What happened to Sin City?!? Lets talk The Purse

Tuesday Apr 19, 2005

I just wrote an entire review of Frank Miller's Sin City that somehow got eaten up by the internet. Because POOF just like that it was gone. Since I am upset that after spending such a dedicated 8 - 10 minutes of constructive writing time and I have nothing to show for it, I will not be attempting to recreate my review. I will say though that it was a positive one that urged people to go check this flick out while its still available in the theatres.

Instead I will write about a short film that I did in undergrad called, "The Purse." This film was in many ways my greatest accomplishment as a student at Northwestern. It was also entirely overly ambitious and in many ways a tremendous flop. I am not sure that I still have a copy of it hidden amongst my old 1/2" (thats biz speak for VHS) collection, but if I did I should make sure that no one from work ever gets their hands on it. Because although it was a unique and fun short film its greatest flaws lay in its editing and sound mixing.

Well as the director, editor, and sound mixer of the project I probably would have to take responsibility for some of those little issues. Let me tell you a bit more about the film...errr...video.

In my video production class Junior year at good ol' NU we were asked to all come up with an original project idea. We would then pitch the ideas to the class and the top four would be picked, groups would be formed, and videos would be shot. Only three of us came up with ideas so "The Purse," was selected by default.

My video production idea was basically a hybrid between Momento and Being John Malkovich. I'm not sure that I had seen Momento yet so I am uncertain as to whether or not I can say it effected my creation.

Anyway...The film was a non-sequential drama/thriller about an adult love triangle - Husband, Wife, and Mistress. The story begins with the Wife and Mistress waiting for the now ex-husband at a restaurant. They are discussing their plan to murder him in non-explicit terms. Slowly both the past and future are unveiled as we see how these two women came to meet as a result of the mistress leaving her purse behind. The two women fall in love and decide the best way to keep the money of the wealthy (ex)husband is to kill him. Yes the idea sounds like it has a few holes in it as I look at it 4 years later.

The professor was actually quite enthused about the idea. He encouraged me to cast professional adult actors rather than just using undergrads and having them pose as adults. After extensive storyboarding, location scouting, and checking out just about every piece of gear we could we headed out to shoot. I was directing despite having only been on a handful of shoots prior to the weekend.

The biggest problems we encountered were that the free actors weren't very good, our crew was often hungover, our locations would change their time allowances, and my DP taped over half of my footage by misunderstanding the concept of timecode...Sorry Jeff but that was the bonehead move of the century!!!

When all was said and done we had some beautiful shots, some mediocre acting, and some fairly vivid sexually implicit scenes. Having two adults at my command rolling around in a bed and cunnilizing (thanks for the word Sam) was, well, quite humourous.

The professor offered to help me re-edit the video which I should have taken him up on in a heartbeat, but it was a tough year for me and I dropped the ball. We all have regrets. Though not the greatest short film, the experience and journey were amazing and isn't that all that matters??

The Purse - 5.5 out of 10

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What happened to Sin City?!? Lets talk The Purse

Tuesday Apr 19, 2005