Twas
A Twisted Little Tale
Starring
Produced by
(3-minutes; 2-day film-shoot)
(click image to play)
Backstory:
TWAS began as a writing exercise suggested by Craig Carlisle, then-host of Naked Angels' Tuesdays at 9 weekly cold-reading series, when he proposed, as a seasonal theme: dysfunctional holiday memories.
When I sat down to attempt a story, I wrote the first sentence. And I knew I had my script.
The next Tuesday, TWAS was read cold, and went over big. I then promptly drawered it and forgot about it, until a few years later, when the Stevedore Confederacy planned a Holiday show, so Craig and I produced a one-act evening:
A Dysfunctional Family Christmas. Out of the drawer came TWAS, to be staged for the first time.
In the audience, for the one-night-only show, was producer Mitchell Welch of Red Navel Filmworx -- who fell out of his chair laughing and told me I should film TWAS and he'd produce it. I thought he'd had a little too much 'holiday cheer' but he was serious. So, we set out to 'fully realize' the play as a mini-movie with full 35mm production values to produce the strongest impact for perhaps the shortest film ever made.
However, being in Los Angeles, which is a hot desert, we had to drive to five hours north to the mountains to find snow for the exterior shot. When interiors were shot later, back in L.A. on a balmy day, the lights and crackling fire almost caused our little co-star to pass out. But in the end, we feel we created a little Holiday classic. Hope you feel the same.
Michele Remsen
