Day Two started in the morning with “Hockey Interview” – a mock interview in which a hockey player (Lucas James) experiences as moment of existential crisis. We snuck into the arena – a big, beautiful arena where we were technically not allowed to film since we hadn’t filled out any paperwork, but where they let us shoot anyway (yay) – and set up. It was a great location, and we had so much fun that Pat and Paul decided to write an additional sketch on the spot, which emerged as a shouting match between two lonely hockey fans from opposing teams.
In the evening we had our first, and only, “studio” experience. Our friends Howie and Sara, the Executive Producers of this little experiment, let us in to their studio/home as one of our location. We threw up a flats, stuck on the white house sign, stood up the flag, played with the lights and voila! We had a Press Room for our sketch “Ladies and Gentlemen“, in which the Press Secretary of the United States makes a startling announcement.
This sketch was a lot of fun to do and, despite all my worries, it ended up looking incredibly realistic. This is also the only time that we will have such a controlled environment (especially for sound!), and it was exciting to create the ‘room’ from scratch. Andrew Kines (Press Secretary) and Ryan Graham (Vice President) were a hillarious duo as well, and brought life to the characters with their saucy wit.
We also began filming “Throw It“, a short piece similar in tone to Norman McLaren’s “The Neighbours”, in which a girl obsessively chases a tennis ball across town.
Throw It Girl (Helen Kotsonis) - trapped behind bars
All photos by Bruce William Harper