Tagged
The first of the three movies within the movie that made up our anthology was a short film called Tagged. I remember brainstorming with Paul Kurutsides and Scott Goedert one evening, sitting around my kitchen table. The zombie "book-ends" were taken care of, and I had ideas for two of the three shorts (Murder Party came together right away, and Haunted, although completely different from what we inevitably filmed, was already in the planning stages too.) Originally, we were even considering offering some of our other filmmaker friends the opportunity to write/direct their own short and include it with ours, making it an ensemble piece. Paul would've loved this, because it would've freed up an insane amount of time, but in the end, I'm glad that we did the entire thing ourselves. That's not to say, there couldn't be a Cutting Room Floor 2 that could follow that path, but considering we're already about 5 projects ahead of ourselves, we'll put that on the back burner for now.
Anway, we needed one more short film to round out the anthology. No one had any killer ideas, so we were just kind of shooting the shit, when I received a Facebook notification that someone tagged me in a photo. I thought, hey, wouldn't it be crazy if you got notified that someone tagged a photo of you doing something horrible that you know you didn't do, like killing someone? I immediately started to explain the idea, and about half way through the sentence I stopped and said, "Actually, holy shit, that would make a great movie- that can be the other short film," or something to that effect. Probably with more swearing. As soon as the idea popped into my head, the whole thing was immediately figured out. Tagged was the quickest, easiest, and according to most of the viewer feedback we received, the best thing we filmed.
Out of everything, Tagged felt like it could stand on its own, as a tight, self-contained story that puts the viewer in the protagonist's shoes and keeps you guessing up until the end, in the vein of a good Twilight Zone episode or something. It's short on characters, which helps keep the run-time low, and the fact that it all takes place in a couple hours over the course of a night keeps the pace in check too. There's little touches of humor, which seem natural but don't detract from the gravity of the plot, and I feel like everything in this movie works really well. If I could go back and fix anything on this one, there isn't a lot I'd change. Maybe just shoot it on a higher definition. Or cut the scene where I take my shirt off. (I don't know why I do that in so many movies...)
I wasn't originally going to play the lead, but due to time constraints, and how much easier it would be to shoot around myself, that's what happened. I don't go as dynamic as some of our other cast members, but everyone has been pretty kind about my on-screen abilities in this one, so to that I say, "ah-thank-you."
With that in mind, I might as well address why the same folks continually pop up throughout all the parts of the Cutting Room Floor. It wasn't intentional, but as we shot it, there were certain, principle cast and crew members that were always with us. Paul and myself were present for every scene in the movie (obviously), and Neil and Sarah were pretty frequent as well. As a result, we all pop up more than others. It works, I guess, considering the short movies are supposed to be local films, so it's not too far fetched that the same actors might appear across the board. I like to think of it as a Monty Python-type of scenario, where the same cast members can just come and go in different rolls as they're needed.
This was the first of the shorts we filmed, and after the ordeal of filming the zombie stuff, this seemed like a breeze by comparison. We shot it over a couple nights, starting with me and my cousin Paul Gothard's scene at the beginning of the movie, sharing some beers and watching TV. That went about as smooth as could go, and we had plenty of time to do multiple takes to get the lines right and make the conversations seem a little more natural. Then Paul bolted and we shot the ending, where my character returns to the house and confronts this evil doppleganger. Maybe it was the fact that we had been drinking for most of the shoot, but the whole finale went smooth, without any hiccups or unforeseen problems. Neil and Sarah even swung by at the end, both of them lending a hand as a body double for me occasionally. One stand out thing I remember from the shoot: to achieve the teary-eyed effect at the end, I was constantly yanking out my nose hairs between takes. I think we have some footage of that on the deleted scenes. Give it a shot, I guarantee you'll tear up.)
We went downtown and filmed the rest, cajoling one of PK's cafe employees to join us outside and crawl into the dumpster to play the corpse. I don't think I ever got his name, and I'm guessing he has no idea that this movie ever released or wound up on DVD. Oh well, he signed the release; we're all good. Then we shot some more at 365 Ink, the local advertiser/magazine. Then we took a break between shooting over Halloween. I died my hair black for the Black Swan costume, so that's why I have my hood up for the remainder of the shooting we did. I think we have a little bit of the black hair in there, but it's during dream sequence, so who gives a shit, it's supposed to be trippy. I also asked one of my buddies from my Blockbuster days to play the thug that roughs me up in the alley. He had never acted before, but did a pretty good job on the spot. He was less than willing to put the sharp knife in his mouth, more so because it looked dirty than because it was dangerous. When I told him it wasn't dirty, it was just covered in "old food," he about stormed off (another good moment to check out on the deleted scenes that had us laughing our asses off all night).
I feel like I should address the whole doppleganger thing. What is it? Who is the character that is going around wrecking people's lives and framing them for murders? Honestly, I have no idea. I was inspired by a short story by one of my favorite authors, Clive Barker, called "Human Remains." There's some very obvious nods to the story, which also involves a doppleganger that pretty much overtakes and assumes the lead character's life. If you're a literary buff, check it out. If you're not, check it out anyway; it's only like 50 pages and it would do you good to expand your vocabulary. There's also a line that paraphrases a quote from Philp K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," another favorite of mine. "...we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.” I always thought it was a cool quote, and it seemed to fit. The doppleganger pretty much tells the protagonist, whatever is going on here, is above your head; do you really want to spend your last few moments dwelling on something you can't even begin to comprehend? Then boom, dead, and onto the next one. The kicker at the end where the doppleganger has now taken on the neighbor's form cements the ending. Without it, you're left thinking, "what the hell?" but upon seeing that, I think it gives the impression that this is just some weird, fucked up creature that gets its kicks out of screwing up people's lives and driving them to murder/suicide. Good times.
So yeah, in hindsight, Tagged it one of our best efforts. It works well as a standalone piece, and I think it's a great way to kick off the short films in the movie. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and even though it has some cool effects, it doesn't overdo them, or rely on them too much. I guess there's some foul language that prevents it from being show at children's birthday parties, but what are they doing watching movies about murderous dopplegangers anyway? Shouldn't they be bumper bowling or something?
Check back tomorrow for a look back at "Haunted."
I wasn't originally going to play the lead, but due to time constraints, and how much easier it would be to shoot around myself, that's what happened. I don't go as dynamic as some of our other cast members, but everyone has been pretty kind about my on-screen abilities in this one, so to that I say, "ah-thank-you."With that in mind, I might as well address why the same folks continually pop up throughout all the parts of the Cutting Room Floor. It wasn't intentional, but as we shot it, there were certain, principle cast and crew members that were always with us. Paul and myself were present for every scene in the movie (obviously), and Neil and Sarah were pretty frequent as well. As a result, we all pop up more than others. It works, I guess, considering the short movies are supposed to be local films, so it's not too far fetched that the same actors might appear across the board. I like to think of it as a Monty Python-type of scenario, where the same cast members can just come and go in different rolls as they're needed.
This was the first of the shorts we filmed, and after the ordeal of filming the zombie stuff, this seemed like a breeze by comparison. We shot it over a couple nights, starting with me and my cousin Paul Gothard's scene at the beginning of the movie, sharing some beers and watching TV. That went about as smooth as could go, and we had plenty of time to do multiple takes to get the lines right and make the conversations seem a little more natural. Then Paul bolted and we shot the ending, where my character returns to the house and confronts this evil doppleganger. Maybe it was the fact that we had been drinking for most of the shoot, but the whole finale went smooth, without any hiccups or unforeseen problems. Neil and Sarah even swung by at the end, both of them lending a hand as a body double for me occasionally. One stand out thing I remember from the shoot: to achieve the teary-eyed effect at the end, I was constantly yanking out my nose hairs between takes. I think we have some footage of that on the deleted scenes. Give it a shot, I guarantee you'll tear up.)
We went downtown and filmed the rest, cajoling one of PK's cafe employees to join us outside and crawl into the dumpster to play the corpse. I don't think I ever got his name, and I'm guessing he has no idea that this movie ever released or wound up on DVD. Oh well, he signed the release; we're all good. Then we shot some more at 365 Ink, the local advertiser/magazine. Then we took a break between shooting over Halloween. I died my hair black for the Black Swan costume, so that's why I have my hood up for the remainder of the shooting we did. I think we have a little bit of the black hair in there, but it's during dream sequence, so who gives a shit, it's supposed to be trippy. I also asked one of my buddies from my Blockbuster days to play the thug that roughs me up in the alley. He had never acted before, but did a pretty good job on the spot. He was less than willing to put the sharp knife in his mouth, more so because it looked dirty than because it was dangerous. When I told him it wasn't dirty, it was just covered in "old food," he about stormed off (another good moment to check out on the deleted scenes that had us laughing our asses off all night).
I feel like I should address the whole doppleganger thing. What is it? Who is the character that is going around wrecking people's lives and framing them for murders? Honestly, I have no idea. I was inspired by a short story by one of my favorite authors, Clive Barker, called "Human Remains." There's some very obvious nods to the story, which also involves a doppleganger that pretty much overtakes and assumes the lead character's life. If you're a literary buff, check it out. If you're not, check it out anyway; it's only like 50 pages and it would do you good to expand your vocabulary. There's also a line that paraphrases a quote from Philp K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," another favorite of mine. "...we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.” I always thought it was a cool quote, and it seemed to fit. The doppleganger pretty much tells the protagonist, whatever is going on here, is above your head; do you really want to spend your last few moments dwelling on something you can't even begin to comprehend? Then boom, dead, and onto the next one. The kicker at the end where the doppleganger has now taken on the neighbor's form cements the ending. Without it, you're left thinking, "what the hell?" but upon seeing that, I think it gives the impression that this is just some weird, fucked up creature that gets its kicks out of screwing up people's lives and driving them to murder/suicide. Good times.
So yeah, in hindsight, Tagged it one of our best efforts. It works well as a standalone piece, and I think it's a great way to kick off the short films in the movie. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and even though it has some cool effects, it doesn't overdo them, or rely on them too much. I guess there's some foul language that prevents it from being show at children's birthday parties, but what are they doing watching movies about murderous dopplegangers anyway? Shouldn't they be bumper bowling or something?
Check back tomorrow for a look back at "Haunted."
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