Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Spoof movies are super speedy

This morning, shortly before getting my first dental crown – my dentist and I are cooking up a super-secret sci-fi comedy about a future world where patients drop off their detachable jaws at the front desk – I spoke with Jerry Jacobs, a producer on "Disaster Movie" (aka "Goodie Two Shoes").

For an upcoming story, we talked about affordability of Shreveport, the overlooked production expenses of shooting on location, viewing downtown Shreveport as a back lot, making foam asteroids, and crawfish. (Don't think the crawfish quote will make the final draft.)

While touring the set, Jacobs offered me some really cool insight into the process of making a spoof movie. "Disaster Movie" is being made by the directors that have also done "Epic Movie" and "Date Movie." These movies – more so than others – are assembled very, very quickly. The director's cut* will be finished just two weeks after production wraps. That's lightning fast. Ten weeks is DGA requirement, Jacobs said. (They'll spend the summer tweaking, doing sound, scoring and all that complicated post stuff.)

"Disaster Movie" is even spoofing yet-to-be-released blockbusters like "Indy 4" and "Hancock." I saw a set for the "Indy" scene, and it looks eerily like the one seen in Entertainment Weekly's summer movie preview double issue (April 25/May 2).

We know movies like "Disaster Movie" work to be current because we can read the cast lists at IMDb.com, but still: the pace must cause editors to lose a lot of sleep. Can any editors out there verify this?

"Disaster Movie" will be released Aug. 29.

Oh, and if I learn that any of you peddling a dental sci-fi comedy – I'm going to be rich! – I might have to "marathon man" your attorney.

* In the post-production world, there are basically three film-editing phases: 1) assembly cut, aka first cut, 2) director's cut and 3) final cut, aka studio cut.

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