A Conversation with Mental Slapstick
Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm of Mental Slapstick sent me a DVD of their new short film Gandhi at the Bat, based on a short story by Chet Williamson, an award winning writer. The story originally ran in the New Yorker in 1983. Stephanie and Alec wrote, directed and produced the film.
'Gandhi at the Bat' is a clever film in both visually and conceptually. The film is set in 1933 and made to look like old newsreel footage. The film contained a massive amount of matte painting and matches the old stock footage. The scenes and costumes are authentic and the actors are perfect in their roles. The attention to detail really gives the film authenticity.
I really enjoyed the film and was so pleased to get to chat with Stephanie and Alec. They discussed some of the technical issues of the film and how they were able to achieve such an extraordinary look, as well as some cool tricks they used to get the look of old film.
iChat transcripts
Toolfarm: Hello, Stephanie.
Mental Slapstick: Hi, Michele -- Steph and Alec here!
TF: Hello, Alec. Nice to meet you.
MS: Likewise!
TF: I'm looking for the DVD you sent me. My office is a bit messy.
MS: Glad to hear it -- our place is, too, so now we feel less intimidated.
TF: Ha ha.
TF: So, your film 'Gandhi at the Bat' is really cool.
MS: Thank you! We like it, too...
TF: For our readers, can you explain the premise?
MS: Sure. It's based on a short story that ran in the New Yorker magazine in 1983, and it tells the story of the little-known incident when Mohandas K. Gandhi pinch hit for the New York Yankees in 1933. Of course, it's little known because it didn't actually happen...
TF: You mixed old news footage and old film of baseball games with footage that you shot so seamlessly. I was so impressed.
MS: Thank you! That was the big challenge for us. The original story is written like an old sports writer's account of the game, so we decided that the movie equivalent would be to make it like a 1933 newsreel. We really studied the old footage to try and mimic it, and there were lots of things that we discovered that we couldn't do, in terms of camera angles and lighting and lens choice.
TF: Where did you find the old footage?
MS: Actually, there's hardly any old footage in the movie -- only four shots, I think. Those came from the Library of Congress and were in the public domain, so we didn't have to pay expensive license fees. But almost all the movie is really digital matte paintings using elements that we created or shot ourselves.
TF: Wow. I thought you used much more than that. The matte painting must have been a tedious job. What sort of software and techniques do you employ on such a extensive job?
MS: The matte painting was time-consuming, but it wasn't tedious, because it was so much fun to re-create that beautiful old stadium and to see our baseball players in it. We used Adobe Photoshop and After Effects exclusively. Alec shot some live-action elements, including footage of crowds at a modern baseball stadium, and shot stills of things like fences, and Steph integrated them all together in After Effects. There was also a lot of tracking and roto. A lot!
TF: How did you get the look of old film? A plug-in? Home brew?
MS: We used mainly DigiEffects (Cinelook) Film Damage, with a few other little things thrown in. One trick that was interesting came out of a mistake. I rendered one shot out of After Effects and should have changed the gamma to .825, because it was going back to Final Cut. But I forgot on one shot, and we found to our surprise that having the mid-range a little brighter actually made the footage look more like the old stuff.
TF: The flicker?
MS: The flicker came mostly from Film Damage, but we also put in a lot of jump cuts, so it looked like the footage came from an old damaged film print that had broken numerous times and been spliced back together. We found that, more than anything, really went a long way toward making it look like old footage.
TF: Yes, it really did. You had mentioned that the actor who played Gandhi was 68 years old and you were afraid to throw baseballs to close to him. Was that roto'd in or a trick of editing?
MS: Almost all the baseballs were added in post. That was a big challenge, because getting the arc and speed of the throws right was tricky. Lots of trial and error. But we were lucky, because the actors were so convincing in how they pretended to throw and catch. There was a funny thing -- we were having some trouble putting in the final throw to home plate, and the actor who plays the catcher (Lee Perkins) came to the studio for a visit and said, "No, the ball bounced." In his mind, it bounced! And as soon as we put in the bounce, the throw worked.
TF: Interesting! If you don't mind me asking, what was the budget for your film?
MS: We don't mind at all. It was $5,000, because that was what we had at the time.
TF: Amazing that you did that on such a small budget. Did you have the vintage uniforms custom made?
MS: No, we found a fantastic place here in L. A. called Sportsrobe. They have uniforms from every sport and every era, and they're incredibly knowledgeable about all of it. They also provided our bats and gloves (very different from what people use nowadays), as well as the shoes, which were like instruments of torture for the poor actors. But the boys LOVED their costumes. The uniforms were one of the biggest expenses for the whole movie, but so worth it.
TF: How long did it take to post it, with all of the matte painting and rotoscoping involved?
MS: It took about eight months, but that was because we both kept having to do outside work on other projects (including going to Scotland to do another short film there!). We'd work on Gandhi for a while, do paying work, come back and do more Gandhi, and so on.
TF: Will Gandhi be showing at film festivals around the country?
MS: We hope so! We've only just finished it, so now we're starting to submit it.
TF: You mentioned working on other films, including one in Scotland. I love Scotland, so lucky you! What's in the pipeline for Mental Slapstick? Do you have another film in the pipeline that you're writing/directing/producing?
MS: Oh, we love Scotland, too! And we we definitely have something else in the pipeline -- this fall, we're going to shoot our first feature, which is also set in the 1930s. It's called "The Red Machine," and it's a caper movie, based on a true story, about a Navy Intelligence officer who teams up with a professional thief to steal a machine that Japan is using to encode secret messages. Doing Gandhi at the Bat was great, because it showed us we could do a convincing period movie for not very much money!
TF: It is very convincing. The visuals are so well done and the script is funny. Your actors are terrific as well. The whole thing... I'm just very impressed.
TF: You mentioned that you were working on a trailer for Gandhi....
MS: Yes! We're thinking of a serious Ken Burns-style mini-documentary, about the film historian who unearthed this long-lost footage. Very grand, big sweeping music -- you know the kind!
TF: Ha ha. That's great! You guys are very clever, you know that!
MS: Aw, shucks...
TF: How did you both get started in film?
MS: We decided early on we wanted to make films, but since we didn't know anything about filmmaking, we figured we should work on other people's movies to learn how it was done. So we both started as camera assistants. Alec stayed in camera, and now works as a cinematographer on other people's projects in addition to our own. Steph moved from camera to editing and visual effects, and also wrote hundreds of articles on the craft of filmmaking for magazines like American Cinematographer and Variety and lots of others. But our favorite thing is to work together on projects like this, and we're glad that we're now able to do that almost exclusively.
TF: I have a question about your logo for Mental Slapstick. Very cool.... so many little parts animating inside a big head. It reminds me of something from Monty Python. Can you tell me a little about it?
MS: Ah, another fine After Effects project! We were trying to come up with a logo that suited the company name, then we found an old Victorian woodcut of a head that was cut into sections. And we started thinking -- oh, what if all those sections were filled with things we liked, and all those things moved... So that's where it came from! (But thanks for the Monty Python mention -- they're a huge influence, especially Terry Gilliam.)
TF: As soon as I saw that logo on your DVD, I knew I was in for a treat.
TF: Anything else you'd like us to know about Gandhi or your other work?
MS: Hmm... I think just that it's an incredibly fun thing to do, to make movies like this. And so doable with the tools that are out there now. (I think the more people who do it, the more chance we all have to see some great stuff!) And if people want to know more about Gandhi at the Bat, they can visit the web site at www.gandhiatthebat.com. (And if they have any questions about techniques or anything else, we're always willing to answer e-mails at info@gandhithebat.com.)
TF: Excellent. It's so great that you get to live your dream.
TF: Thanks again. This has been a lot of fun. I wish you the best in your filmmaking endeavors.
MS: This has been fun. Thank you!
TF: You're welcome. Have a good one.
MS: Okay, bye!