Here's an effective little short film that
we find a wonderful example of making something with (virtually) nothing. Tea Time tells the tale of an elderly
woman preparing some tea for herself and her husband...
Tea
Time was originally made for an annual Los Angeles
film event called "Attack of the 50 Ft. Reels" in which all
participants shoot an entire story on one roll of Super-8 film and then turn in
the unprocessed footage and a
separately prepared soundtrack. So, in other words, the film is shot in
order and edited in the camera itself.
The
elderly lady is played by Regina Mocey,
who has also appeared in small parts in a couple of independent movies,
including Kill House (2006 / trailer).
She does pretty well in Tea Time considering
there was no opportunity for re-shoots. (You find her blog here.) The
husband is played by Gary-7, who can also be found somewhere in films as varied as Zombie Night (2013 / trailer)
and The Seduction
of Dr. Fugazzi (2009 / trailer).
The sparse but highly effective music was composed by Sukho Lee, who later
directed this dull music video
using the same concept: Super-8, shot in order and edited in camera.
The director and, one assumes, writer of
the short movie is Erik Deutschman, seen here to the left. We could not find much
current information about him, but in 2001 he was among those chosen by filmmaker magazine
to feature in their article "25 New Faces of Independent Film". Since
then he seems to have flown mostly under the radar.
Still, what Deutschman says in the
article explains why Tea Time works
so well: "I like to use old-school techniques, like in-camera multiple
exposures, exposing directly on the negative, optical illusions and stop-motion
animation." Deutschman's most successful short film to date, in regard to
public response in any event, seems to be Split
(1999 / full short),
which no one less than Clive Barker calls "an exceptional movie, a
startling original vision". We here at A
Wasted Life, however, prefer the less-arty no-budget horrors of Tea Time.
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