Everyone Loves Vegans and Werewolves

Thanks to everyone who came out to the encore screening of LIVING ARRANGEMENTS at Sapor Cafe.  The house was packed and everyone enjoyed gourmet popcorn together!

 

But a lot of people were asking me this nagging question, "Sam, are you vegetarian?" And I've been asked this a lot since directing a feature-length vegan-themed film so I figured now I would state my stance.  And the answer is that I'm a STRICT omnivore. You see, I believe in a variety in diet, and I enjoy a nice vegetable as much as a juicy cheeseburger.

Check out the Awesome Review that Colin Covert gave in the Star Tribune!

If there is a sharper satire of Uptown hipsters than "Living Arrangements" (***, if you cut it some slack for its budget) tell me quick. Sam Thompson's deadpan horror farce is as delicious as a sip of free-trade organic coffee, as ironic as a vintage T-shirt, and as zippy as a Prius. Joe Noreen and Alexandra Glad star as Sasha and Billie, whose gender-neutral names symbolize their excruciatingly progressive lifestyle.
Their connubial bliss is interrupted by mysterious noises from the attic: Something hairy, howling and hungry lives up there. Peacefully coexisting with the beast while maintaining their principles and safeguarding their karma becomes a matter of pitch-black (and blood-red) comedy. Milwaukee auteur Mark Borchardt ("American Movie") blesses the film with a cameo, and Paul Cram is a passive-aggressive treasure as a PETA type.
The film is all the cooler when you know that the leads met while working a serving job at Ecopolitan, a vegan-raw restaurant in Uptown. It's a deft lampoon of werewolf movies, indie relationship flicks, and those special, sensitive people whose friends are all unique in the exact same ways. (10:30 p.m., Saturday, Sapor Cafe and Bar, 428 Washington Av. N., Mpls. $10 admission includes popcorn and a free drink. Only 80 tickets are available; move fast!)

The Art of Puppetry

Hi all! Tucker here, just dropping a little behind the scenes knowledge on you. When working in the world of film there are a few rules that are handed down through the generations, one of which is the golden rule "never work with animals or children". Well, a third and equally as important rule applies as well...never make a movie where an essential character is a puppet!

Now, as you know most filmmakers follow this rule. Then there are the rebels, Coppola, Scorsese, and Jim Henson are all just like us. They only hear the rules so they can go out and break them. Which is why we not only controlled the werewolf through elaborate puppetry, we also found a little girl to play the werewolf as well. So essentially, we had a child play an animal that was sometimes used as a puppet as well. We broke all three rules with one freakin' character. When I get to thinking about how brilliant we are, it makes the hair on my shoulders stand straight up.

Little Known Fact

First let me say, TUCKER- that last post is WAY out of line!  Cmon, man... this is the internet, things that get posted here are broadcasted to the whole NATION.  And that last post was entirely inappropriate, I mean, you just gave away our creative-secrets...  plus, weren't we originally talking about making a movie called, "There's a Mummy in My Basement!"?  But none of us had a basement to shoot in, so we changed it up... that's how I remember it.  Then again, that was a long, hard summer of chlorine gas-exposure, so what do I know?

I remember when we decided to make the feature.  We were on a plane going to Park City UT at 5am, sipping on some $10 bloody marys, and we decided right then and there.  You see, we had always wanted to turn the short (TAWIMA) into a feature, but there was one slight problem: the technology just wasn't there.  We had been thinking about the feature for a while, but what we wanted to do was SO CRAZY that the current technology couldn't handle our ideas.  And it wasn't until just last year that the software became available for us to shoot our epic-werewolf indie-flick.  Little-known fact: that attic the werewolf is in, completely digitally made in After Effects.

How a creative team works together.

Hello loyal readers. Tucker here giving you a little bit of insight into how we make movies. We like to think of ourselves as "old school" in our approach to filmmaking. Now with that I don't mean using a crank operated film camera, I'm talking about good old fashioned storytelling.

The inspiration for the movie came to me one day while I was working with Sam, we were pool boys several years ago, and I recall standing there with him and I said, "Hey, we should make a movie in your creepy looking attic". The discussion started from there and soon what was birthed from our brains was "There's a Werewolf in My Attic!"

I like to think about stories in terms of giving birth. I think it's a very good analogy. It's like I am the woman, a fertile young lady ready to be filled with loads of ideas. Sam is much like the man, constantly pounding me, over and over, with his long, hard imagination. He spurts ideas all over me and eventually one of them makes it's way to my womb-like brain, where it gestates and becomes the story for which we then turn into a movie.

Happy Birthday America

Hello faithful blog-heads!  As I sit and type this first blog-post on this bloggeriffic-4th of July, I'm forced to reminisce about the early production-days of LIVING ARRANGEMENTS.  The many shoots in my house, the many trips to the grocery store for fruits and vegetables that doubled as movie props and catered items... the many takes and re-takes we were forced to shoot due to airplanes and other real-world  noise issues.  But all the hard work was well worth it because now, I have a completed feature-length narrative film that looks good on my shelf.  And that's what "it's" all about, putting tons of hard work, asking for favors from everyone, all for a DVD that sits on the shelf spine side-out.  Happy Birthday, United Stats of America.

A little more info about the Sapor screening. Tickets are presale only, 10 bucks and that gets you into the movie, your first beer, wine or NA beverage and popcorn. Only 80 tickets are available so move fast!

Blog writer's block

Wouldn't ya know it. I sit down to write this blog and I get writer's block. It's a crazy world I tell ya. Maybe this would be a good time to tell you about myself. I am a twenty five year old white male living in minneapolis with my beautiful wife who just woke me up this morning to tell me she's going to go stay with her mother for a while or until I "work out some shit". I'm not sure what prompted this but I'm not worried. I mean there are plenty of people out there who are married and don't live together. My own parents for example, haven't lived together for years and they couldn't be happier. So good in fact that whenever I talk about how they have such a great marriage, my sister coughs and turns away from me, holding back tears in her eyes.

She must just be overwhelmed by their long lasting marriage and how inspirational they are to not just us...but to the American institution of marriage itself that yes, should remain between ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN. Until next time!