17.July.2000
Buena Vista Fight Club
Jazz musicians running through a Scandinavian furniture catalogue killing people - what else would you expect on the Internet?
directed by
Evan Mather
music by
Game Music Finland
download your own
Avino Catalogue
Stills from "Buena Vista Fight Club"
The beauty of web cinema is that it offers complete creative freedom and flexibility. Evan Mather, the creator of "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars" and "Vert" brings you the digital film with the best title of the year 2000.
New Venue:
As a veteran of Internet cinema who has watched the medium change over the past 5 years, how do you like what you've seen?
Mather:
Technically and aesthetically, it has matured. We are no longer satisfied with seeing something made just for the web. Now we expect to see the film digitally projected in front of a huge audience at high resolution. When I run out of ideas, I will probably go back to some of my earlier films and clean up all the roughly bleeding bluescreen edges and pixelation so they will look better on the big screen.
But from a filmmaker standpoint, the equipment has become so accessible. We now have everyone and their mother making digital films and putting them on the Internet.
New Venue:
What do you think of this empowerment?
Mather:
It frightens me because everyone and their mother is making digital films and putting them on the Internet. Sometimes I think there ought to be a revokable license for posting fllms online ... but that of course goes against the whole DIY aesthetic of the process. Besides, if someone required a license of me, my early films would never have been shown.
New Venue:
Describe the process used to create "Buena Vista Fight Club".
Mather:
The first thing I did was build the mock catalog by taking digital photographs of my friends in various situations and assembling a product in Adobe After Effects. I had thought of using a standard desktop publishing program, but the catalog would have to be integral to the animation.
I sketched your standard cartoon stereotypical Latin jazz musicians, cleaned them up in Illustrator and brought them into After Effects. The individual sequences were rendered in After Effects and joined in Final Cut Pro.
The music is by a fellow in New York, Kari Juntilla, whom I came across while browsing though MP3.com. In the spirit in Internet collaboration, he willingly provided an original score for the film.
New Venue:
Indeed, one of the things that characterizes your process is your frequent collaboration with other artists and filmmakers - most of whom you've never met. Why?
Mather:
I know my limitations. I consider myself a filmmaker with skills in animation. I am not a musician, and my ability to write dialogue that does not sound like it was lifted from a soup can is also a challenge. So, I reach out to others who have the music and talent that fits my project or the flair with prose that I lack.
The Internet facilitates these collaborations. I certainly don't think these collaborations would have been possible or as fruitful until recently.
New Venue:
Who (or what) are your influences?
Mather:
Monty Python, Woody Allen, Mad magazine and really old "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.
New Venue:
What's the fastest land animal?
Mather:
That's a good question. The Oolakunta, or desert rat kangaroo, from Australia's Stony Desert is my pick -- not only for its speed but its sheer endurance. Back in 1931, explorer Hedley Herbert Finlayson come across the aforementioned mammal which had long been thought extinct. Finlayson began to pursue the creature on horseback, but the creature kept going for over twelve miles in the searing heat. As a result, Finlayson lost three horses and the oolakunta got away. That's speed and endurance!
New Venue:
Where else can we see your work?
Mather:
www.evanmather.com
View this movie.
You can find out about other digital flicks in the New Venue Archives.
