So Friday night we shot the opening scene of Josh & Todd. In it Josh is having a nightmare. The completion of this shoot marked two big milestones in Josh & Todd:
1. It was the true conclusion of Principle Photography.
2. We reshot the scene that got me into Elmwood Productions all of those years ago.
Allow me a moment to explain...
However many years ago it was, 6 or 7 at this point, Jon, Russ, and I were employees at Borders Books & Music is Farmington, CT. We were all friends, but I hadn't really started hanging out with them outside of work too much yet. After a bunch of talk, Jon invited me over the his house to help in some filming for a goofy script that he had written, Josh & Todd: the Story of a Man & his Puppet. I liked the script and liked Jon and Russ, so I headed over after work.
Getting lost in Plainville (insert irony here: I live there now). I showed up at Jon's place around 10:30 pm on what I remember was a very hot summer evening. Jon and Russ were trying to get our Josh at the time, a gangly, funny kid we worked with named Josh Leder, to run down the alley on the side of Jon's house in a frightened fashion. Much to Jon's chagrin and Russ's continued frustration, it just wasn't coming together.
They wrapped for the evening, we all hung out a bit longer, and called it a night. A Couple of weeks later, they showed me a trailer for the film featuring the footage that they had shot throughout the day, including some from evening debacle that I witnessed.
I really enjoyed the trailer. The part that had struck and chord, and continues to today, was the opening scene of the trailer. Todd is walking down the streets of Plainville after being kicked out, and stops at a newspaper machine. His sticks his finger into the change return, hoping to find some, but to no avail. With a small shrug, he continues on his way. Something about that scene entertained me to no end and has stuck with me for all these years later.
That humid summer evening was my first night with Elmwood, although I didn't even know it yet...
- Jim
1 comment:
Ahh... Hot hites in Plainville.
See... I used to live right in the center of Plainville, right over the Hairsay Salon, and across the street from the beloved Central Cafe. We did ALOT of Elmwood Productions work in that apartment. We shot the stuff Jim wrote about, we shot almost all of the Plink show, and tons of other stuff. i meade the original Todd puppet in that apartment on a cold winter night while listening to Marilyn Manson CDs.
But that night... Wow. That was the first nite Russ and I shot anything togather and it was the night we realized Josh couldn't act. But he did make a damn fine puppeteer on the Plink show (more on that at another time)...
That was a good time though... And we sweat like mad all day...
Who would have ever thought that all these years later we'd actually be making that flick... And making it good!
Post a Comment