Type/genre of film: Comedy/mock educational film
Director/Writer: Michael Kenneth Jackson/Michael Kenneth Jackson and Eric Vejby
Premise: Science-Tone Films, maker of children's educational movies in the
1950s, presents a fantastical look at how computers will one day
simplify the lives of all who use them. Our guide for this informative and astounding journey into the future is none other than the Science-Tone Professor himself. Delivering a lesson to Larry and Suzy, two well-mannered grade school students with excellent posture, The Professor foretells a time in the not too distant future when mechanical thinking machines, called "com-pu- tors," will increase our quality of life, send rockets to Mars, and help fight communism.
Length: 3:35
Budget: $800
How did you accomplish your film given the budget constraints?
Michael Kenneth Jackson-“The truth is, we'd been preparing to accomplish this film on a microbudget for years. Every time we'd help out on someone else's film, loan out assets we've accumulated, or just show up somewhere in support, we've been developing a network of production resources -- people, places, and things that we used on this film.”
“The greatest hurdle for us to overcome was creating an authentic- looking period piece (America 1950s) on such a miniscule budget. Of course, the question then becomes, ‘well, why would you do a period piece if you're working on a microbudget?’ The answer is, the comedic premise we used was expectation versus result so we had to set the movie in the past to play with what the character thought the future computers would be like as opposed to what we actually have now. Then, the question then becomes, ‘well, why would you do an expensive premise if you're working on a microbudget?’ And then we would never have made a movie because we'd be too busy asking endless loop questions.”
“Normally on a microbudget production, building sets and dressing them from the ground up is out of the question, so my approach was to fill the frame with key props and wardrobe -- items that reveal character and place, are viscerally engaging, but don't cost too much. However, anything, props, wardrobe, whatever, from the 1950s is fairly expensive to buy. Not to mention that we couldn't use just any location -- they needed to be built in the 50s or earlier.”
“It's really all about prep and ingenuity. When you can't afford things you have to get clever (or crafty, depending on your approach). We just ransacked our brains and networks, tapping into every source we had for 1950s locations/sets, props, and costumes."
“We put a call out to all friends and family for 50s items and netted everything from an old radio to old books, to a 50s desk lamp and a nifty orange casserole dish -- all free. There were several things that we knew we could fake like the phone on Bob's desk, the photos of Washington and Lincoln in the school room and various other little background props -- meaning we could use what we had lying around or buy cheap repros. Then we just spent the few dollars we had on what was left.”
