S U M M E R   M O V I E artsy-fartsy intro | personal intro | characters | technical | notes

artsy-fartsy intro "Hello? Are you there?" Observe the monitor. Upon it you see three figures (a Greek chorus, perhaps?) and a movie camera (on a tripod) in a dirty black and white room. When the figures are speaking to someone in particular, it is to the movie camera. Shots alternate between the point of view of their movie camera (stationary and in black and white) and another camera (color and hand-held). "Master of Stories, we bring you characters. ...And a plot." Two of the three figures set up a chess board on a small bridge table. The third figure stands silently in the background... watching. For he is David Ma. And there is none like him. The other two figures present each chess piece in extreme close up to their movie camera before placing it on the board. They reveal the story: "A love story, of sorts. A girl. In love. With a boy." They speak in rapid succession and at a fast pace. One speaks and the other chimes in with a quick paranthetical. But the pace is never broken. One of the speakers is Love and Lust. The other is Chaos and Destruction. What each one says relates to what she or he represents. "Of course, nothing is so simple. First off, the girl has a mate to begin with. Then, the boy (her childhood friend and the new object of her affection) is on a rampage against society -- and for certain has no interest in this poor thing." The chorus moves the boy's chess piece away from the girl's. "Ah! And what do their close companions have to say about the whole affair? Now enter this wide-eyed boy who revels in his modern plastic and shrink-wrapped culture -- and who lusts madly after anything with -- BREASTS. But let us counter him with a disheartened lout: crushed by society and unable to escape to freedom." "And so behold our four characters. Of course they have other friends and there are minor characters and extras," and a menagerie of pawns slide onto the board, "but enough of this. We set our tale in fair Suburbia........"

personal intro Every summer I make a movie. I make movies at other times as well, but Summer Movies have a category of their own. They tend to have a higher production value than most of my other movies, they have a relatively large cast and a thought-out script, and they are for fun (as opposed to for academic credit). All of the Summer Movies to date have been fantasies (with the possible exception of Robin Wood). I decided it was time to make a non-fantasy Summer Movie. So... this movie takes place in the suburbs of America, present day. And for once, all the actors will play characters of their age (or close to it). Of course... I don't know that I'm physically able to make a straight-forward teen romance. Let alone do I want to. Enter the trinity that is Love, Destruction, and David Ma. The goal is a surreal suburban dreamscape full of non-stop fun and entertainment for the whole family. Or something like that. The premise is as follows: Most of the characters in the movie are in either highschool or college. They're in that strange place where they're too old to be children and too young to be adults. The four main characters have just gotten home for summer break after their first year at college. They are old friends who haven't seen each other for a year (or since winter break). The main conflict in its most basic, stripped down form is that Ali (who already has a boyfriend from college) develops a crush on her childhood friend Steve. Steve, however, likes nobody. Ali, Steve, and the other two main characters (Erik and Ben) are all dealing with dreams and reality, the future and the past, and growing up. And of course there are the three spirits that watch the movie along side the audience, dissecting the characters at every turn. And if you've never been dissected, let me tell you that it can be quite painful.

main characters Ali - Ali loves music and she is determined to become a rock star singer/guitarist. She enjoys punk rock, alternative rock, hip hop and showtunes. In middle school she was obsessed with classic rock (such as the Beatles). She would be the last to admit that she is obsessed with her image. She is a living masquerade. She has a boyfriend named Mitch. Perhaps she met him at college. She is becoming infatuated with her childhood friend Steve. She is frustrated and embarrassed that her feelings for Steve are not at all mutual, though she keeps such feelings hidden. Also, she has feelings of guilt for chasing Steve behind Mitch's back. She deals with this by convincing others (and perhaps even herself to an extent) that Mitch cheated on her. She is digging herself deeper and deeper into a slimy hole of confusion, frustration and lies. She is denied stage time at a local club and that is the "straw that breaks the camel's back". Losing her ethics and in a state of utter abandon, Ali ends up having sex with Ben. In a scene near the end of the movie, Ali enters her old bedroom in her mother's house (where she hasn't lived since middleschool). She picks up her old guitar and tries to play a few chords from a song she used to love when she was younger. She has difficulty getting the song (Both Sides Now)... suddenly, in a cinematic moment that pays homage to Proust, she is able to play the song and images from her childhood rise before her like castles in a pop-up book. Ali all but breaks down as her nostalgia causes her to long for a time when things were simpler and beautiful. In the last (or one of the last) scenes in the movie, Steve comes over to Ali's house late at night and the sit next to each other on the couch and talk. The past cannot be undone, but Ali rediscovers at least a bit of peace wholeness in her life. Ben - Ben is obsessed with women, cartoons, women, manga (Japanese comics), and women. He considers stylized Japanese pop comics to be the highest artform, and he is determined to spend his life making comics. His parents, meanwhile, are determined to send him to summer school so that he can gain skills in computer science and programming. Though he may have had a girlfriend here or there in highschool, Ben has not had what he believes is the most important experience ever: sex. When he's not at school or drawing or watching anime, he spends his time flirting with girls and talking with his friend Ike about much he'd like to "get some". So he gets some. With a girl he will never have and never really even really wanted. Erik - Erik is highly concerned with the future and with "reality". Because of the certain clear-headed way in which he sees things, he doesn't approve of things such as when his friend Ike jokes around with pedophilia or when his friends watch hentai (Japanese cartoon pornography) that makes light of rape. Unfortunately, he sees such problems everywhere in modern day youth culture. His seriousness causes him to be very concerned about the future and his determination to succeed causes him a great deal of stess which he attempts to relieve by means of drugs. Erik was one of the heads of the science team in highschool. He is very intelligent and he was always determined to grow up and work at a desk in an office some day and make a significant amount of money. He had a lot of stress in highschool and he turned to drugs. His addiction skyrocketed in college. It should be pointed out that Erik is a loyal friend, and just as he is concerned with his own future he is also concerned with that of his friends. Erik has a climactic scene near the end of the movie where he must becomes all-consumed by the drugs and he has one last chance to decide between life and death. I'm not yet sure what ends up happening with Erik. Perhaps he can become some sort of martyr. I am open to suggestions. Steve - Steve is sick of his old friends. In college, he has acquired a certain view of the world and of people. He does not want to fall in with the rest of the "sheep" in the shallow, consumer world. He has determined that there is a difference between old friends from home and friends from college. The people you grew up with you're only friends with because you grew with them --by chance. Because they happened to grow up on your street or your mothers sent you to the same day care center when you were 3 years old. However, when it comes down to it you might actually be completely different from or incompatible with these people and in other circumstances you wouldn't be friends with them. At college, the friends you meet are people with whom you actually "should" be friends. This is how Steve thinks of things. He realizes he actually doesn't care to hang out with his old friends because at least a few of them if not all of them are idiots or incompentants. People in our Western society, he thinks, tend to be too non-confrontational. Steve, however, has no use for "beating around the bush". He has no problem telling people they're boot-licking poser morons and he has no interest in having such people as his friends. He has no interest in taking part in our society and all of its social norms and pointless "polite" etiquette. He still tolerates Ali but he has no interest in going out with her. In the second scene - in which the four main characters are introduced - he sees his old friends. That might be the only scene in the whole movie in which he is with Ben or Erik. Despite his seeming desire to escape from any and all societal constructions, Steve associates himself with alternative culture. He is bisexual and loves to make a big deal about that. He has been wearing black clothes lately, and he has acquired a riding crop which he carries around almost everywhere. Perhaps Steve is studied in martial arts. If this is the case, then if his friend Ike asks him to train him, Steve will have no problem going hard on Ike and whacking him good if the pupil needs to learn to keep his guard up. Steve is stubborn and some might call him fascist. However, he is not the "evil" one of the four main characters. He is just a character. He is just a boy. His friends like him and Ali likes him and in fact -- he likes Ali. He just doesn't like her as much as she likes him. Perhaps the fight scene will be a climactic scene for Steve. I'm yet quite sure how or why, though. Ike (the eccentric Russian highschool-aged friend of the main characters) has one or two street encounters with a few bullies/jocks/hoodlums from highschool who make fun of him. Near the end of the movie this escalates to a fight. This fight occurs at the exact same time that Ali and Ben screw.

some personal and technical info In Robin Wood (the first Summer Movie), I tried nothing technically new. It was made just like any other movie I'd made before. Nothing imaginative, innovative or creative was attempted during editing. In fact, there essentially was no editing at all. It was all in-camera. Then came fire road destiny, and I decided to try something new. I would edit. At that point, the fact that I was editing to begin with was innovative and new enough for me. Next came The Azokiad. That was a big step in terms of editing. I went from having the most limited of resources to more than I could imagine. I had a whole non-linear digital editing suite right in the comfort of my own home. My editing experience was still somewhat limited, however. But I took risks, and I tried as many different things as could think of. I didn't finish editing that movie before college started. So when I returned to The Azokiad the summer after my first year, I had just completed my first college-level video course and I had two more editing projects under my belt. Since then, I have taken another video course, helped my friend Johnny T edit three of his movies, and edited at least three more of my own. So... where to go from here? I am not yet sure exactly how I will edit this next Summer Movie, but I have a few ideas. For one thing, I might try a technique I saw utilized in Dancer in the Dark involving a method for cutting in the midst of dialog but leaving the camera stationary. Also... in this movie there are four characters each of which having his or her own "climax scene". Each of these climax scenes lends to be cut in the style of a music video. I could do a lot with music video style editing throughout the movie (such as was done in Run Lola Run). Certain inspirational videos could include those of Marilyn Manson -- many of which are in my opinion highly imaginative and excellently done. It seems that their editing style is inspired by post-war Italian surrealist cinema. The only reason I am reluctant to use this method for editing is that my most recent video teacher seemed opposed to the prospect of cutting to music. Well... we'll see. Another editing technique I'd like to try is something I have seen in Fight Club as well as a number of current commercials as well as music videos (I believe one music video example is "Welcome to Miami" by Will Smith). There is something interesting done with the camera and touched up in editing,... though I have yet to pinpoint exactly what it is. I will figure it out and then I will conquer it. This movie will be shot primarily on digital-8 and edited on a Mac using Final Cut Pro.

final notes Please e-mail me at wolfrider@fianna.com if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Again, I am open to suggestions. If you'd like more information about this movie, go to it's original homepage (back when it was still the Summer Movie 2000). This page contains the first draft of the script, character sketches and descriptions, among other things. A note about this first draft of the script: much of it will be changed. I don't yet know which scenes will be kept and which will be scrapped. My current plan is to keep Scene 2 as well as all of the important scenes mentioned on this page. ...We'll see. Information about many of my other movies can be found here.