Life Imitating (stupid) Art?

[DodgingGrunge]

OK, time to come clean.  Regardless of how old you were, I'm sure everyone here has imitated something they saw on film, for better or worse, for art or stupidity.  I mean seriously, what clever child hasn't put a towel around his neck and jumped down a flight of stairs?

ME:  If you recall in Dawn of the Dead, Roger goes out of his way to run over zombies with the garbage trucks, smiling all the way.  Well, after watching this with two of my friends, we decided to film our own version.  Instead of a garbage truck, we used a 1982 Buick Regal.  Now, this was well before DVD so we could only guess as to how this was achieved*.  We shot at night on a neighborhood street.  It was Erik's car, so he drove, and Nick's camera (a massive VHS camcorder), so he shot.  With only my body to offer up, I was the zombie.  Erik rolled down the street at idle speed, probably about 10 MPH, and I jumped onto the hood, rolling off to one side or the other.  We repeated this a half-dozen or so times, miraculously without injury.  When played back at 3X on the VCR, it actually looked pretty cool.

But you guys were probably hoping for blood, right?    Well, I can offer someone else's:  A few year's back one of my little sister's friends broke his arm while shopping cart jousting, imitating CKY.

So, what are your dirty little secrets?

*_{Tom Savini played almost every zombie that was hit by the truck.  And no contact was ever made.  Instead he laid a trampoline to the side of the truck and bounced off that as the truck drove by.  Because Romero was shooting from the side, it looked like a collision.  Not quite as fun to imitate...}

[Scott]

DodgingGrunge you sound like your ready to post in the Pros/Novice part of the forum after making a piece of cinema like that. Post it on Youtube so we can see it . I think everyone should make movies. The world would be a better place.

I once made a stop motion video with my daughter using her stuffed tiger slippers. It was fun and looked funny.

[DodgingGrunge]

Scott, that footage is unfortunately lost to the ravages of time.  It was before any of us had actual editing equipment, let alone computers.  I have no idea what happened to it, but my guess is it got taped over.  The camcorder literally used a regular ol' VHS tape.    But since you ask, I do make short films from time to time for my website.  Here are some links:

Holy Sh!t 1 & 2 are essentially God's feeble attempts to wipe me from the planet.  There was gonna be a 3rd before I left Berkeley but the actor who was going to play Jesus flaked on me.
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=63&thumbView=0&pAuthor=2
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=67&thumbView=0&pAuthor=2

Josh Comes Out of the Closet was filmed to show my friend's living quarters.  Yes, I actually had a friend live in my closet.  He had 18 cubic feet of space to call his own.  Gotta love California...
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=143&thumbView=0&pAuthor=2

Berkeley Holocaust is a terrible Italian horror spoof shot with stuffed animals.  It wouldn't have been so bad except I had to puppeteer and film.   
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=207&thumbView=0&pAuthor=2

The Anti With the Screaming Brain came about because of some amazing footage used in the BBC program Planet Earth.  I recut it, added new narration, and made it even creepier.
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=244&thumbView=0&pAuthor=2

Coffee is my ode to David Lynch and his booming coffee business.  That's right, you can now buy David Lynch Gourmet Coffee direct from his website.
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=266&thumbView=0

[Scott]

Hey, that's pretty neat. Keep it up...............you might have something there. I saw the one with the nun robot and the closet one. Is that you in the videos?

Definately Pros/Novice section material. 

[Derf]

Those are some cool short movies. My brother does a lot of stuff with video, and I've been in several of his productions. It's a skill I would love to learn, but apparently not bad enough to actually do it. The Ant movie is particularly well cut and the sound fits the mood really well.

[DodgingGrunge]

Is that you in the videos?

Definately Pros/Novice section material. 

Thanks!    Yup, that's me.  These are all "instant videos", in the tradition of early Dreamland productions.  None of them took more than 2 hours to shoot, cut, and post.  Budget: $0.  One of the benefits of having a one-man crew and endless rivers of coffee...

I'd feel bad posting them in the Pros/Novice section because these aren't serious.  If anything, they are a really pretentious jab at how effortlessly films affect us.  In the same way that Blockbusters distract us with explosions, films with lesser budgets fall back on cliché editing tricks or, what's worse, rely entirely on the mood created by another artist's music.  Don't get me wrong, I am quite happy with how they turned out.    And I am also a big fan of David Lynch and the like.  But the cynical side of me feels stupid for continually falling prey to their blatant trickery!

I am currently working on a (slightly commercial) animated miniseries.  This production actually has a cast and crew and since it won't qualify under Fair Use like the above shorts, it's got all original music.  I'll be sure and post a link to the pilot in the Pros/Novice section when that's done!  Though that probably won't be until early next year.

My brother does a lot of stuff with video, and I've been in several of his productions. It's a skill I would love to learn, but apparently not bad enough to actually do it.

It's a lot of fun!  The only truly difficult part on an ultra-independent level is figuring out how to use your editing software.  One friend of mine is a professional editor and he uses Avid and AfterEffects, which I cannot make heads or tails out of.  I've stuck with an inferior program by Ulead because that is what I happened to learn.  But if you find yourself with a spare day and a pot of coffee, I'd encourage you to mess around.

[Scott]

One day DodgingGrunge I'll doing that.

[BTM]

But you guys were probably hoping for blood, right?    Well, I can offer someone else's:  A few year's back one of my little sister's friends broke his arm while shopping cart jousting, imitating CKY.

CKY?  Okay, dumb question.. what's that?

Me, dumbest thing I imitiated was from Popeye.  I somehow thought eating some spinach would suddenly somehow enable me to supernatural kick my bully of an older brother's ass.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

[DodgingGrunge]

CKY?  Okay, dumb question.. what's that?

Me, dumbest thing I imitiated was from Popeye.  I somehow thought eating some spinach would suddenly somehow enable me to supernatural kick my bully of an older brother's ass.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

CKY is a skateboarding/prankster video.  The sequence this guy was imitating is kind of what it sounds like.  Shopping cart jousting requires at least four participants to work:  Two pushers and two riders.  The riders hold a rake or stick or something and sit in the opposing shopping carts and the pushers drive the carts into each other.  My sister's friend broke his arm because the carts didn't collide; he was sent flying down a hill at ever increasing speeds.  I still crack up every time I think of this.

You know, as a kid I ate spinach only because Popeye did.  And I hated it.  Strangely, not it is one of my favorite foods.

[HarlotBug3]

The Anti With the Screaming Brain came about because of some amazing footage used in the BBC program Planet Earth.  I recut it, added new narration, and made it even creepier.
http://www.dodginggrunge.com/crap.2.0/index.php?pIndex=244&thumbView=0&pAuthor=2[/quote]

Nice use of Skinny Puppy's (I can't recall which of the VIVISECTVI instrumentals it is, and that frustrates me). As it happens, you might already be on litany.net...which, as it happens, uses the same forum format as badmovies.org.

[DodgingGrunge]

(I can't recall which of the VIVISECTVI instrumentals it is, and that frustrates me).

Thanks!  Believe it or not, it was actually the song called Funguss.  Appropriate, no?  Haha.  It was a tossup between that or a song by Einstürzende Neubauten, but I felt the name was too good of a coincidence to pass up.

++josh;