[TWP03] Bad Day

"Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep. "
Carl Sandburg

TWP-03 Bad Day

Bad Day is actually, like Bryan's, based on a conversation I had with one of my friends a couple of months ago. We were working in a theater and he got a phone call in which his parents informed him that his dog had just passed. He was pretty morose for the rest of the work call. The day itself was a normal day but the death of his beloved animal colored the rest of his day. It is these simple events in a day, whether it is for the positive or the negative, that always linger in my long-term memory.

I also acknowledge that I broke one of the rules. I wrote about death but this death isn't life altering (although I know way too many people that would consider the death of their dogs to be such an event).

Shooting at the Turkey Nest was difficult. It certainly pushed the cameras ability to film in a low light. I would like to thank Glenn for his outstanding performance and script contributions. Specifically the Marcia Gay Harden line. Jeff and Bryan did the camera work and it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy.

Eli Sands

[TWP02] Attractive

For those of you who watched TWP – 01 – Luck, and thought to yourself, “That was funny. I can’t wait to see some more funny videos from these people.” Well, 02 – Attractive is much less funny. I think that’s a good thing though. We all have very different styles and therefore, many different types of wonderments will be made.

Check out TWP – 02 - Attractive

I started thinking this script though Christmas day, sitting by the fire talking to my mom, but I didn’t write it until early January. Once I started writing it down, it just all poured out. I wanted to make an introspective piece with a guy really trying to figure out what it is that makes this girl like him. I really didn’t know how it was going to go as I started writing it, but as I went along, I knew that I wanted it to end with my character delivering my favorite quote about true love. It is from Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Being and Nothingness”. I love that quote and say it all the time.

Almost every line in the conversation comes from actual conversations I had with an ex-girlfriend. I am positive that I tried to cheer her up once by saying that she looked good, not great, but good (I don’t remember it working…). And I can’t give a compliment to save my life. Before anyone reads too deeply into this video, I don’t have low self-esteem, but I really am this self-critical. It’s just my way.

When I was discussing with Jeff how we were going to shoot this one, I fell in love with the idea of just having 1 long walk and talk shot. This sounds like it would make things simple, but it was far from that. It is extremely difficult to hold a Flip Camera steady while walking backwards. We made some special shock-mounted holders for the cameras, and we practiced around the house and the street outside, just getting used to the movement. All in all, Jeff did a great job keeping the frame and not being too hurky-jerky.

Eli shot with the other camera and picked up the opening shot. I think that it’s really a nice way to get into the scene. Alison did a great job making sure that Jeff didn’t get run over as he crossed the street (we had one close call). Maya, who is the girl in the piece, was really amazing to work with. She brought a lot of specific characterizations that really fleshed out the script to bring it all alive. Thanks Maya.

-Bryan

[TWP01] Luck

So I guess this will be the official post talking about the first Wonderment. Luck was written by myself with some help from Bryan and Eli. It starred myself and Ivy Hong, who did a fantastic job! Eli and Alison Howe were working the cameras, and Bryan was taking care of everything else. Bryan was also the editor.

Check it out.

Anyhoooo, it's about luck. And how it's real. It's basically what I really think about the subject. I actually wrote it years ago when Bryan first suggested this project. It just popped into my head, wrote it that night, and sent it over to him. Two years (Something like that?) later, we dusted it off and actually shot it. Pretty weird. I originally wrote it a bit like old sci-fi stories (And poorly written recent ones), where one character goes off on long explanations and the other person just sits there egging them on or saying "But that's impossible!" Like the opening scene in The Time Machine. Bryan helped fill out the ambiance of the story and Ivy did a great job adding character where it was lacking.

For all the math buffs! Before you get up in arms at me let me explain!

33.2 coin flips isn't a very nice round number (Necessary to get to 1 in 10 billion for any given person to get all heads), but I still wanted to be able to say 50/50 a lot. So that got fudged. And I guess that "50/50 chance that there is one person" should be "50/50 chance that there is at least one person." 50/50.

Jeff

Manifesto

1. All Wonderments must be shot on the Flip Video HD cameras.

2. All Wonderments must take no more than 1 hour to shoot. And to prove that the video was shot in under an hour, each video must start and end with a shot of a cell phone giving the start and end times for the shoot

3. All Wonderments must take place in public. Nothing shot in your bedroom, back yard, corporate office. It about public experiences.

4. All Wonderments must have no more than 4 people with speaking roles.

5. All Wonderments must cost less than $100 to produce, but anything you can get for free...totally cool.

6. All Wonderments are about an interesting moment in your day. Not the most interesting moment of your life. No murders, rapes, loves, deaths, etc.

7. All Wonderments must be between 2 and 10 minutes long.

8. All Wonderments must have a script and be rehearsed at least once.

9. All Wonderments must be shot by non-professional camera people.

10. All Wonderments are self-contained. These are just themselves and happy in whom they are.

First post

Hi Everybody,

Welcome to the blog for the Wonderment Project. Check us out at thewondermentproject.com and YouTube.

Check back here for news and such.

Jeff