A grade 11 Media English project. A project originally conceived by Kevin...(More)

A grade 11 Media English project. A project originally conceived by Kevin Reitzel and Scott Weber as an epic thriller based on the real life case of Herbert Mullin who commited thirteen murders in the early seventies. Mullin was a schizophrenic man who believed that though the act of killing he would prevent an EarthQuake that would destroy California. Our dreams were crushed when we were instructed that we would only be able to record our project in the time allotted to two periods of class. We were not allowed to use our own equipment, or score our own project, and profanity would not be permitted. We would not be able to shoot our intended project on Super8 film. We could not make our original story involving a young man (which unbeknownst to him) begins to suffer from schizophrenia and hears voices through a payphone that command him to murder his new girlfriend to prevent a terrorist attack. The intended climax concluding with the protagonist slitting his girlfriends throat and then struggling with the police who appear as demons in a fevered rage. Ironically, (and unintentionally) this exact storyline was used for the sequel (however it features what I consider a much happier ending). I digress, Dirty Buford was conceived in one moment (a send-up to the generic student 'nerd' film), shot in 1 hour (including make-up effects), and capped off with a couple pickup shots that were taken the next day. We cheated because the shot of the child version of Buford was taken outside of class using a slide projector on my bedroom wall. The teachers never noticed. Dirty Buford is important in that it features my very first genuine attempt at CGI. This gooey effect was created to pay homage to the Mad Magazine comics Scott showed me at his house (at the time of writing this, over one decade ago) In the classroom I believe I sent our teacher into a nervous breakdown (presumably when I debunked her teaching theory on the editing of the film 1984, CUTS DO NOT = SHOTS!) and on the final day of school not a single student had the opportunity to present their first film projects they had worked so hard on (heh, heh, hard on) to their peers. The last day of school was spent with our new substitute DICK WAD who spent the entire class informing the students why he would NOT be showing our film because it was in poor taste. The class was obviously unable to take a stance on this subject because unlike him THEY HAD NOT SEEN THE FILM! The marking sheet for Dirty Buford was hilarious, I will post it sometime. The teachers simply did not get it. STAY TUNED FOR BAD VENGENCE (sic) THE FOLLOW-UP TO DIRTY BUFORD, COMING SOON... (this one is a little better it was shot over one month) K(Less)