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August 26, 27

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Seattle Bike-in Feature Film non sequitur Scene Still

When Brock forwarded me a link to the 2nd Annual Seattle Bike-in call for filmmakers
I had no idea what I was getting into when I offered to get involved. At first I thought it
involved showing up with a camera on the day of the event and shooting a scene, which
sounded pretty fun to me. But what it came down to was 13 film crews were each given a
piece of script to shoot without knowing the broader context of the feature-length movie.
The scenes would be submitted ahead of time, linked, and premiered at a big bike party.
That's a pretty intriguing concept and the result could be as beautiful as a floral arrange-
ment or trainwreck. I had always heard that shooting and editing film took a buttload of
time, but as Zora Neale Hurston says, "You've got to go there to know there." Putting the
2-minute scene together took more than two days--the first was spent assembling props,
creating the set (converting our living room into a bike shop, which wasn't too hard as
we have bikes and parts scattered all around our place), catering (buying beer for Craig
and Jeff
, the actors), and shooting. I shot as little as possible--a total of only 9 minutes--
but even that took a full day to pare down, arrange, and voiceover. The end result is a
bit rough and obviously amateurish, but I hope it does the job of advancing the plot....


Thanks to CrankedMag, Frank Brown, and Sid Fox for helping with props and tutelage.