people sat through and enjoyed it, makes the whole experience much more rewarding. Piratehelm won second best actress, no word about the other awards though. As of today, the Bangor Film Festival still has to update their website. We’ve seen 3 other entries but the three of us agreed they’re all a pile of shite 🙂

On that note, the version of the film you just watched there is almost identical to the version shown at the festival except for a few tidbits here and there, for instance improved but not perfect audio sync, improved Title sequence and slightly lengthened cut but it’s essentially the same.