Hi--

>Hey, that counts. Tell me something about it, and I'll add it as info on the
>site. Was this an ad of some sort? Thanks for the note,
>Clive Toomuchjoy@aol.com

I got a call from a local branch of a regional bank to video
"a few skits, maybe in front of a curtain somewhere...". There
had been a contest among the bank branches for the best three
skit ideas - which were to be video'd. The branch employees
were to write the scripts, make the costumes, and act the parts.
These videos were to be mixed in with bits from real movies
as part of a large, splashy "pep" dinner in a fancy hotel
ballroom - in the format of the "Oscar" awards. The
winning video would earn a prize for the branch employees
who made it.

Just about a week before the finished videos were due for the
presentation, the credits arrived by e-mail, and I began work
on these (for "Beauty and the Banker", "First Empire Strikes
Back", and "If I Only Had a Bank"). It was becoming obvious
that there was a desire on the part of the client (and an
opportunity for us) to make three 5-minute videos that were
much more than just records of skits, and we began to work
out interesting animated titles (including the perspective
scrolling-words-over-a-starfield piece for the Star Wars
beginning).

As things developed, the videos turned into full-blown
productions with complex titling, music, interesting
scripts (written the night before shooting...) and costumes
(generally simple, but effective and amusing), and some
special effects - more than the short skit spoofs that
were originally intended. Fortunately, with a lot of
work, a lot of luck, and a lot of help (and one cancelled
job...), the three videos were finished and delivered,
with one hour to spare... I shot "live" parodies of
"exiting-the-limousine" interviews, which were edited
in-camera and shown in the lobby immediately afterward
(just before the awards dinner).

The "Star Wars" video featured a wonderful, big, fuzzy,
loud "you-know-what", the men's room trash-can on wheels
was R2D2, and a cast of many other bank employees were
decked out in gold and silver metal foil, black and white
capes, and hair-bands-used-as-"visors". The "princess"
sported large and flat swirled rolls, one on each side of
her head. A little sound editing provided the ethereal
"voice-over" advice of "Obi-wan", and the light-saber
sound effects. The dialogue consisted of rather cleverly
mixed-in double-meaning references to local competing
banks, and it made a good little story peppered with the
bank's featured virtues...;-)

Altogether it was fun to do, and it looked great (and
the client paid us more for it after they saw it! ;-).
And, the Star Wars spoof won...