Child's Play does not, obviously, have anything to do with the "slasher films" by the same name. It is a 10 minute documentary on the ability of children to entertain themselves. It includes interviews with mothers and grandmothers, sisters and cousins. It also contains music video interludes of the kids themselves "whooping it up." It is a personal film, an effort to communicate to the audience the Filmmaker's love of children and childhood.

Shot on film and video, Child's Play includes both old Super 8 footage and Hi-8 Broadcast quality. The Super 8 scenes were filmed between 1970 and 1983, and mastered for the project onto Hi-8 video. Unfortunately, some scenes were only available on VHS video transfer. The modern interviews, along with the additional children's scenes, were shot on September 7, 1996, and again in October 1996. Post-production was done in March 1997 on a 3/4" Broadcast Tape Editing Bay.

Although the version of the film that is available now is 9 minutes and 37 seconds long, an original edit of over 15 minutes was completed on a Hi-8 editing bay in November 1996, and premiered at the 1996 Brigham Young University "Rough Cut" festival. This festival is hosted every year by the LDS Motion Picture Studio in Provo, Utah. That version did not contain any of the VHS-mastered material, but it did contain a 5-minute "Cinema Vérité" section which observed--uninterrupted--one little girl. As the filmmaker, I thoroughly enjoyed this version, but the audience responded with confusion, so I removed this section when the work was prepared for the March 1997 "Final Cut" festival. Unfortunately, the master for the original edit was accidentally destroyed while cutting the final video.

Copies of Child's Play may be obtained from Eric Player at playerpage@oocities.com

Please allow up to two weeks for copies to get to you.

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