Slamdance

This is a parody of the film Flashdance and the subsequent videos for the hit songs Maniac and Flashdance: What a Feeling.

If it's been a while since you've seen either the movie or one of the videos, you'll be well-rewarded if you have a refresher before checking out my version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppxsWLXVs3E

I made this movie as a high school Super 8 film project, probably in 1982-83. Final edits and titles were completed around 1986.

Slamdance was filmed in the gym at Temple City High School, Dragonflicks Studio, The Works Beauty Salon, and Mimi's Beauty Supply: all locations were in or around Temple City, CA.

I got the idea from a punk chick at our school who had gone to a Suicidal Tendencies concert, and later told me, "You should have seen the punkers trying to breakdance!"

Also, I was (and still am) a huge Weird Al Yankovic fan; I wanted to do for movies what he was doing with music.

Glenn Alley was a real trouper, and his love of punk rock brought a feeling of authenticity to the project (that's his own Dead Kennedys shirt seen in the movie). He was a good egg about having to ride that little red wagon down a busy street (in the Flashdance, Jennifer Beals rides her bike everywhere). He also suffered silently though a lot of multiple takes and grueling sessions of pogo dancing.

I had no idea that my star was diabetic until he told me on the last day of filming. I wondered why I was blowing my budget buying him sugary sodas, and why he would completely run out of steam after about an hour.

Still, Glenn did a brilliant job, and deserves a place in the Punk Rock Hall of Fame.

Slamdance won a couple of teenage film awards, and received a standing ovation at Art Center College of Design's open house (where I had been taking Saturday classes for high school students).

Written, produced, filmed, directed, and edited by Steven A. Ross

Starring Glenn "Gland" Alley

The titles were created with black rub-on letters on white paper. A negative was made at a local print shop, then placed on a light table and filmed with a Super 8 movie camera. It took bit of experimenting, but I eventually got the exposure right. With iMovie, I could whip up flashier, more readable titles in seconds, but I wanted to show off what I achieved back in my misspent youth.

(Originally filmed and edited on Super 8, transferred to VHS, then transferred to Quicktime and remastered on iMovie. My apologies for the picture quality, but there's only so much that could be done, on my current budget.)

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Flashdance
• 80s
• punk
• rock
• Dead
• Kennedys
• Suicidal
• Tendencies
• Jennifer
• Beals
• dance
• slamdancing
• pogo
• maniac
• Temple
• City

[Slayisnahtz]

This is great. I really like this. Why did it take three years to complete, though?