Total Pageviews

Sunday, February 16, 2014

My Love is a Red, Red Spy


Way back in 1992 or so, Edmonton's Film and Video Arts society (FAVA) was holding a short film contest, and I decided I wanted to compete. I enlisted a bunch of my friends from the University of Alberta Star Trek Club and the Bleak House of Blahs to write and shoot My Love is a Red, Red Spy, the first in a planned series of adventures of Government Grant, my spy/civil servant alternate identity. Jeff Shyluk and I wrote what is probably our second-best screenplay (after Toilet Chase) and we were ambitious enough to secure props, scout locations and even include a car chase with a stunt. 

Poor Ron Briscoe took the brunt of the abuse in this film - I had him flung into a snowbank and he had to crawl across an icy parking lot for the film's climax. It was minus 30. 

For some reason I think Colin Dunn was originally enlisted to cameo as Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, but I don't think that's him at the beginning - it appears to be Jeff. 

Shot and edited on VHS, the video and sound quality are far from high definition, and at a couple of points you can even hear me saying "cut!" I'm also a little uncomfortable with some of the rather juvenile sexism, even though this is supposed to be a James Bond parody. But I think some of the gags are still pretty funny, and I enjoy seeing my friends act. I think they're pretty good! 

3 comments:

Totty said...

Is the movie in there (YouTube) twice? It seems to stop at 14:30 and then restart after the credits.

Or is that the director's cut?

Earl J. Woods said...

Whoops, you're right. The hazards of downloading from DVD and picking the wrong VOB file.

susan_rn92 said...

I am speechless. It is also fortunate I didn't get into acting. Earl, that was fun reminscing. Thanks.