Friday, December 7, 2007

The Guy Who Needed Exercise


This was the first of my short silent comedies shown before major motion pictures around the U.S.

I had been contacted by Wit's End Productions, asking if I had any one-minute silent movies ( I had made a longer silent movie for their comedy film and video festival). I said yes, but give me two weeks. I then madly started work on this demo movie. I built it around a routine/gag I do in my stage show, where I attempt to jump rope on a circus globe. When I perform, many people think the globe is an exercise ball, so I used exercise as the theme. I made the ball gag the ending, and with the premise that I read a book that said I would die if I didn't exercise, I built up to the end.

I shot about an hour of footage in one day for this one minute. They liked the movie and I got a contract to make 11 more in 11 months. It turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it would be.

The complete collection is available on DVD at silentcomedies.com.

Foolish Question:
How could you translate something you created for one creative medium into another?