Turkey and Cheese

Here's a poster design I did in Photoshop for a video short my good friend, Neil Katcher, my sister - Kenda and myself created back in the summer of 1994. This is one of several short videos I made with friends in West Nyack, NY that was shot with a VHS RCA camcorder.

We did everything in camera using the audio dub feature. This made for an entirely different production methodology. We shot the story in sequence. It was fun playing ping pong between locations but also made the acting (if you want to call it that) more easy to stay consistent. Because of the limitations of the fly erase head onboard the camcorder we only had 3 or 4 takes before we would have to go back and shoot the last shot over again. I really enjoyed this way of doing things.

The summer of 1994 was a good summer for hobbie video making. My friends and I put together a "curriculum" of video excercises using the aforementioned methodology until we got it down to a science. In fact there are several other videos I will post thumbnails from during this period. It really made me focus more on blocking, line delivery and composition much more. Where does the shot start and where does it end. Rehearsal was usually essential and storyboarding also helped to nail the takes.

Turkey and Cheese was a culmination project. Neil and I wrote it Friday afternoon and began shooting later that night. My sister got into the mix Saturday afternoon. If I was in the shot Neil operated camera. If I wasn't in the shot I operated the camera and if both of us were in the shot my sister operated the camera (her footage was some of the best shot in my opinion - her acting was strong too) There was a chase scene at the end that my Father shot.

We shot all through the night Saturday and all the way up to the screening at around 9pm Sunday night. It was alomost a SCRAMBLE. The video runs about 15 minutes and is still one of my favorites.

AS A SIDE NOTE:
Neil Katcher is the creator of a new stage performance program called MORTIFIED. I put a link to that program at the top right portion of this blog. It was featured on NPR a while back and is pretty funny! It involves people reading their most embarrassing and intimant journal entries from the past to complete strangers. Check it out...