OF POLES AND POULTRY (a storytelling experiment)

"This motion picture is the result of a STORYTELLING EXPERIMENT. Nine people were each given the task of coming up with part of the story. The only thing each one was told was the very last thing the previous person said. The result makes very little sense."

(Literary and/or artistic types might know the type of storytelling at this film's heart as "Exquisite Corpse.")

Making this film was a very trying task. I came up with the "exquisite corpse" idea (one I'd been wanting to do for a while) after my first idea fell through (rights issues). I had planned to animate the entire thing by printing out frames and incorporating each one into an animation on a whiteboard. This was dropped due to reasons of time and sanity. Result: inconsistency.

Eventually, with great difficulty, I found eight people who were willing to participate. Then came the logistical nightmare of finding a cast and crew and getting them all together in the same place at the same time. I eventually shot the material a couple days before everything was due.

I got eggs thrown at me. Thanks to Jackie (the lead actress) for telling me that washing my clothes in hot water would cook the eggs.

The editing process... let's not talk about it. This has incredibly sloppy editing, mostly because the running times of the audio clips (which were only cut for time, not content) and the video clips were different. I think the first portion (the one I narrated) is the worst of it; I had to run the video at half speed in order to make it fit. (Even in this revised version, where I tightened up a couple sequences, the editing still sucks.)

And of course I can't draw.

However, it did what I wanted it to do. Despite a disastrous first screening (in which some sound was missing and the end was cut off), I got an A in the class. I finally graduated from college that semester. Huzzah.

I give my eternal thanks to the people mentioned below.

CREDITS

Your storytellers have been:
John Plasket
Monica Houston
Jason Oshman
Davey Rockwell
Rod Bingaman
Mariya Soroka
Brandon Hess
Adam Bouc
Leah Blasko

And acting out the parts:
Ryan Bergman
Jackie Helfgott
Paula Palencik
John Plasket

Conceived and directed by
John Plasket

Cinematography
Andrea Heiserman
Jackie Helfgott

Stock footage
archive.org
Prelinger Archives

Music
Dan Jircitano

Thanks: (too long to list here. Just watch the video.)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• head injury
• injury
• gypsy
• aliens
• ufo
• lasers
• missing legs
• hangman
• homeless
• ice cream
• shoes
• gnome
• library
• chickens
• eggs
• chicken ranch
• rebellion
• gangsters
• drugs
• desert
• oasis
• exquisite corpse
• nonsense
• random
• whiteboard
• dry erase