Filmography

Starring

Joe Mulder, Andy Cheatwood

Synopsis

An abstract tale, igi tells the story of Joe, a man out for his morning jog. Joe (Joe Mulder) laces his shoes, dons his Minnesota sweatshirt, and drives to his special jogging spot.

Once he gets there, he begins his jog but suddenly he sees a Joe-Clone (Joe Mulder) approaching. This is a man who looks exactly like Joe, as if they were twins! Joe is astonished but the Joe-Clone seems to take no notice, simply nodding his head hello.

Joe reels with surprise and sits down hard against a wall. As he sits, he looks around sees a number of other Joe-Clones, and they are holding up a symbol for him. Each of them acknowledges Joe and then reveals the symbol. It makes Joe insane. He shakes his head and looks around and all the Joe-Clones are gone. It was just his imagination. Panicked, Joe runs into the woods.

The image continues to haunt Joe as he hunts through the forest to create his own makeshift version of the symbol. Frantically, he fashions his representation and then runs off to share it with the world.

Joe finds a spot on the sidewalk and sits down to begin exalting his creation to the world. Passersby ignore him, until one man (Andy Cheatwood) stops. It turns out he has an image of his own. He takes Joe's image and superimposes his own - together they create a new and better image!

Production Notes

Time for my second 290 film! This time I wanted to take advantage of the freedom I had as a student filmmaker and make something abstract and visual. If I had waited until I was more familiar with the Super-8 camera, I would have been more successful, but it was still a lot of fun, and I am proud of the finished product.

The story was distinctly visual, so I made plenty of storyboards so everything would be just perfect. Having visited the Hollywood Reservoir early in my Los Angeles residence, I decided it would be a great place for the story to begin. Again, Andy agreed to help out with the filming - I placed him mainly in charge of continuity - and this time Joe Mulder agreed to perform in the film. He had been trained on the stage in Marshall, Minnesota. (Depending on whom you ask, they have dinner theatre there, but either way, Joe knew his acting!) I was glad I had thespian power in my corner, because Joe had to play at least five roles convincingly.

We worked most of a Saturday at the Hollywood Reservoir shooting all of Joe's clones along with the reactions of the main Joe. I had prepared multiple stunt-notes that morning, so he wouldn't have to concentrate on drawing a perfect circle in the wilderness. (I look out for my actors!) We headed home as the sun set and filmed a few remaining scenes (the beginning and end of the film) around the USC campus the next day.

As I mentioned, my familiarity with the camera was still merely fledgling, so a few key shots (some extra Joe-Clones as well as one shot that revealed that all of the clones had been mere figments of Joe's imagination) were ruined by exposure problems. Altogether, though, the film is a lot of fun and I love it. In class, Joe and I were both praised for his performance. Him for performing and me for directing my actor. Personally, I think we both deserve the credit. This was also the film that made Joe's Minnesota sweatshirt famous, a notoriety that would live on throughout the 290 semester.

Incidentally, the title igi is one of those cute ideas that just sounds dumber and more ridiculous every time you hear it. The idea was to title the film abstractly, as its story was abstract. I took the title of the film known for having the shortest title of any Oscar(R)-winning Best Picture and shortened it by one letter. Thus, Gigi became igi. Pretty stupid, huh?

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