Health & Fitness
That Crazy Retro Movie
Willow Creek 12 has showcased such retro classics as The Shining, Die Hard, Psycho, The Goonies + several others, but do you know how those titles were chosen? The answer may shock you!
Six months ago today I sat down and started hatching out an idea for what would eventually turn into a crazy thirteen minute short movie called Forget What You Think You Know.
For those that have no idea what this is, I will explain as much to you as I did to the Willow Creek 12 customers prior to the release. The following was the tagline for the film: “Since October 2009, you’ve suggested the retro titles. But how are the titles we play actually chosen?”
It was very exciting to hang out in the lobby near the poster for this film and just listen to what people said. The only reason I was able to do so with such stealth was because customers don‘t know who I am, so they didn’t know that the pale bearded fella near-by was listening to them. The reaction to the tagline/poster ranged from genuine intrigue to total confusion to utter annoyance. "That's not confusing at all!", "Ohhh what are they up to now?" "I don't even know what I think I'm supposed to know...I don't get it" To be honest, this made it all the more fun for me.
In general, most of our retro movie-goers have a broad idea of how our films are chosen and brought to the theatre; going through the audience suggestion ballots we have, bringing the titles to the theatre owners, to the film booker, the studios, and finally getting the film shipped, building the 35mm print and projecting it on screen. A very elaborate process for sure, but possibly showing that in a documentary to present to the retro fans would be completely straight forward and too educational for me. Early on I was toying with that simple approach, but suddenly the idea of a faux-Willow Creek history full of mystery was far more interesting.
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In the coming, days I had written a simple treatment, drew out some storyboards, floor plans, and finally pitched the idea. After months and months of hard work, the project was done. Then on May 8th at 9:00pm the film was released on Willow Creek’s Facebook page. To see the film, click here.
To learn more about how this project was constructed, check out this blog. It’s Part I of II. I’m still working on Part II, but it will be done someday.
