One of BYTs favorite events, The Found Footage Festival, is coming back to the area this Saturday (8/7/2010) for a special event at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse.
Hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, whose credits include The Onion and Late Show With David Letterman, showcase terrible, terrible footage from videos that were found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters throughout the country. Normally the festival showcases dozens of different videos, spliced together with rapid fire editing so you just get the very worst/best bits, but this time they're devoting the entire night to a single film: Computer Beach Party.
Found Footage Festival Presents "Computer Beach Party"
$10.00
Saturday, Aug 7, 2010
Doors Open 9:15PM
Show 9:45PM
Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse
2903 Columbia Pike
South Arlington
http://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/
http://www.foundfootagefest.com/
I had the privilege of viewing this monstrosity and I can see why, every single second is so amazingly bad, where do you even begin? I caught up with Nick to find out a little more about what Computer Beach Party meant to him.
Cale: I just watched the advance copy of Computer Beach Party. Fuck you. Please respond.
Nick Prueher (Found Footage Festival co-curator): You have every right to be angry. It's very easy to appreciate bad dramas like "The Room" or bad horror like "Troll 2," but bad comedies are just excruciating. No one should have to go through that alone. That's why we'll be at the Arlington Drafthouse to help people through it with jokes and games and prizes. And beach balls.
C: Where did you find Computer Beach Party? Describe the first viewing experience.
NP: Our friend Mark found it at a thrift store outside Cleveland about 10 years ago. We were looking through his stack of tapes last year and said, "Hey, what's 'Computer Beach Party'? Ashamedly, he hadn't watched it yet. So we popped it in immediately and our jaws just hit the floor. We were expecting a run-of-the-mill '80s sex comedy like "Meatballs" or "Porky's," but it turned out to be far stranger than anything we could have imaged. At least "Meatballs" and "Porky's" were competent movies that told linear stories. They were dumb stories but they made sense. "Computer Beach Party" barely even qualifies as a movie.
C: What made you decide to take it on tour? Were there other feature length contenders?
NP: We've been collecting VHS tapes for almost 20 years and have never featured a feature-length movie in our show, so you know this one has to be pretty special. This movie is just so perplexing, so hilarious and so amazing that we felt like people needed to see it. It's truly a one-of-a-kind. We recently found a VHS copy of a movie called "Joysticks," a sex comedy that takes place in a video arcade, and we're going to screen it in New York on August 20th.
C: Will you be doing commentary during the film or will you let the work speak for itself?
NP: This film doesn't deserve to speak for itself. In fact, the audio recording was so bad on the movie that, even if it could speak for itself, you wouldn't be able to understand it. We'll be interjecting some observations and jokes throughout.
C: Are you worried the producers are going to track you down and demand a cut of the ticket sales?
NP: Well, we're not really making any money with this "Computer Beach Party" show, so they'd be coming after the wrong guys. But I honestly doubt the producers would want to admit they had anything to do with this movie.
C: Have you been able to uncover any other great work by the official Computer Beach Party band Panther?
NP: We tracked down the lead actress in the movie, Stacey Neymour, and she gave us some of the backstory. She was dating the director and her brother, Roger Neymour, was the guitar player in Panther. Hence, the entire soundtrack is done by the band. Roger still has a Myspace page. Look him up.
C: The other night I attended a screening of Everything Is Terrible 2: Tokyo Drift, and at one point the hosts (dressed as aliens) asked if we pledged allegiance to them or with “those dorks over at the found footage festival”. Does this mean (internet) war?
NP: There's plenty of found footage out there for everybody, and it's kind of cute to see newcomers take a stab at it. We wish those alien-dressed hosts the best.
If you haven't learned to blindly go wherever I tell you too yet, watch this trailer:
and here's what Nick and I talked about last time he was in town:
Cale: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in 5 years of showing people shitty videos?
Nick Prueher: Full-frontal male nudity is always funny.
C: Has it become harder or easier to find new content?
NP: It's actually become easier. More and more people are getting rid of their VHS collections at thrift stores and garage sales, so it's prime season for us.
C: As the popularity of the fest has grown do you now also get a lot of people sending you stuff? Do you take submissions?
NP: Yes, about half of the footage in the new show is stuff that people found and sent into us. We always love it when we get a VHS tape in the mail from somebody who found it somewhere. It's like Christmas morning for us. We just can't wait to pop it in the VCR and see what's on it.
C: Do you get weirdos sending you home movies they’ve made?
NP: Luckily, we don't get many people sending in their own home movies. Our criteria is that the footage has to be legitimately found, so it's cheating if you're in the video.
Three rules govern Found Footage Festival:
1) Footage must be found on physical format, no YouTube;
2) Footage must be unintentionally funny;
3) No Richard Simmons footage.
C: If your house was burning down what video would you save first?
NP: I think I'd go for "Clown Ministry" first. It was a really good find and it comes in this giant clamshell case with an instructional book on how to preach the word of Jesus as a clown.
C: Which would you save last?
NP: I don't think I'd expend too much effort trying to rescue "Kathie Lee's Rock 'n' Tots Cafe" from the flames. We've got, like, ten of them.
I first saw this infamous "Winnebago Man" clip at the Found Footage Festival, it has recentlybeen the topic of a feature length documentary.
C: How come you guys didn’t make your own movie about tracking down the Winnebago Man?
NP: Honestly, we've got so many awesome videos in our collection that it would be hard to concentrate on just one. But Ben Steinbauer, the filmmaker behind "Winnebago Man," really loved the Jack Rebney R.V. video and decided to hire a private investigator to track him down. The documentary is really good, and I'm not just saying that because we're in it.
C: I actually haven’t seen it yet, did he learn of the footage from you guys, or was this something that was widely avail, or should I just watch the movie?
NP: We were doing a show in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and, unbeknownst to us, a friend of Jack Rebney'swas there, saw his pal up onscreen, and bought a DVD to show to Jack. When Jack found out about it, he was apparently pretty pissed off. Not too big of a surprise from a guy we call "The World's Angriest R.V. Salesman." But somehow, through the help of this filmmaker who'd seen the footage online somewhere, Jack agreed to appear withus at a show in San Francisco last year. I won't giveaway the ending, but I will say that it was probably the biggest highlight of our five years doing the show. "Winnebago Man" will be released in select theaters soon and DVD thereafter. http://www.winnebagoman.com
C: The press release for the fest this year describes footage that sounds similar to the infamous Heavy Metal Parking Lot film… are you trying to confuse us, entice us, what’s going on here?
NP: Jeff Krulik, the filmmaker behind "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," came across a home movie very similar to that, except it takes place at an outdoor death metal festival in Potomac, Maryland in 1985, not a Judas Priest parking lot in 1984. He was kind enough to let us cut together some clips from it for this show. Also, and here's where it gets weird, the home movie was shot by a security guard who worked at CBS and he used their equipment to record everything. So you'vegot all these shirtless drunk guys talking about LSD and holding a CBS microphone with the eye logo. It's totally incongruous.
C: Have you ever watched the special features on the Heavy Metal Parking Lot DVD where they try to track down some of the kids? I think it’s zebra man who is like really creepy and doesn’t allow them into his house and makes them show it to him in his garage or something cause I guess there are dead bodies in his living room. Have you ever tried to track anyone else down? Is there anyone that you’re just dying to know what they’re up to now?
NP: Our favorite part about doing the show is finding out the back story behind the videos. Jeff Krulik is a kindred spirit and he's currently in production on a documentary where he tracks down the people from this heavy metal home movie. Jeff will be at the show in Arlington to talk more about it. The one person we've never been able to track down from our footage is this guy named Kirk from a home movie called Kirk's 40th Birthday. Kirk: If you're reading Brightest Young Things right now, please contact us via www.foundfootagefest.com.
C: Are the stories of legendary debauchery backstage at the found footage festival true?
NP: Oh yeah, slutty groupies just love sarcastic guys who collect VHS tapes.
C: Has an unknowing audience member ever been surprised to find themselves appearing on screen during the festival?
NP: Sort of. We were showing this instructional video for a male pleasure device called the Venus II at a recent show in New York and a guy came up to us afterward and said, "You're not going to believe this, but I went to high school with the son of the inventor of the Venus II." We got the guy's contact information and flew to Illinois to meet him. It did not disappoint. We play the instructional video and the interview with the inventor in the new show.
C: Are there any infamous videos out there rumored to exist that you’d like to get your hands on? Like the mud shark incident at the Edgewater Inn or something like that?
NP: I guess the most frustrating thing for us is when someone sends us a YouTube link of a video we wished we'd found. There's a corporate video called the "Super Broker Shuffle," a take-off of the Chicago Bears' Superbowl Shuffle, that is perfect for the FFF. Unfortunately, the tape still eludes us.
C: You were an intern at MST3K? Dude!
NP: Yeah, I grew up making fun bad television, so when I first saw MST3K, I was in love. Then after college, I got an internship there and got to know the guys. It was a big inspiration. I thought, "Wow! You can actually get paid to be a professional smart-ass."
C: Is there another DVD in the works?
NP: We just shot this new show, Volume 4, in Tucson, Arizona, a few weeks ago and are editing it now. It should be out in three weeks via http://store.foundfootagefest.com
C: Are there legal hurdles you have to deal with when presenting or selling found footage, or is this stuff pretty much off the radar?
NP: Luckily, we've never run into any problems. What we do is covered under fair use and satire laws because we're showing small snippets from much longer videos, talking over them and putting them into the context of a comedy show. That, and I don't think the producers of the "How To Seduce Women Through Hypnosis" video are anxious to come forward and admit they made that tape.
Previously in Comedy:
- 2/10: Behind The Desk 35: Spotting THE Crazy In the Arts (Vol. 2)
- 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
- 1/24: LiveDC: Adam Carolla @ Fillmore
- 1/20: Behind The Desk 32: Eddie Brill Is Common
- 1/17: LiveDC: JB Smoove @ 930 Club
- 12/8: Tom Arnold - Up Close & Very Nice
- 12/5: LiveDC: Michael Ian Black @ Sixth and I Synagogue
- 12/5: Lauren Weedman-BUSTED
- 12/1: R.I.P. Patrice O'Neal - brilliant 1969 to 2011
- 11/30: BYT Interview: Michael Ian Black
God loves a cheerful giver.
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