Iron Mule Blog

Re: Puppet Drama is Wrapped and Ready

2012-01-26T16:04:00.001-05:00

So, THE TROUBLE WITH CHARLIE, the "puppet dram" that I conceived of a few weeks ago is finished! It was strange how quickly it came together. A friend of mine had a production company and told me that they were doing nothing for a couple of weeks and if I had a briliant idea, they would shoot it for me.

Brilliant is subjective, but we did turn around a helluva shoot in very little time. It has been a while since I had the chance to direct a narrative with a full crew so I was psyched.

New York City premiere coming up at The Iron Mule (ironmulenyc.com) film fest on February 4th at 8 pm

If you are in town, you should definitely come see it.

Hope Tarr to guest judge February 4th screening!

2012-01-12T08:02:00.003-05:00

We're excited to announce that romance writer Hope Tarr will be gust judging our special romantic-themed February show! Get your tickets now here -- we sold out last month and you won't want to miss out on this one.

Here's some info about Hope:

Hope Tarr is the award-winning author of fifteen historical and contemporary romance novels, including VANQUISHED (a Kindle Top 100 Bestseller) and TEMPTING, reissued this February 2012 as an audio and e-book. Hope is also a co-founder and principal of Lady Jane's Salon, New York City's first--and only--monthly romance fiction reading series, now in its third year. Find Hope online at www.HopeTarr.com, www.WriterNYC.com, www.LadyJaneSalon.com, www.Twitter.com/HopeTarr and www.facebook.com/HopeC.Tarr.

Notes from our January 7th screening

2012-01-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

The audience gathered for a sold out show on an unseasonably warm evening at 92YTribeca and Jay and Victor took the stage to introduce two special guests: Victor brought out Charlie, the star of a movie he's working on, and then Jay introduced Lisa Baylin of iThentic.com, who came to town from Toronto to launch a partnership with Iron Mule, and also to serve as guest judge for the evening.

Victor and Charlie

Jay, Victor, and Lisa Baylin

Lisa talked about iThentic's programming, and how we're going to be sharing content monthly at the Iron Mule shows and on their website.

First up were two iThentic.com originals, The Ascent of Man and World's Worst Golf Course from The World of Bruce McCall. These are animated films adapted from New Yorker covers by the famed illustrator and writer Bruce McCall. We're big fans, so it was a thrill to have Bruce there in person, where Jay and Victor discussed with him the process of having others animate his drawings, and the difference between humor and comedy.

Our next block of films included four excerpts from the webseries Naomi: The Show (which, unbeknownst to us when we programmed it, is also featured on iThentic.com). Naomi: The Show tells the story of Naomi, who is hit on in the most disturbing of ways at the bus stop. Next was Robert Mond's comedy thriller from Australia Reception, about a kidnapping in the age of cell phones. Then The Sleepover Story, by Pete Lutz, which tells the story of a scary story come true. Rounding out the block was Fergus Dingle's Total Insurance, a comedy-horror about insurance advertising that just won't stop.

We checked in with Lisa for her thoughts and waxed poetic about the short film format for a bit, before going on to our last block of films in competition.

The last two were Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm's Gandhi at the Bat, a lost censored newsreel that tells the story of Mahtama Gandhi's top secret mission to the US in the 1930's, in which he accidentally winds up batting one game with the Yankees. The last film of the night was The Wallet or the Watch by Jason Saenz and Robert Rugan, about two muggers who pick the wrong guy to mug. The film could have just been a quick gag, but it was executed with a lot of style and a featured a great performance by comedianTom Shillue as the "victim." We spoke with Jason Saenz and producer Vincento about the challenge of making professional-looking short comedy films

Last up was our "Wanna Be a Star" film Russian Dressing, starring audience member Joy Shatz, who tore up the screen as a desperate and obsessive baker racing to get ready for a dinner party. Joy and director Ryan Guiterman talked about the process of making the film, which, reflecting the star's namesake, sounded like a joy.

with Ryan and Joy

Then it was time for Lisa to announce the winners, who will go on for consideration for acquisition by iThentic.com. It was a tough competition, but there can only be two winners. This month it was a split: the audience voted for Gandhi at the Bat, while the judges' prize went to Total Insurance.

Lisa Baylin announces the winners

The audience filtered out to the cafe for an after party where they mingled with the filmmakers and regaled each other with the type of humor and charm that is unique to Iron Mule audiences. Stop by our next screening at 92YTribeca on February 4th to see it for yourself!

The Iron Mule is now partnered with iThentic.com!

2011-12-18T11:44:00.001-05:00

The Iron Mule has joined forces with the website iThentic.com to spread short comedy film magic across the globe! Starting in January, 2012, the Iron Mule will have a designated slot for an iThentic.com film at each monthly screening in NYC. In return, winning films from the Iron Mule will be automatically considered for hosting on the iThentic site. iThentic hosts and produces all sorts of wonderful webseries (not just comedies) and is a showcase for some great short films from around the world. Check them out now at ithentic.com. And you'll be able to meet some of the iThentic.com team at our January 7th show at 92YTribeca.

Welcome, iThentic.com -- here's to the beginning of a beautiful friendship!*

*which may or may not involve fighting Nazis.

Notes from our December 3rd Screening

2011-12-11T23:23:00.001-05:00

The crowd was out in force for another Iron Mule extravaganza on December 3rd at 92YTribeca. Jay and Victor welcomed the crowd and then welcomed special guest judge, editor of Popular Photography, Miriam Leuchter.

Jay and Victor welcome the crowd
(photo by Tom Henning)

Jay and Victor welcome Miriam Leuchter
(photo by Tom Henning)

As a photographer, Miriam expressed her bias for nice-looking comedy films and planned to judge the night's selection on that merit.

First up was Dano Johnson and Tate English's Iron Mule classic holiday film White Blood Cell Saves Christmas. We show this film each December and it never fails to please. Following this was a longer film, Their Eyes Were Watching Gummy Bears, directed by Raafi Rivero. The film tells the story of a college student on his last day at Princeton as he struggles to stay together with his girlfriend. This was a very nicely shot film, to Miriam's delight, and Raafi was on hand to discuss the movie and his other work.

Raafi Rivero
(photo by Tom Henning)

Next up were two films; episode 1 of the web series Enter the Dojo by Matthew Page, and Adam Lerman's Help Wanted, also a beautifully shot film, and DP Josh Miller took to the stage along with director Adam Lerman for a brief interview. This film was part of a 24-hour film challenge and Adam and Josh talked about the process of making the movie in such a short time frame.

Adam Lerman and Josh Miller
(photo by Tom Henning)

Next up was P.M.O., a hilariously dark Canadian political thriller by Daryl Cloran, followed by episode 2 of Enter the Dojo. Matthew Page, the director and star of the movie, lives in New Mexico, so he couldn't attend the screening, but cast member Julie Lopez happend to be in NYC and she spoke with us about the series and her other work with Matt (including Delivery Date, which she co-starred in, and we showed at a previous Iron Mule).

With these strong (and nice-looking) contenders in mind, the audience and judges convened to vote for their favorite films. But before we announced the winners, it was time for Shark Bite, our "Wanna be a Star" film, starring audience member Neslihan Özdemir and directed by Dan Simon. Dan is an Iron Mule regular who has screened several films at our festival. Neslihan is a faithful audience member who had never appeared on camera before and really shined in her role.

Neslihan Özdemir, star of Shark Bite
(photo by Tom Henning)

Dan Simon, director of Shark Bite
(photo by Tom Henning)

Then it was time to announce the winners, and bringing home both audience and judges' prize was Enter the Dojo! Julie accepted the prize, a signed copy of Miriam Leuchter's new book on behalf of Matt Page.

Julie Lopez, proud winner (on behalf of Matthew Page)
(photo by Tom Henning)

Then it was off to our after party for celebrations into the wee hours. Iron Mule will return on January 7th, so if any of you want to get your New Year off to a fabulous start, get your tickets now at 92ytribeca.org!

Notes from our November 5th Screening

2011-11-12T15:52:00.001-05:00

Iron Mule was back in action on November 5th, with a new lineup of films.

The audience awaits the show!

The show began with a brief update of what hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado have been up to (Jay is busy editing his feature film, and Victor wrote for a comic book that just came out), which was followed by an interview with the night's guest judge, comedy writer Gary Apple. Gary mentioned that he was mostly looking for quality in the night's lineup of films and Jay and Victor promised to deliver.

Victor and Jay

First up, from Canada, was Naomi Ward's movie The Wedding Gift -- a story of the lengths a man will go to in order to get out of an engagement. This was followed by the Robin Reed / Will Shepard film Mommy Wars: Battle for the Playground. Robin, who also starred in the film, was on hand to discuss her inspiration for the film (a nasty run-in with Brooklyn mommies at a restaurant she worked at).

The next block of films began with Bertie Peek and Fergus Dingle's (yes -- those are their real names -- they're British) CIA, one in a series of three shorts involving ice cream. Following this was Nelson Cheng and Kate VanDevender's Will & Fiona, about a man who thinks he's just having dinner with a colleague, only to discover that he's on a date. Nelson, who also co-starred in the movie, was in town from LA, and discussed how he came up with the project and also talked about his current work as a documentary filmmaker. You can read his version of the evening's events here.

Victor and Jay with Nelson Cheng

Our third block of films was Bertie Peek and Fergus Dingle's Standoff, followed by our old friend Kevin Maher's Andrew 12-Sided Dice Clay. Kevin was on hand to discuss his work, and promote his Kickstarter campaign, in which he's hoping to raise money to turn this short into a web series. Take a look at his film and donate a few bucks! This is the kind of series that no corporate entity will back, but the world needs to see it come to life!

Victor and Jay with Kevin Maher

Our final film of the evening was Frederick Soligan's The Girl Across the Hall, a charming movie about a stalker that relies purely on visuals to tell its story. Fred (we call him Fred) has just moved to NYC from Boston and was at the show to discuss his movie and plead for editing work (anyone out there hiring?).

Fred Soligan: hire him!

The final film of the evening was our "Wanna Be a Star" film Lemon Tart, written and directed by Melinda Prom and starring lucky audience member Ben Roesch. It was Melinda's first film (she's normally a theater director) and also Ben's first role on camera. They clearly had a lot of fun, and, for the record, Ben looks really great in a hat.

Then Gary Apple came back to the stage and announced the audience winner and judges' pick. It was a tough decision, but The Girl Across the Hall took home both awards.

Following the show, the filmmakers and audience went to the 92YTribeca cafe for the after party, that closed the venue and continued off in another Tribeca location until the wee hours.

Thanks to all who made it out, and we hope to see you back at 92YTri in December!

Gary Apple to Guest Judge November 5th Screening

2011-10-09T14:23:00.000-04:00

We're excited to announce that writer Gary Apple will be joining us as guest judge at our November 5th screening! Here's some info about Gary. (We left out his Nobel Prize since physics and comedy writing have very little to do with one another.)

Gary Apple is a professional comedy writer who has written for everything from greeting cards to television. He has worked on the writing staffs of four prime time sitcoms and has also written for many animated programs, including an episode of The Simpsons. As a playwright, his four one-act plays published by Samuel French have received hundreds of productions throughout the country. Gary is a current member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, where he’s developing musical comedies.

Gary created and ran the popular website Stupid.com for 12 years before selling it to a media company. He’s currently developing a new site called Tastelsss.com, which he hopes will become the most offensive store on the internet.

Notes from our October 1st Screening

2011-10-02T21:01:00.000-04:00

The Iron Mule was excited to be back after a month hiatus with a slew of short comedy films from across the English-speaking world.

Here's our happy audience filing in before the show. We don't have the photographic evidence, but we can assure you that they were even happier after the show.

Jay and Victor began by filling in the audience about what they've been up to.

Jay and Victor fill the audience in about what they've been up to.

Victor has a comic book he wrote for Marvel coming out in November and promises to bring a copy for us to look at at the November 5th show. Jay is in the throes of editing his romantic musical comedy feature film The Adventures of Paul and Marian and showed another clip from the film. If you weren't there, you weren't lucky enough to see this top-secret Iron-Mule-exclusive clip, but here's a tantalizing still.

Next, Victor and Jay introduced special guest judge Nick Nadel. Nick is a writer, blogger, and raconteur who has been coming to Iron Mule screenings since before the invention of YouTube. Remember those days when you couldn't just watch short films on the internet? Nick talked about how much he prizes storytelling, and about how really good storytelling unfortunately isn't a given in short comedy films. He was looking forward to seeing how our filmmakers would fare under his watchful eye.

Speaking with Nick Nadel

And then it was on to the films. First up was a movie from Australia: Iron Mule alum William Crook's Night Shift of the Vampire, which details a particularly annoying night shift at a convenience store as seen through the eyes of the vampire who works there. We followed that up with a new film from also-returning New York team Alexandra Eitel and Dan Simon, Alison's Problem with Women. This movie tells the story about a woman who just can't connect with women and would rather hang out with the guys. We interviewed Alexandra and Dan about their working relationship (she wrote and acted, he directed) and Victor noted how effectively Dan was able to simulate locations they couldn't afford to shoot in through smart and subtle sound design.

with Alexandra Eitel and Dan Simon

After the interview we checked in with Nick Nadel, who mentioned that while he enjoyed both films, he doesn't really like a movie which doesn't show the actual interior of a Forever 21. Victor also mentioned that he discovered he is allergic to pears. He ate one before the show, and his throat was starting to close up.

Next up were two more films. First, from the UK, Scott Imren and Grant Fulton's delightfully silly and tense film Maltempi, about a amazingly poorly run product recall by a toy company. It begins with a character shouting "lick the monkey!" and, not to spoil it, delivers on the promise. Then we screened Elliot Lobel's Andrew: The Story of a Closet Monster, a touching story of a boy and his relationship with the not-very-scary monster in his closet. This film was made with stop motion animation, and Jay and Victor spoke with Elliot about how he made this film, which took seven months to shoot.

with Elliot Lobel

Before introducing the next films, Victor noted that he was feeling considerably worse and in addition to his throat closing up, was now lightheaded. So a good Samaritan in the audience unexpectedly threw a packet of Benadryl at him, luckily missing his head. Victor thanked the audience member and complemented her on her arm.

Next up were our last two films in competition. First was Domestic, another Australian film, written by Brett Snelgrove and directed by Katie Hide. This film documents an argument between a couple that turns into a martial-arts battle between the sexes. It drew as many gasps from the audiences as laughs, who were delighted by its combination of humor and brutality. And rounding out the evening was David B. Levy's incredibly inventive and strikingly personal film Grandpa Looked Like William Powell. David told the story of his relationship with his grandfather, who he hardly knew, through animated drawings superimposed over his grandfather's high school autograph book.

Jay and a now-recovered Victor (thank you Benadryl!) interviewed David about his process for making the film, and we were all surprised to hear it was shot on an iphone. Ah, technology, how wondrous you are.

Then, while audience and judges votes were being tabulated, we premiered this month's "Wanna Be a Star" movie Garbage Dump, directed by Ryan Guitarman and starring Iron Mule audience member Ally Cunningham. In true "Wanna Be a Star" fashion, the movie was completed at 4:00pm on the day of the show. But last minute or not, the film didn't disappoint, with some of the finest sock puppet acting you're liable to see on the big screen.

We then chose next month's star from the audience, and the prize went to long-time fan Ben Roesch! He'll be starring in Lemon Tart to be made by a director TBD (although one of the programmers was seen plying a certain theater director with glasses of wine at the after party so we suspect we'll have one in place really soon).

Then it was time for awards. Although it was really tough to choose a favorite, when votes were tallied Andrew: Story of a Closet Monster won both audience and judge's prizes. Great job Elliot, and thanks to him and the other filmmakers who contributed to such a great lineup.

Nick Nadel to guest judge the October 1st Iron Mule!

2011-09-26T20:56:00.002-04:00

We are excited to have writer / producer Nick Nadel join us as guest judge at our upcoming Iron Mule screening. Here's some info on Nick -- come and join us on October 1st and you can meet him in person!

Nick Nadel is a writer/producer who has worked for everyone from The Onion to Martha Stewart. He blogs about comic books and nerd stuff for AMC, WeTV, MTV, TruTV, and more. Check out his blog at http://nicknadel.com and follow him on Twitter at @nicknadel.

Bruce McCall's "Love in the Time of Dendur"

2011-07-09T17:56:00.000-04:00

Our new friends from iThentic.com (more on that later!) are creating a series of shorts featuring the artwork of brilliant writer/artist Bruce McCall.

If you don't know Bruce McCall's work, you really should. He's a long-time contributor to The New Yorker and started out with National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live back in the 1970's. His books and drawings are just fantastic. Go immediately to brucemccall.com for more.

You can find out more about iThentic's series and support their Kickstarter campaign here. The folks at iThentic are up to some fun stuff and they need the support of short comedy film fans like YOU!

Notes from our May 7th Screening

2011-05-15T12:32:00.000-04:00

Hello, and welcome to another Iron Mule recap! Last Saturday night, hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado were on hand to welcome the audience into spring with more great short comedy films.

We kicked off the show with the last in Steve Delahoyde's beloved "Regrets" series, "Band," about one aging fan's complicated relationship with the Dave Matthews Band. After that came Morgan Miller's, "There's a Dead Crow Outside," an animated look at the roadkill circle of life. Morgan joined Jay & Victor to discuss his process as a draw-and-scan animator and why so many animators still stick to hand-drawing.

Victor and Jay interview Morgan Miller

Next up, Jay introduced our first British film of the night, Chris and Ben Blaine's hilariously simple "0507," which follows a forgetful fiance and his last chance to prove himself, using his girlfriend's iPhone. From nearly as far in the opposite direction, "51st & Baltimore," by Kansas City native Philip Collins, explores how one young man misses out on the girl of his dreams, but also the life of misery that would've followed. Philip chatted with Jay & Victor about his film student days in Missouri, his future projects, and the advantages of going to a school that doesn't do grades.

Jay gives thanks Philip Collins for coming by giving him a box of Lemonheads.

Our second British film, Leo Burton's mini-epic "The Duel At Blood Creek," features several pairs of dueling Englishmen who have accidentally converged on the same spot to settle their scores. Rounding out the night, we ended the competition with two animated films: Dean Fleischer-Camp & Jenny Slate's, "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," a hit at Sundance about the title character and his tiny, unusual life; and Leah Shore's "BOOBatary," a cartoon look at one secretary's industrious bosom. Leah, Jay, and Victor spoke about Leah's newest project: a documentary narrated by Charles Manson.

Jay thanks Leah Shore for coming with a box of Red Hots.

After the audience put in their votes for their favorite film, Victor shared a sneak-peek at the pilot for his upcoming reality show, "The World of LARP." Still in post-production, the show explores the world of Live-Action Role Players, and will hopefully be coming to a television screen near you soon. And for our final screening of the evening, we presented this month's Wanna Be A Star? film, "Hot Tamale," directed by Ramona Floyd and featuring audience member Christiana Little as a woman struggling with her addiction to the candy of the same name. Christiana also chose the star of next month's film, Cindy Capitani, who will be featured in a new short entitled, "Scissors," to be directed by Michael DeMirjian.

With all the votes counted, producer Lin Sorensen announced the evening's winners: "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," won the Audience Award, and "The Duel at Blood Creek," picked up the Judges' Award. Congratulations to all our filmmakers, and we look forward to seeing you at our next show, June 4th, for more short-form hilariousness!

Iron Mule Feature Night Screening #1: Comfort and Joy

2011-03-27T22:00:00.001-04:00

“Hullo, folks!”

And now, a random recap of last night’s fantastic film night. (The crowd ALONE was fantastic – Hey, British Film Meet-Up peeps! – and very sorry we lost one woman to the Glasgow accent.)

The crowd arrives.

Jay and Meg introduced the show by sharing some Scottish Jokes courtesy of an insensitive 1931 collection, to which Sinclair Lewis and Clarence Darrow were purported to have contributed.

Meg is shocked as Jay reads insensitive Scottish jokes.

"Comfort and Joy" was preceded by an encore screening of the Iron Mule classic short "Cry for Bobo" by director David Cairns, also from Scotland (and who was thrilled to be opening for the great Bill Forsyth). This movie exposes the truth behind anti-clown prejudice, and how lack of opportunity forces one clown into a life of crime.

~~~~~~~~

And now on to the main event! Bill Forsyth’s “Comfort and Joy” is ostensibly a Christmas movie, but you won’t think of it that way because there is nothing “Christmas-y” about it: safe to say it will never become another “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Alan Bird is having a mid-life crisis. He has every good guy’s fantasy of a bad-girl girlfriend, and everyone’s fantasy of a mid-life crisis car, but that’s where his mid-life crisis stops. Once he witnesses crowbar-wielding thugs rough up a Mr. Bunny ice cream van, he stops having his crisis and instead turns his attention to the chaos of the ice cream truck wars.

In addition, Alan’s mid-life crisis becomes the exact opposite of everyone else’s: usually it’s serious guys who have to learn to “lighten up” and have fun; Alan, however, needs to “darken down” and get involved… in a gentle version of a mob Apalachin conference.

~~~~~~~

We all learned some terrific new slang:

“keep your pecker up” = roughly “keep your chin up.” Your pecker is your nose. It is. No, seriously, that’s what it means.

“breeches buoy” = nautical term for a primitive rescue device to transport people to ships

~~~~~~~

“Comfort and Joy” is a genuinely sweet movie – not in a cynical loser-takes-all Hollywood sense – and you should not be surprised to realize what a cynical, superjaded New Yorker you have become. Don’t believe me? Watch how many times you leap to conclusions and assume the worst of our hero:

- Oh, no! This must be the story of a patsy who lets women walk all over him until he learns how to slap them around and show them who’s boss!

- Oh, no! He’s secretly a child molester!

- Oh, no! …

You get my drift. Yet every time you assume the worst, your assumptions are confounded.

This movie gives you so many tasty characters to remember: Colin the doctor, Dickie Bird the DJ, Hilly Zandeman the station manager, Mr. Bunny, Bruno and Paulo Colinari, Mr. McCool, Uncle Luigi, Trevor Marinetti and Charlotte, Rufus the weekend radio host nobody likes, Andrew (Lily’s secret crush), Miss Wilson in the Weston Infirmary, Katie Pollack a/k/a Heather with the recipe for success, Archie and Amos (Amos and Archie) the ice cream makers, Maria the cake shop owner, Mimi the giant panda, the dentist who looks exactly like George C. Scott… who don’t you love?

Although it’s such a gentle movie that when things get bad, they only get so bad, it does a great job of showing how, when things get bad, the people around you will do things and says things to make it just a little bit worse.

MOVIE TRIVIA: Charlotte, the cutie on the ice cream truck, is CP Grogan, lead singer of Altered Images “Happy Birthday.” She was in another of Bill Forsyth’s movies, the awesome “Gregory’s Girl.” The scar on the side of her face she got in a bar fight (she was a non-combatant) when someone threw a broken bottle.

~~~~~~~~
Thanks to 92YTri’s awesome programmer, Cristina Cacioppo, and to Miriam, Ken, and Tom for their steadfast support of “Iron Mule” and J&M projects, as well as The NYC British Film & Telly Meetup Group for coming out to support the very *first* installment of the new “Iron Mule at the Movies” series. Photos thanks to the mighty Tom Henning!

Signe Baumane's "Rocks in My Pockets"

2011-03-07T18:17:00.002-05:00

Our friend Signe Baumane is making an animated feature film.

Who is Signe Baumane? You mean you didn't see the many films of hers we've screened at Iron Mule? Or you didn't click that link above?

Besides being a world-class animator of funny, edgy, hilariously disturbing and haunting films, Signe is a fixture of the New York animation scene, championing the work of animators big and small. She has curated DVDs of their work and routinely runs screenings in New York. Signe has also brought many us many wonderful animated films for Iron Mule, some of the best animation we've shown, in fact.

Signe also writes one of the best blogs you'll ever read about the frustrations, heartbreak, and occasional joys of being an independent filmmaker trying to raise money to make movies and bring them to an audience.

Now Signe is raising money for “Rocks in My Pockets,” a feature animated comedy about depression. We know that doesn't sound funny. But in Signe's hands it's bound to be funny and unique. Signe says the film "might be interesting for depressed people and for psychologists but also for people whose relatives are depressed and what not, so it means about 99 per cent of population.”

The world needs more Signe Baumane movies so support this project if you can. If you can't take a look at her work online and spread the word to people with money!

You can check out Signe’s website for “Rocks in My Pockets” here, and donate to the project here.

Notes From Our February 5th Screening

2011-02-08T08:02:00.000-05:00

Despite the frigid rainy ickiness outside, it was "On with the show!" inside the 92Y Tribeca last Saturday, as a packed house piled in for another great night of short comedy films with Iron Mule.

Jay Stern and Victor Varnado - photo by Tom Henning

We started off the night with a sneak peak at prolific host Victor Varnado's latest comedy concert film, "Tell Your Friends," which will hopefully be coming to a theater or cable channel near you soon. Then Victor and host Jay Stern introduced our guest judge for the evening, Michael Galinsky. Mike shared the trailer for his latest documentary, "Battle of Brooklyn," a 7-years-in-the-making document of the controversial Atlantic Yards project. It wasn't very funny, but fortunately Mike was, so he was allowed to stay.

Those documentary chops came in handy as many of the night's films were also documentaries, both of the traditional and the mocking variety. The first block of films began with an installment of Steve Delahoyde's Regrets series, "Hobbies," in which a beleaguered birdwatcher explains how his addiction to novelty pastimes has yet to give his life meaning. Next month, we'll have another in the same hilarious series, titled "Kid." Then came Michael DeMirjian's "Sounds of Summer Camp," a kind of music video culled from hundreds of hours of NFL summer training footage. Michael talked with Jay & Victor about his time as an editor for Fox Sports and how he made cutting football and NASCAR footage fun.

Michael DeMirjian with Victor and Jay - photo by Tom Henning

Our next block started with "Just About Famous," a documentary about celebrity impersonators by Nick Kovacsev and Matt Mamula, who's previous film, "Potato Sac," was an award-winner in 2003. Finishing up the block was Nat Towsen's "Coke Bottle Blues." Nat, sharply dressed for the occasion, was on hand to discuss his monthly variety show, The Moon, which the film was made for, and why it's nice to wear a blazer when you've made a film about drinking a coke and burping.

Nat Towsen with Victor and Jay - photo by Tom Henning

Next, we welcomed back another Iron Mule alumnus, Kyle Gilman, who returned with the sequel to his 2005 award-winner, "Two Night Stand," which has about a gazillion hits on YouTube. The latest film, "Two Night Stand Two," follows the same two characters who, after 6 years, have started mysteriously waking up in bed together again. Jay & Victor spoke to Kyle about his work as Hal Hartley's editor, and the history of his own films, many of which have shown at Iron Mule over the years.

speaking with Kyle Gilman - photo by Tom Henning

For our final film in competition, we welcomed back last month's double award-winner Stephen Neary, with his Valentine's-Day-friendly music video, "Let's Make Out." Stephen told the audience about making the film in his spare time at work and his next animated project, "Dr. Breakfast."

Stephen Neary - photo by Tom Henning

As the audience's votes were tallied for their favorite film, we unveiled the latest in Iron Mule's audience participation series, the Wanna Be A Star? competition. Each month, we ask the audience to shout out a title, and then draw an audience member's name to star in a film with that title made for the next month's show. This month's film was, "Bacon," directed by Lin Sorensen, and the audience winner and star was Morgan English, who was not only featured in the Ken-Burns-style documentary as the Narrator but also edited the film as well! Morgan also drew the name of next month's star: Janet Kalish; she'll be starring in "Year of the Rabbit," to be directed by host Jay Stern.

with Morgan English and Lin Sorensen - photo by Tom Henning

When all the votes were in, Guest Judge Galinsky announced the winners: for the Audience Award, Steve Delahoyde's "Regrets: Hobbies," and for the Judge's Award, Mike DeMirjian's "Sounds of Summer Camp"! Congrats, Steve and Mike, and we look forward to seeing more of their films in the future.

Guest Judge Michael Galinsky announces the winners - photo by Tom Henning

Join us next month, for the next Regrets film, "Kid," new animation from Laurie Rosenwald featuring excerpts from David Sedaris' diary, and the premiere of "Year of the Rabbit"!

Iron Mule producer Lin Sorensen at the after party

Seeking a junior editor- NY

2011-01-18T13:50:00.001-05:00

Low budget Doc series seeks junior editor.

You will be working with the director and will be overseen by a senior editor. You will be his hands and have your own input as well. Excellent position for someone who has plenty of ideas and skill but has not landed their first big fish.

Experience with action a definite plus.

PAY $1000 / wk

Starts immediately

6 to 8 weeks

Please send resumes and links to reels to info@supremerobot.com

New feature ZENITH opens this week in NYC!

2011-01-17T08:30:00.000-05:00

Our old friend Ray Privett is opening a new visually stunning and imaginative feature this week in at the Kraine Theater NYC, with releases following across the country. Full details are here.

And Ray is offering $7 tickets for the NYC screenings for anyone using the code IRON MULE!

Come out and support a real independent film, screening at a unique downtown venue.

Congratulations on the opening Ray, and here's to a successful nationwide launch!

Notes from our January 8th screening

2011-01-10T22:11:00.000-05:00

It was a blustery January evening outside, but in the 92YTribeca screening room on January 8th the audience was warming up with the expectation of a night of short comedy films. Jay got the show off to a start by describing a frustrating start to his year; someone stole his credit card number online and used it to buy 2010's straight-to-DVD Lost Boys: The Thirst. The thief wasn't very clever because he mailed the DVD to Jay's billing address and Jay was able to get a new credit card before any significant damage was done. So the story has a happy ending. Just as long as Jay doesn't actually watch the movie.

Victor then told a story about the start of his year, but we'll spare our readers by not recounting it here. Really. It's pretty gruesome.

Jay and Victor then welcomed special guest judge, illustrator, author, and animator Laurie Rosenwald. Laurie is a long-time Iron Mule contributor and she started off the night by showing two animations she made in collaboration with David Sedaris. We'll be showing more of that series at our March 5th show.

Jay, Victor, and Laurie Rosenwald

Then it was time for the films in competition. First up was Sylvia Apostol's animated film about a boy who gets revenge on the tooth fairy in A Faery's Tale, followed by comedian Joe DeRosa's short made for atom.com, The Jesus Fix, a film about a man who has nothing to complain about compared to Jesus. Joe was at the show and had a brief interview about translating his stand up material to the screen before having to leave to go do stand up elsewhere.

Jay, Victor, and Joe DeRosa

Joe DeRosa waves goodbye to Jay and Victor as he leaves the screening to perform standup somewhere.

The next film in competition was the longest film of the evening, Adam Hall's musical extravaganza Sudden Death, about about a plague gripping Los Angeles in which people infected burst spontaneously into song and dance before dying. Two dashing researchers struggle to find a cure while falling in love and incessantly singing about it all. The film features John Larroquette in the pivotal role of a sort of Deep Throat of the Coast Guard.

Then it was on to our last block of films in competition. First up was Eric Knobel's "I-can't-believe-I-saw-that" movie Root Beer. One of the great pleasures of the evening was the moment when the audience broke into a fit of laughter at a certain point of this movie that built and didn't stop until it was over. Who would be brave enough to follow this movie? None other than our Romanian friend Mirel Bran with his one-minute film Hitchcock Reloaded (in French rather than Romanian this time). The final film of the block was Stephen Neary's Cowboy Chicken, an animated tour-de-force about a chicken in the wild West who just wants to be a chicken but is forced against his will to become a hero. We interviewed Stephen about how he made the movie, breaking the code of animators by appearing in your own movie, animation in general, and his other work. Stephen will be back next month with another movie called Let's Make Out.

Stephen Neary, the creator of Cowboy Chicken

Victor, Jay and Stephen Neary

Before closing out the night, we welcomed old Iron Mule friend and film distributor Ray Privett, who showed a trailer of his upcoming movie Zenith, which opens on January 19th in NYC and then will screen across the US followed by a release on DVD and VOD. We're not sure what Zenith is about (even after seeing the trailer), but it certainly looks good, and we were intrigued by Ray demanding that we view it as a comedy. Make sure to watch for this movie at a theater near you!

Victor, Jay, and Ray Privett

Last up was our monthly "Wanna be a Star" movie in which we randomly select a member of the audience to star in a movie that is then shown at the following month's show. Back in December, Amy Wolf was chosen to star in the movie Under the Robe. This pitch-perfect movie about way too many audition experiences was written by Lin Sorensen and directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Galluci. Giuseppe's English wasn't great, but that just made him a more charming interview subject following the world premiere of his movie.

Giuseppe Galluci

Then it was time for guest judge Laurie Rosenwald to announce the winners. Both the judges' and audience's awards went to Cowboy Chicken! And the prize was none other than Jay's copy of Lost Boys: The Thirst!

Jay (holding the prize of Lost Boys: The Thirst) and Victor

Then on to the after party in the 92YTribeca cafe and the secret after after party where more food and drink was had by all. We have another great month planned for February and look forward to seeing fans old and new then.

Notes from our December 4th screening

2010-12-07T10:07:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome, Iron Mule fans!

This last Saturday we welcomed back many old Iron Mule friends, and also some new ones, for our monthly showcase of the best in short comedy films. This month, as host Jay Stern explained, we tried a little something different: sampling work from a couple of different web series, interspersed with a few other odds and holiday-specific ends.

But first up, host Victor Varnado shared a trailer for the new "not-quite-reality" series he's producing. The show follows a group of contestants engaged in Live Action Role Playing (LARP), which looks a lot like real life Dungeons & Dragons, in the woods, without dice. It also looks like a lot of fun to watch.

Priming the pump for holiday season, local actor and Christmas Carol officianado Craig Wichman introduced his film, "A Christmas Carol in 8 Minutes," featuring every imaginable big- and small-screen version of the classic Dickens tale. Craig shared some of his knowledge of the many liberties taken with adapting the novel to the screen, and host Victor was particularly smitten with the oft-repeated phrase, "Look under my robe!" which he proceeded to oft-repeat as well.

For our first block of films, we began with a new series by Iron Mule BFF, Dale Goodson, entitled "Things Could Be Worse," an animated series which takes an irreverent look at the debate over health care. In between the three episodes of this series, we also presented Lake Cop II: Ripple Effect, a mock trailer by Graeme Morgan and Brent Cooper about a vigilante lakeside policeman that is now being made into a feature, and the first episode of another series previously seen at Iron Mule -- Old People News. The latest iteration of this series, entitled "Tech Report" and created for Atom.com by Kevin Maher, stars Lynne Rogers and Arthur Anderson as the titular Old People, reporting on some perplexing 21st century technology such as the iPhone and the Twitter.

Dale Goodson was on hand to talk about his continuing forays into animation, and how he himself learned to use technology to straighten lines and get a smoother "hand-drawn" effect in his films. With so many irons in the fire, between this, his occasional music videos and the continuing Man Without Shirt series, we're not sure what Dale will come up with next, but we're sure we'll see him again soon.

Jay and Dale

Next up, we featured a couple of episodes from the popular New York web series, "Broad City," by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. This time, we showcased Ilana's advice on dealing with being a "Dick Magnet," and Abbi's struggle to get kissed "Under the Mistletoe." We also squeezed in another episode of Old People News: Tech Report, examining the "easy way out" of Kickstarter. One half of the Broad City team, Ilana Glazer, joined our hosts to talk about the many ways in which their show imitates life, and the future plans for the show, which include an upcoming second season and a short film.

Victor, Jay, and Ilana

For our third set, we presented "The Guarantee," another documentary by multiple award-winner Jesse Epstein in her series on body image. This film tackles the true story of a ballet dancer who was told he needed to get a nose job in order to continue getting leads at his dance academy. Since the subject didn't want to be filmed, Jesse worked with a storyboard artist to illustrate the story, lending an extra visual layer to the film. Jesse joined hosts Jay & Victor to talk about the choice to use illustrations in the film, and the road from hearing the subject's story on a set to filming it many years later.

Victor, Jay, and Jesse

Rounding up the films in competition, we presented the final episodes of Old People News: Tech Report, and also revisited the perennial Iron Mule holiday favorite, "White Blood Cell Saves Christmas." Kevin Maher & Lynne Rogers of Old People News came on stage to talk about the origins of the series and its potential future (including product placements). Whatever form it takes, we look forward to more of Kevin's razor-sharp satire and more of Lynne using words like "sexting".

Victor, Jay, Kevin and Lynn

The audience was given a reprieve from laughter in order to vote for their favorite film of the evening, and while the votes were being tallied, they were treated to this month's Wanna Be A Star? film, "Peanut Factory," starring audience member Meredith Flood. A parody of The Glass Menagerie, the film was directed by Gabriella Willenz and kept the audience in stitches as only making fun of Tennessee Williams can.

Gabriella, Victor, Jay, and Meredith

We had another double winner for the evening, as Jesse Epstein once again won both the Judges' Award and Audience Award for her film The Guarantee. Congratulations, Jesse!

And we hope to see many of Saturday night's new audience members back for more short comedy films when we reconvene on January 8th for the next Iron Mule screening!

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench

2010-11-12T16:24:00.001-05:00

As some of you know, I am in pre production of my new feature film, a low-budget independent musical.

You may be asking, "Low-budget independent musical? Do they even make those?" Well, it turns out that they do, and successfully so.

Independent filmmaker Damien Chazelle's Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is such a movie. After a run on the international festival circuit, this film is now playing at Cinema Village in NYC. If you're in the NYC area this weekend come on out and support independent filmmaking! Damien will be there for a Q&A on Saturday.

And if you can't get enough indie musicals, also check out adventuresofpaulandmarian.com!

Movies We Like: Sans Dialogue

2010-11-08T22:00:00.001-05:00

Of course the birth of comedy filmmaking is rooted in silent cinema, which relied on pure visuals to tell a story and create hilarious comedy.

There are several contemporary short comedy films out there that emulate silent classics. Ones we like include Kevin Maher and Casimir Nozkowski’s silent homage Silas and Mange...

stunt-man turned Buster Keaton fan Cliff Cronan’s The Lucky Penny...

The Lucky Penny from Elusive Minds on Vimeo.

...and from one of our earliest shows, the very first collaboration between Iron Mule legends Jay Stern and M. Sweeney Lawless, Suffer the Little Children.

But you don’t have to just copy Buster Keaton to make a comedy without dialogue. Animated films do this all the time. Below are some short films that prove that good ideas and good comedy can be made without people shouting one-liners and saying funny things in words.

Flowerpot, from Austin, TX filmmaker Steve Collins.

flowerpot - watch more funny videos

Any movie by Hotdogboy, our favorite Canadian short comedy comedy film duo.

The Modern Daydreams films by Mitchell Rose are simply beautiful and also funny.

Modern Daydreams 1: Deere John from Mitchell Rose on Vimeo.

Jay Stern and M. Sweeney Lawless’ Turkey Shoot features the first appearance of Iron Mule regular Ramona Floyd who later became one of our producers. Not using dialogue made it much easier to mask the fact that this film was shot entirely in Central Park.

Do you know of some good short comedy films (non-animated) that are dialogue-free? Leave a link in comment section.

Notes from our November 6th screening

2010-11-08T12:34:00.001-05:00

Welcome, intrepid Iron Mule followers! Despite a few technical difficulties, the show did in fact go on last Saturday night, as hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado led an enthusiastic crowd through yet another fun-filled evening of short comedy films that at least one audience member described as, "intimate." We're taking that as a compliment.

Running the show from a jerry-rigged laptop, Jay shared the trailer to his currently-developing feature film, "The Adventures of Paul and Marian," a romantic comedy musical adventure (if you missed the show, you can catch the trailer here). Then, due to a last-minute cancellation, Jay & Victor solicitated material from the audience, to fill the time left by the missing film. Unfortunately, nobody had come prepared! Note to filmmakers: always bring a reel with you when out on the town, as you never know when the hosts of whatever you're watching may ask for, say, a comedic film under 10 minutes.

Guest Judge Ioli Andreadi with Jay and Victor

Continuing the program in earnest, Aaron Hughes was back with another pixilated film, "Strangers," about flowers coming out of strange places and the perils of smoking. Aaron and frequent star Maori (previously of "Maori's Morning") talked a little bit about the process of shooting one of these curious films and how to make a person appear to fly out of screen.

interviewing Aaron and Maori

Jay then introduced a block of "Foreign" films; one from Romania, one from France, and one from a Seattle ex-pat. "The Scream," from returning Romanian filmmaker Mirel Bran, features some unusual lessons about love and outdoor defecation. From the acclaimed animation school in Paris, Gobelins l'Ecole de l'Image, we presented Oktapodi, a high-paced romp through an idealised Greek town following two octapi on the run from a hatchet-wielding butcher. And rounding out the block, Iron Mule regular Dale Goodson presented the latest in his Man Without Shirt series, "Hangs Too Much."

with Dale Goodson

Checking in with the evening's special guest judge, Ioli Andreadi, a London theater director and native of Greece, she informed us that the town depicted in Oktapodi must be a very rich place because all the houses had swimming pools. Shows what we know; we thought all Greeks had pools. But Ioli seemed to enjoy the movie anyway, and we moved on to our final block of the night.

Starting us off was "Stages of Emily," written by and starring Danielle Uhlarik and directed by James C. Newell, from Chicago. The story follows a newly-engaged woman who believes she has only 48 hours to live. The filmmakers pull quite a few laughs out of this dark story of mortal wedding anxiety, thanks in no small part to a strong cast of Chicago stand-ups and improvisers. And our last film in competition was, "Tombstoned," an SVA student thesis film by Dillon McCarthy. The partially-animated sci-fi film follows three slacker astronauts who attempt a stoned moon landing.

Dillon McCarthy

But before the night is through, an Iron Mule show wouldn't be complete without this month's Wanna Be A Star? film (for more details, visit our website). This month's retro-awesome entry was entitled "Secret Sunshine" and starred audience member Paula McDonald as a renegade lone-wolf secret agent named Sunshine. Director Andy Brown and star Paula were on hand to talk about the concept of the film, shooting action scenes on the fly, and the original theme song that played over the end credits. Stop by next month to see what director Gabriella Willenz can make out of the title, "Peanut Factory," starring lucky audience member, Meredith Flood.

Paula McDonald and Aaron Hughes

After all the ballots were counted, our Audience Award winner for the evening was "Oktapodi," and our Judges' Award winner was "Stages of Emily!" Congrats to our winners, we're sorry the filmmakers couldn't attend the screening and receive all the accolades and free drinks coming to them.

And that's it for us this month, but join us on Dec. 4th at the 92YTribeca for a special holiday show featuring the return of "White Blood Cell Saves Christmas," a special 8-minute edit of every version of A Christmas Carol imaginable, new films by Dale Goodson and Jesse Epstein, and new episodes of Iron Mule faves Old People News and Broad City!

Notes From Our Oct. 2nd Screening

2010-10-04T15:23:00.005-04:00

This last Saturday, Iron Mule made a triumphant return from our two-month hiatus with a gaggle of new short comedy films and all the hijinx you've come to expect.

Except one. Held over in LA due to an extended shooting schedule, regular host Victor Varnado was sadly absent from the evening. Fellow producer Lin Sorensen attempted to fill Victor's considerable hosting shoes, and while some may debate the merits of their respective styles, there's no denying Lin was taller.

Thankfully, host Jay Stern was present to provide the audience with some much-needed continuity, and the show began, in honor of Halloween, with a trailer for Jay's upcoming haunted house feature, "Spirit Cabinet." Producer/cinematographer Alan Smith and producer/writer Meg Sweeney Lawless were also on hand to witness the trailer's world premiere, and while it wasn't as funny as the films that came after it, it was certainly spookier. Stay tuned for more Spirit Cabinet updates as the team comes around the last bend of post-production and hopes to bring the finished product to a screen near you.

Our first film of the night, a pilot for Adult Swim entitled "Wunderkrafthaus," was put together by many of the folks who brought you the Mighty Five video, Check This Out! which premiered at our July 3rd show. As the creators Doug Olsen, Derek Muro and Patrick Groneman explained afterward, although the show originated with characters they portrayed, they were required to cast other actors in the roles. However, when the director went AWOL, they finished the shoot themselves, thereby regaining control of the project from the other side of the camera. The show follows the titular German art collective as they try to make the most of a mistyped ad describing them as "The Wunderkrafthaus of Pancakes."

The next block of films featured two documentaries, one real and one fictional. The first, "Wet Dreams and False Images," about the denizens of a Brooklyn barbershop who discover that the pictures on their "Wall of Beauty" are not as "natural" as they think, is part of a series of short documentaries about body image by director Jesse Epstein. The second, "Los Four McNifikos," from Spain, follows an aging breakdancing troupe as they struggle to keep the dream alive. Hosts Jay & Lin did a tag-team interview with Jesse and "McNifikos" co-writer Michael Dukes about making documentaries funny, their respective methods of engaging the audience, and the quirks of international collaboration. (Special thanks to Michael for flying in from Cincinnati for the show!)

Rounding out the evening, our last set of films showcased three very different kinds of animation. Continuing the wildly popular internet series (and oft-played Iron Mule favorite), Eun-Ha Paek and Erin Bradley Perkins returned with "Strindberg & Helium: At the Beach." This was followed by our second animated film from Argentina this year, "El Empleo," which follows a day in the life of an office worker and may hit a little close to home for those with day jobs. We finished the films in competition with the latest animation by Iron Mule regular Dale Goodson, a music video entitled, "Little Ghost." Dale was on hand to discuss the origins of the film, which is part of a series of videos aimed at toddlers and featuring music by Chris Ballew, formerly of the band Presidents of the United States of America and now performing children's music as Caspar Babypants.

But it wouldn't be an Iron Mule show without the famed "Wanna Be A Star?" competition, and tonight was no exception. Every month, our helpful audience shouts out a title for a short film, and an audience member is selected at random to star in the aforementioned film, to be produced for the next month's show. October's star was Orla Murphy and she was featured in Ant Farm, directed by Aaron Hughes, whose film "Backwards" won the Judges' Award at our June 5th show. The film was shot in Aaron's "pixilated" style, a kind of stop-motion cinematography that was also used in last month's, "Maori's Morning." Check back next month when audience member Paula McDonald will star in "Secret Sunshine," to be directed by Andy Brown.

And after an audience drumroll, the winners of the evening were announced. Jesse Epstein was the big winner of the night, taking both the Audience Award and Judges' Award for "Wet Dreams and False Images." Congratulations Jesse, and thanks to everyone for making us a part of your October weekend. Join us on Nov. 6th for more short comedy films, more raucous after parties, and more Victor Varnado.

Auction for "The Adventures of Paul and Marian"!

2010-08-29T09:00:00.004-04:00

Hi folks, it's your Iron Mule producer and co-host Jay Stern. I'm making a new, exciting feature film, the kind that will remind you what it is you love about movies.

The film is called The Adventures of Paul and Marian.

We are a group of professionals making a REAL independent film, and in order to get this film made, we need your help. We have just launched an online auction that will help fund the project. Check it out here.

Here's how you can help:

BID
Very simple -- bid for an item in the auction! We have amazing items for all budgets, from vacation packages, VIP Lady Gaga concert tickets, to books and DVDs, and a visit to our set.

SPREAD THE WORD
Let your friends and colleagues know about the auction. The more the better. And this helps create buzz for this amazing movie which you're supporting, so it's a win-win situation! Join us on Facebook and Twitter and visit our website at www.adventuresofpaulandmarian.com.

DONATE ITEMS
This auction will last until September 12th and we can add items as we go along. If you have any goods or services you'd like to add to our efforts, please send them our way.

DONATE CASH
There is also an option to donate cash on the auction page.

I'll post back here with periodic updates as we move into production. I'm looking forward to sharing this movie with all of you Iron Mulers!

Jay

Notes from our August 7th Screening

2010-08-09T23:19:00.000-04:00

A full house of filmmakers and film fans gathered at 92YTribeca on Saturday night for a new Iron Mule lineup.

Jay and Victor, freshly returned from the Woods Hole Film Festival, told a story about being mistaken for a married couple when they were presenting films out on Cape Cod.

Well they do wear matching outfits, but as Victor pointed out, the two of them are not nearly stylish enough to be considered a gay couple.

Next Jay and Victor brought up guest host Geoff Klock. Geoff is a writer, professor, and all around culture fan who has written a book about superhero comics, and another one about poetry. He expressed his excitement for the evening ahead, and then it was on to the films.

Geoff Klock

The first film in the lineup was Lost at Sea, by Adam Beamer and Dan Samiljan, a daffy look at a film shoot spiraling out of control. Next was Dale Goodson's Warning, the latest installment in his Man Without Shirt series. Jay and Victor interviewed Dale about his work, poetry, filmmaking, and animation.

Dale Goodson

Next in the lineup was Jean-Christophe Lie's animated mini-masterpiece, The Man in the Blue Gordini. This film was from France, which explains its incredible use of style. And all the nudity.

Following this was Andy Brown's adaptation of an Anton Chekhov short story, the dark and beautifully done A Joke. After Andy's movie, Jay and Victor spoke with him about adapting the short story (to use voice over or not; differences in Russian and American attitudes, etc). Also, they talked about the difficulty of classifying this work as a comedy. The verdict was that it is, although Andy had doubts about submitting it to a comedy film festival.

Jay, Victor, and Andy Brown

The next block of films featured Alex Italics' A Ballpoint Story, some Canadian animation courtesy of Christopher Diaz's The Inkwell Shuffle, and Daniel Wright's animated adaptation of material from his book Patently Silly, Nuclear Attack. Daniel talked about his website, and whether or not inventors are happy with what he's doing (they are).

Jay, Victor, and Daniel Wright

The final block of films in competition included Aaron Hughes' live action / animated film Maori's Morning, followed by Taco Mary, Mary Novak's film about an atheist who sees the Virgin Mary in a taco, and must decide what to do about it. Mary came all the way from Chicago to attend the screening, and talked to us about how the film came out of the experience of being a Catholic married to an atheist.

Mary Novak, Victor, and Jay

The final movie of the night was the world premiere of this month's "Wanna Be a Star film," The Sisterhood, directed by Susan Hippen, and starring audience member (and legendary actor) Arthur Anderson. The film also starred Lynn Rogers. This wasn't their first Iron Mule experience; they appeared on screen together in Old People News back in January, 2009. Susan had a great time working with such seasoned professionals, and the feeling was mutual.

Next, guest judge Geoff Klock announced the winners: the audience favorite went to The Man in the Blue Gordini, and the judges' favorite went to A Joke. Then it was off to the cafe for an after party, which, as usual, stretched into the wee hours of the morning.

We're taking September off, but join us for more Iron Mule fun this October!

Iron Mule at the Woods Hole Film Festival

2010-08-02T16:40:00.000-04:00

On Saturday night, we took the Iron Mule on the road and curated the opening night screening of the Woods Hole Film Festival on Cape Cod. Jay and Victor presented 90 minutes of some of our favorite films to a sold-out house. Filmmakers Alan McIntyre Smith, M. Sweeney Lawless, and Massachusetts local Ritchie Wilson were there to see their work on the big screen. It was a great chance to share some Iron Mule classics with a new audience. Thanks to all the Woods Hole Film Fest people for hosting us!

Iron Mule at The Woods Hole Film Festival

2010-07-28T09:25:00.001-04:00

Iron Mule is curating the opening night screening at the Woods Hole Film Festival on July 31st! Join us up in Cape Cod for a night of Iron Mule favorites followed by the festival's opening night party. For more information, go to www.woodsholefilmfestival.org.

Geoff Klock to guest judge August 7 Iron Mule!

2010-07-12T16:40:00.000-04:00

We are excited to announce that Geoff Klock will be joining us at the August 7th Iron Mule screening as a special guest judge.

Geoff Klock (D.Phil, Oxford) is an assistant professor at BMCC-CUNY, where he serves as Director of Writing and Literature. He is the author of two academic books, one on superhero comics and the other on 19th and 20th century poetry. A frequent presenter at Kevin Geeks Out, he once hosted a panel on Superhero and Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He can be found online at twitter.com/geoffklock, and is only sort-of funny. Like maybe a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Notes from our July 3rd Screening

2010-07-07T09:47:00.000-04:00

Like sardines in a canning factory, the Iron Mule packed 'em in last Saturday, thanks to the presence of many visiting filmmakers and the support of the local press (thank you, New York Times!). To get things started, hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado shared some of the insights they'd gained from their recent production experiences (Jay was involved in the Lincoln Center Director's Lab and Victor has been directing a concert film for Comedy Central). They discovered that different performers have different needs: theater actors need a lot of rehearsal and discussion time, comedians need constant feedback, and film actors need cocaine. We look forward to seeing how they use that knowledge on future projects. On to the movies!

Former host of Kevin Geeks Out! and Iron Mule BFF Kevin Maher was our honorary guest judge for the evening. Kevin shared some of his judging criteria for the evening, explaining to the full house that he would not only be judging the films, but also the audience themselves. On his list of negative qualities: clumsy plot exposition ("Of course I will, I'm your brother!"), and mockumentaries. Some positive attributes: funny wigs, fake poo or vomit, and hilariously excessive plot exposition. Kevin will return to 92YTribeca with an encore presentation of Kevin Geeks Out About Sharks! next week, but Saturday he was dedicated to the fine art of criticising short comedic films.

Our first block of films began with Ad Men, by Todd Alcott. Todd's reading of his poem Television Is A Drug was the source of last month's film by the same name, and he was back this month with a short film about an ad agency asking the immortal question, "What kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs?" The film also stars film actor and past guest judge James Urbaniak (Henry Fool, American Splendor). Following that was Don't Text and Drive, a beautiful and unique animated rendering of what can happen if you ignore the title's advice. Filmmaker Adrian Garcia came down from Boston to talk about the piece, and how classical music makes him think of car crashes.

For our next block, local comediennes Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson were on hand to present their web series, Broad City. They described the show as an exaggerated version of themselves, exploring dilemmas familiar to many New Yorkers such as pushy yoga parents and the lengths people will go to have convenient access to a washer and dryer. The three episodes featured were "Subway on a Sunday," "Yoga," and "Laundry," and these and many more can be found on their website. Abbi and Ilana talked about their working process, the balance between between scripting and improvising, and who's really the boss (the verdict is still out on that one).

Our third block featured another internet series, Sassy Gay Friend from the Second City network. This group of three shorts ("Romeo & Juliet," "Hamlet" and "Othello") suggests that things might have turned out better for Shakespeare's heroines if they'd been told to "write a sad poem in your journal and move on!" Interspersed with these were two Iron Mule firsts: Heat Wave, our first film from Romania, about a high-temperature communication breakdown; and Lapsus, our first film from Argentina, an animated film following a hapless nun's journey through the seven deadly sins.

The final block of competition films featured a musical short from Ireland, Separations Agency, in which a man receives an alarming break-up message in the form of a jolly barbershop quartet, and Blackout Roulette, our first film from Arizona. Filmmaker Alex Italics was kind enough to travel from Tucson to discuss his cheeky black-and-white comedy noir, about a desperate host who resorts to some lethal means of enlivening his party. Alex was inspired by The Twilight Zone in making the film, and plans to start spreading it around the festival circuit.

Although our competition segment was complete, there was still one more treat in store for our audience (well, two really): the world premiere of the Mighty Five music video, "Check This Out!" The video was a collaboration between host Jay Stern, his frequent cinematographer Alan M. Smith, and writer M. Sweeney Lawless, and featured The Mighty Five against a variety of spacey-retro greenscreen backgrounds as they deliver the funk to a planet in need of grooving. Victor spoke to the band about the process of shooting the film, their hopes for continuing the Mighty Five storyline, and the advatages of having a dedicated designer attached to your band.

After the audience had the chance to vote for their favorite film, we showed the results of this month's Wanna Be A Star? competition, an Iron Mule tradition. Our audience winner this month was frequent Iron Mule contributor dp, who not only starred in the film, "Right Guy, Wrong Turn," but wrote, directed and edited it as well! With the votes tallied, guest judge Kevin Maher announced the winners: for the Audience Award, "Blackout Roulette," and for the Judge's Award, "Broad City"! And the lucky winner of next month's Wanna Be A Star? competition -- Arhur Anderson! This veteran of stage and screen will team up with writer/director Susan Hippen for "The Sisterhood," which you can only see at the next Iron Mule show on August 7th! (and then later on Vimeo...)

Before we called it a night, the good folks at 92YTribeca facilitated an encore broadcast of the Mighty Five video in the Cafe, where filmmakers and audience members mingled and networked and savored the air conditioning before a scorching hot Fourth of July weekend.

To keep up-to-date on all the Iron Mule happenings, join us on Facebook! And we'll see you next month for more of the best in short comedy films.

Iron Mule in the NY Times!

2010-07-06T21:04:00.003-04:00

Thanks to the New York Times for the article - it led to a sold out show on Saturday!

You can read it here.

COMEDY CONCERT FILM JUNE 22 TUES - ME Direct! You watch!

2010-06-15T16:56:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! It's Victor Varnado here! I hope you get a chance to come to the concert portion of this comedy film I am directing! Many great comedians that you would have to pay big bucks to see normally. If you are in NYC then make a special trip!

Here's the info!

___________________________________________________________

That’s right! – One of New York City’s best comedy shows, TELL YOUR FRIENDS!, is becoming a movie!

Here is a special message from the creator of the show, Liam McEneaney:

“HEY GANG;

You read that right. For the next two Mondays, TYF! at Lolita will go dark as we gear up for the filming of our first ever concert movie experience.

We are finally going to capture everything you have loved about our little basement show in one major motion picture.

Some of your favorite performers will be on-hand to film their acts; KURT BRAUNOHLER & KRISTEN SCHAAL, REGGIE WATTS, CHRISTIAN FINNEGAN, LEO ALLEN, ROB PARAVONIAN, and our house band A BRIEF VIEW OF THE HUDSON. And as usual, your humble host will be LIAM McENEANEY

You're going to get event invites as soon as Facebook stops being a jerk.

I know the name of the show is usually a suggestion, but for this show we're going to need as great of a crowd as possible to both fill the room and support with the kind of good energy and positive vibery that has made you guys one of the favorite audiences for some of the biggest names in comedy.

In a way, YOU will be the biggest star of the movie. Specifically, in the way that doesn't pay you residuals. So please, please, come yourself and don't forget to forward this via e-mail, to post this on Facebook, to Tweet it, and to TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Thank you for your years of support. Here's to many many more years together.

- LIAM McENEANEY”

Here’s the info:
The Onion Presents:
TELL YOUR FRIENDS! THE CONCERT MOVIE
Be in the audience of the LIVE FILMING of the concert movie based on New York City's longest-running alt. comedy show, starring some of the scene's brightest comedy lights: Kurt Braunohler & Kristen Schaal, Reggie Watts, Christian Finnegan, Leo Allen, Rob Paravonian, and hosted by Liam McEneaney.

Tuesday, June 22nd

www.thebellhouseny.com

DOORS: 6:30pm; 9PM
ADMISSION: $5.00

Buy tickets to the 6:30 show here: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=2160585

Buy tickets to the 9:00 show here: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=2160615

HOSTED BY: LIAM McENEANEY

WITH:
KURT BRAUNOHLER & KRISTEN SCHAAL
REGGIE WATTS
CHRISTIAN FINNEGAN
LEO ALLEN
ROB PARAVONIAN

AND THE TYF! HOUSE BAND: A BRIEF VIEW OF THE HUDSON

18+ to enter/21+ to drink

Please forward this event and TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Interview Prep

2010-06-11T09:18:00.002-04:00

Well, om getting ready for the first day of shooting on my new movie... Did we talk about that? The new movie is www.tellyourfriendsmovie.com

Should be loads of fun. In order to save money, I will be directing and playing cinematographer on some of the interview sections. I was a bit nervous, but I think the first test shoot came out great. Here is a frame from the shoot with our reluctant subject Myq Kaplan.

Thank you Canon HDSLR cameras!

Notes from our June 5th screening

2010-06-08T10:32:00.001-04:00

It was unseasonably warm in NYC on June 5th, as Iron Mule fans gathered in the air-conditioning of the 92YTribeca screening room for another night of short comedy films. Jay and Victor started off the night with updates about their latest projects -- Victor is working on a comedy concert feature called Tell Your Friends, and Jay was gearing up for a photo shoot and test shoot for his new feature The Adventures of Paul and Marian.

Then we brought up our special guest judge, screenwriter Will Rokos. We talked about short films -- Will is a fan and impressed by how economical and simple shorts can be as opposed to features. He talked about his own work a little bit (he tends to write intense dramas rather than comedies, although he loves comedies and has one potentially in the works) and announced that he's just been hired to join the writing team of Southland for their next season.

Then on to the films! The first was Delivery Date, by New Mexican filmmaker Matthew Page. This film tells the story about a man who finds an unexpected surprise on a blind date. Nice production values, a decent, full story, and stand-out performances by the two charming leads were the stand out qualities of this film.

Our next block of films featured Hälkke 9, a 1950's commercial spoof from the UK by filmmaker Richard Jung, the surprising and high-production-value film from North Carolinian filmmaker Kenneth Price, The Late Mr. Mokun Williams, and Atlanta-based Beth Fulton's interpretation of a poem written and performed by screenwriter Todd Alcott, Television is a Drug.

Our final block were three animated films: Sharon Colman's Oscar-nominated Badgered, a tale of a badger who just wants to be left alone to hibernate (from the UK), Sijia Luo's outlandishly cute Kidnap (from California), and the impressively structured film by local animator Aaron Hughes, Backwards, which is told backwards, from finish to start. Aaron was in attendance so we brought him and his producer Lisa LaBracio up for a brief interview. We talked about how Aaron made the film (partly backwards, partly forwards) and discussed how animators, alone in a dark room, labor for months without feedback so they often have no idea if their movies work at all. Luckily, Aaron and Lisa's movie works wonderfully.

Then, the audience placed their vote for audience favorite, and while the votes were tallied, we screened this month's "Wanna Be a Star" movie starring audience member Willa Jaffe, who traveled all the way from Philadelphia to star in the movie and again to attend the screening. This film was directed by Iron Mule producer Jay Stern, and the audience-determined title was Jesus Pot Pie.

Then it was up to guest judge Will Rokos to announce the winners: audience favorite (our first ever tie!) was Delivery Date and Television is a Drug, and the judges' award went to Backwards. This was a particularly hard month for our audience to determine their favorite film we were told afterwards, since they all were quite good and all very different.

After the awards were announced, filmmakers and fans moved into the cafe for our after party where fun was had by all!

Will Rokos to guest judge June 5th Iron Mule Screening

2010-05-16T21:44:00.000-04:00

Will Rokos is an Academy Award nominated screenwriter from the woods of Georgia. Will's credits include Monster's Ball, Bleeding Heart, Shadowboxer (as William Lipz) and he recently co-wrote the script for the video game Dante's Inferno.

Victor Varnado and Cast of Awkward Comedy Show appearing at Apple Store Soho

2010-05-06T17:47:00.001-04:00

Fri May 7 at 7:00 pm - FREE

http://www.apple.com/retail/soho/

Address: 103 Prince Street New York City, NY 10012 (212) 226-3126

After The Awkward Comedy Show's premiere on Comedy Central and it's release on ITunes and DVD, join the film's cast and creators for an appearance followed by a Q and A.

with
Victor Varnado - Creator, Producer, Director, Cast (Conan Obrien, Jimmy Kimmel Live)
Marina Franklin - Cast (Jay Leno Show, Chappelle Show)
Eric Andre - Cast (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The NEW Jamie Foxx Show)

Moderated by Jay Stern, Producer (Iron Mule Comedy Festival)

Subjects covered will include:

- Taking the film from concept to independent production to Comedy Central.
- Low budget that looks like high budget
- Cast careers and behind the scenes stories
- And more!

www.awkwardcomedyshow.com

Notes from our May 1st Screening

2010-05-04T15:49:00.003-04:00

Filmmakers and film lovers gathered once again on the evening of Saturday, May 1st, for an evening of short comedy films at 92YTribeca.

Jay and Victor began the show announcing this week's DVD release of The Awkward Comedy Show, which Victor directed and Jay produced.

Then Jay tried out his pitch for his new movie The Adventures of Paul and Marian. He has a fundraising event coming up and needed the chance to try out his pitch in front of strangers. That's just one of the perks of running your own festival.

Next the hosts introduced this month's extra special guest judge, Daily Show writer Elliott Kalan. Victor got to ask Elliott what Jon Stewart smells like, and Elliott told a story about being fired from a newspaper for being too funny.

Then we introduced a very special guest, red carpet reporter Doug Hyde, who was in town from LA and agreed to serve as our interviewer for the night. Doug told us a little about his job and shared a story about being yelled at by a celebrity. He certainly brought a welcome dose of Hollywood class and sparkle to the show, and his interviews with the filmmakers were top notch. More on that below.

Now it was time for the films. First up was Susan Hippen's movie Me, Myself, and Your Husband, a film about a woman who feels pressure to get pregnant and enlists her brother-in-law to do the honors, much to the dissatisfaction of her sister. In the interview following the film, expertly done by Doug Hyde (certainly putting Jay and Victor to shame), Susan talked about the difficulties of casting two women who looked like sisters and who were also solid actors and comedians. She also talked about how lovely it was to work in HD, which she did for the first time with this movie.

Next up was a block of two films, Thomas De Napoli's Hipster Job, a Williamsburg adaptation of the Biblical tale of suffering, and Kriota Willberg's dance extravaganza Sunscreen Serenade. In the Doug Hyde interview following the screening, Kriota talked about her work as a choreographer and how she used a nice grant to both make this film and hire dancers for a good rate, who in her film didn't have anything to do but dress their fingers up with paper dolls and have them dance around a table.

We checked in with Elliott at this point, who is a Busby Berkeley fan and appreciated Kriota's Berkeley-inspired choreography and cinematography.

Next we introduced our old friend Will Carlough, with a new Carlough Brothers film. In typical laid-back fashion, Will presented his movie, part film, part live performance. You can see a video version of the whole thing here, but Will's work is really unique when you get a chance to see him do it live.

Next up was our commercial block: the spoof pharmaceutical commercial Fellayshe-O from Maine filmmaker Ritchie Wilson, Dats Hats, a parody of Tom's Shoes by LA-based Mario Kyprianou, and RPF: We Pitch Dallas BBQ, a movie showing the worst ad agency powerpoint pitch ever, from our old friend Thom Woodley.

In the Doug-Hyde-run interview with Mario (in from LA for the screening) and Thom, the filmmakers spoke about their experience in the actual ad world, and Mario mentioned what happened when the Tom's Shoes people saw his spoof (they didn't like it). But we did, and we checked in with guest judge Elliott, who was enjoying himself thoroughly.

Our final block of movies for the night were two animated films, Signe Baumane's The Very First Desire Now and Forever and Peter Ahern's Down to the Bone.

Signe's movie is intended to be a very philosophical and meaningful film about mankind's struggle for satisfaction from the very first moment of birth, and she was shocked to learn that the film was banned from YouTube because of perceived sexual content. The film shows a baby being thwarted in his attempt to suckle his mother's breast, and Signe said that the fact that someone sexualized that moment says a lot more about that person than it says about the film. You can see the movie (now on another YouTube channel) and judge for yourself.

Peter's Down to the Bone is another film about childhood, quite disturbing, but staying (just) on the line of not too disturbing. Signe pointed out that the film just made the finals for the student Oscars! She's an Academy member, so she should know.

Peter's film was made the old fashioned way; he drew each frame and scanned them one by one into the computer. It was great to see a young filmmaker who prefers to work this way, and Peter's attention to detail really shows in the film.

Then the competition was over, and we showed our last film of the evening, our 700th film nonetheless, dp's Funky Kimono, this month's "Wanna be a Star" movie, starring audience member Amber Kain. As the spokesperson for a store selling the funkiest of kimonos, Amber Kain lit up the screen and held her own with dp's collection of high caliber comic talent.

After this movie, Elliott Kalan announced the winners: audience favorite went to Down to the Bone, and the judges' prize went to Me, Myself, and Your Husband. Then it was off to the after party, where we closed the 92YTribeca cafe and went to SoHo for food and drink where we mingled and talked movies until the wee hours.

So a special thanks to the filmmakers, special guests, and audience members who made for such a memorable show, and our condolences to the many audience members who were trapped on the subway for an hour due to the police shut down of Time Square. Sorry you missed the show, but we look forward to seeing you at our next show on June 5th!

The Awkward Comedy Show releases TODAY

2010-05-04T14:02:00.003-04:00

YES!

Finally, the DVD is out!

Please pick it up at Best Buy, or Amazon or on Itunes.

ALSO, cast and crew are appearing live at The Soho Apple store for a Q and A on Friday!. Come to that!

Come See us LIVE at Comix on Monday in NYC

2010-04-29T14:25:00.002-04:00

GRAB THE LAST TICKETS NOW!

http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=743&sid=2669

Directly following the premiere of our highly rated and positively reviewed Comedy Central special, THE AWKWARD COMEDY SHOW. We are about to celebrate the release of our DVD and soundtrack with a live performance and after party DJ'd by hip-hop legend Prince Paul.

The entire cast is reunited for the first time since the original comedy concert!

For information and reservations, please visit: http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=743&sid=2669

HOSTED BY: MARINA FRANKLIN - from Comedy Central and "The Jay Leno Show"

WITH:

VICTOR VARNADO
from the movies "End of Days" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," and the TV shows "Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

HANNIBAL BURESS
is a writer for "Saturday Night Live" and has been seen on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"

BARON VAUGHN
is the star of USA's new show, "Facing Kate"

ERIC ANDRE
is a touring comedian who has been seen on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham"

AND SPECIAL GUESTS TBA

Awkward Comedy Show DVD Release Show DISCOUNT TICKETS

2010-04-21T12:25:00.000-04:00

THE AWKWARD COMEDY SHOW DVD RELEASE AND SHOW

MAY 3

7:30 PM

At COMIX Comedy CLUB

Order your tickets now with code AWKWARD and get in for only $10

http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=743&sid=2669

The entire cast reunited for the first time since the original show!

After Party with guest DJ Hip hop legend PRINCE PAUL!

Join us at Comix as we celebrate the DVD release of the new Comedy Central special, "The Awkward Comedy Show," with performances by the special's director/producer/headliner VICTOR VARNADO, the ENTIRE CAST, and special SURPRISE GUESTS, as well as an afterparty DJ'ed by HIP-HOP LEGEND PRINCE PAUL.

"The Awkward Comedy Show" is a special that showcases stereotype-shattering African-American comedians of a different hue; comedians who are more likely to talk about video games than booty; comedians who are more interested in Simon & Garfunkel than Smith & Wesson; comedians who are likely to drop The N-Word - if that word is "Nerdy." TACS airs on Comedy Central on April 9th.

For information and reservations, please visit: http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=743&sid=2669

The lineup:

HOSTED BY: MARINA FRANKLIN - from Comedy Central and "The Jay Leno Show"

WITH:

VICTOR VARNADO
from the movies "End of Days" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," and the TV shows "Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

HANNIBAL BURESS
is a writer for "Saturday Night Live" and has been seen on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"

BARON VAUGHN
is the star of USA's new show, "Facing Kate"

ERIC ANDRE
is a touring comedian who has been seen on Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham"

AND SPECIAL GUESTS TBA

The FUNnest Movie Ever Made. ROBOTO SUPREMO PREORDERS

2010-04-14T16:08:00.003-04:00

The FUNnest Movie Ever Made. ROBOTO SUPREMO PREORDERS

You can preorder copies of Roboto Supremo right now! What is Roboto Supremo?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE_uU3Og0Mg

Copies are only available as a reward for donations to the kickstarter project.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supreme/the-funnest-movie-ever-made-0

It has been a while since I turned my attention to finishing Roboto Supremo. Luckily I had a good excuse for waiting around. I made a feature which sold to comedy central and has already premiered! Awesome.

Now it's time to finish the post production on Roboto as well as try out a new project with Kickstarter!

Read on and jump in!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supreme/the-funnest-movie-ever-made-0

The "Spirit Cabinet" Shoot - a feature in five days

2010-04-14T11:18:00.007-04:00

About a year ago, Victor Varnado and I made a bet in front of the Iron Mule audience that I would have a feature film shot by February, 2010. Our plan at one point was to shoot a ghost story called Spirit Cabinet. However, it turned out to be too complicated a project to shoot by the deadline. So I made another film instead.

But the Spirit Cabinet script was still around, and we had a cast and crew ready to make it. So we shot it over the course of five days in March and April.

Five days you say? Are we crazy? Well, maybe. But we did also shoot a feature in one day. And Victor shot one in three days.

It was a grueling experience, and not necessarily recommended, but it goes to show that it is indeed possible to shoot an actual feature-length movie with an an actual script, an ensemble of 8 actors, real production design, and special effects in just five days.

Some of you may know that we shot my first feature The Changeling in six days, so a ridiculously short shooting schedule isn't new to me. But the main reason the first feature was possible to shoot in such a short amount of time is that we spent a huge amount of time preparing beforehand. The actors rehearsed on and off for nine months, and the director of photography and I spent time at the location in which we set up each shot and practiced shooting the movie with me standing in for the actors.

We didn't have that luxury on Spirit Cabinet. We had to work out a lot of the details as we went along. Also, unlike The Changeling, a large section of this movie involves scenes with eight people, which, if you've never tried, is a staggeringly difficult thing to shoot so that you can understand what's going on and still have nice-looking shots.

But we went forward, a little frightened by the task ahead of us, but undaunted. I knew in my gut that we could make this work, although to be honest, I had no idea how we'd actually be able to pull it off.

Here's why we were able to pull it off:

M. Sweeney Lawless, our screenwriter and producer, is a supreme organizer and tirelessly focused on details. She worked night and day to prepare for the shoot, and did about seven jobs on set at the same time, without missing a beat.

Our line producer and Iron Mule producer Lin Sorensen spent countless hours planning and finalizing all the necessary details to get the set up and running. He also was the pleasant face of the production and fearlessly venturing out into the neighborhood and getting people to turn their music down when we were shooting. No small task in NYC!

Alan McIntrye Smith is the fastest cinematographer I've ever seen on set. He is both an amazing lighter and intuitive camera operator. We shot the entire movie handheld to save time and to be able to cover the action, and Alan always knew where he should be. Since Alan is also a director, he was able to understand the rhythm and subtleties of the acting and shoot accordingly. Alan was on his feet all day every day, so the shoot was physically demanding for him, but he worked quickly and kept his focus. He also brings his own camera team made up of his colleagues and students, and they are all excellent.

Eric Berkal, AD extraordinare, kept a firm hand on the set and kept us moving, helping us schedule 17-22 pages of shooting a day, in spite of his better judgment (normal movies shoot 3-4 pages / day).

Robert Eggers, our production designer, came up with a simple concept for the set which was quick to set up and played to our strengths. And once the house was dressed it could pretty much stay dressed.

After a day on the set when it sunk in to the cast and crew just what they were going to have to do (shoot 20 pages /day; learn lines without ever having heard their acting partners say them; rehearse and shoot at the same time; break scenes down into small chunks which don't make sense out of context), they stepped up their game big time for the rest of the shoot. Without their focus and commitment we would have never completed the shoot in 5 days.

Between shooting days, M. Sweeney Lawless rewrote as necessary to combine scenes and otherwise streamline the rest of the shooting process. All this while working on other projects and going to work during the week, as we all were doing.

Why would this team of people go through this grueling experience without getting paid huge buckets of money? This is where I come in. I have been fortunate to assemble a great team of people together in my many years working in theater and film. And for some reason they trust me. Also, they really enjoy the chance to work together. Plus, M. Sweeney Lawless wrote a script that was both funny and scary with great moments for each character, and gave a chance for each department to do some interesting work. And that doesn't come up very often for actors and technicians on paid jobs.

So we leaped at the chance to do this together. The support team and their effort was herculean, but expected. No one for a second doubted that we would do this (at least not out loud).

The result? Sure you can shoot enough material in five days. You can technically do it in one (see earlier post). But shoot good-looking, compelling material that makes a movie as strong and compelling as if it had an actual shooting schedule? You all can be the judge of that when we're done with post production. But I'll close by saying that the performances were of a very high caliber, and Alan McIntyre Smith can light scenes with just a candle or natural light from a window and make them look as good as any Hollywood production and Robert Eggers and Polina Roytman (our costume designer) can define mood, style, and character with very few resources. On top of this the script was compelling, and better than many many other larger budget projects. I only hope that the work I did as director did justice to everyone's commitment and skill level. Stills from our shoot are below.

Daily Show Writer Elliott Kalan to Guest Judge May 1st Screening

2010-04-09T10:51:00.001-04:00

We are thrilled to have Elliott Kalan join us at the May 1st Iron Mule screening!

Elliott Kalan is an Emmy-winning writer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" as well as co-host of the bad movie podcast "The Flophouse". He hosts the monthly series "Closely Watched Films" at 92YTribeca. In previous lives he performed as one-half of the sketch comedy duo The Hypocrites, and was a weekly columnist for the free newspaper "Metro".

Movies We Like: Funny Women

2010-04-07T18:28:00.000-04:00

Very often when we watch submissions, we find ourselves wondering if the filmmakers (almost always male) have ever met a live female human being. The roles for women in short comedy are often either non-existent, insulting, or not very interesting, while the male parts get all the laughs. See this blog post for a short essay on this subject.

We'd like to take a moment here to post some films we like, by both male and female filmmakers, that feature strong, funny lead roles for women. It's not that hard a thing to do, but surprisingly few people out there making short comedy films seem to bother.

TURKEY SHOOT
Ramona Floyd (who actually knows how to shoot) was randomly chosen from our audience to star in this movie. We had such a fun time with Ramona that we made her a producer of our festival!

WHY ULA LA IS SO GOSH DARN CUTE
A movie by Nic Holland in which the woman gets to be the funny one while the guy is the straight man.

HOW TO BE POPULAR
An amazing film by John Dilley that chronicles the experiences of popular girls in high school. Done with honesty and heart. Unfortunately only the trailer is online. Here it is:

BACK TO THE FUSCIA
The woman drives the action in Toby Robert's poetic comedy from the UK.

YULIA
Antonine Arditti's story about true love and travel to another dimension.

YELLOWTAIL
Artist and animator Laurie Rosenwald usually features herself in her work, so we're not sure if it exactly applies here, but we like her work so much we're including it anyway.

JUST TALK
Eliza Skinner's charming movie about dating shows that nice women and crazy women can both make for good roles in a short comedy film.

MONKEY PANCAKES
Victor Varnado's movie about a woman and a monkey.

Lastly, we can't list strong roles for women without mentioning Signe Bamane's work. This Latvian animator has made many wonderful short films with women protagonists. You can see some of them on her website, and find out more about the Teat Beat of Sex series here.

Notes from our April 3rd Screening - 8th Anniversary!

2010-04-05T23:15:00.002-04:00

We remember being eight years old; it's a great age. You can pick out your own clothes, you can sort of read a menu, you can write your own name and, these days, you also know how to pay your cellphone bill online. Last Saturday, we got to relive the glories of being eight through Iron Mule, a monthly short comedy screening series that can totally dress itself but hasn't yet mastered cursive.

Thanks to all of you who came down to the 92YTribeca on a lovely spring weekend to help us ring in the Iron Mule 8th Anniversary Double-Feature Special Show(s)! Our first show featured some of the best Audience Award winners from the last twelve months, including Stalk Much? by Bill Baykan of Chicago, Introduction to Physics by Caleb Foss, and hometown favorite My Apartment by dpShorts. Kasey Williamson & dp of dpShorts shared a little bit about the movie and the temporary pause in their highly-prolific year. It seems they're both writing for other people, but we hope they'll be back with more material soon, especially the kind with rapping. We were also proud to highlight some great international animated films, including the beautiful black-and-white love story Yulia by Antoine Arditti of France, and the deliriously-bloody and bravely-uneducational Factoids & Slapstick by Doug Bayne of Australia. Mixed in with all that were a few samples from our Wanna Be A Star? competition, held every month, in which a lucky audience member is chosen at random to star in a film with a title chosen by said audience and produced for the next month's show. In the future, Iron Mule will be posting our Wanna Be A Star? films online, so watch this space for more details!

But it just wouldn't be a year-long roundup without some illustrious awards, so at the end of our program we asked our attentive and opinionated audience what they thought was best. Their verdict? Stalk Much? by Bill Baykan took the cake as our Audience Favorite. And although there was, in fact, no cake (or any award of any kind), Bill can sleep soundly in the knowledge that he has all the populist bragging rights the Iron Mule can bestow. At least, until next April.

After a brief, drink-refilling break, we moved relentlessly onward with our 2nd program, the Judges Award winners. Highlights of the past year included How To Be Popular by John Dilley of California, Knock Knock by Iron Mule fave Jack Ferry, and Time Travel: An Allegory by Ritchie Wilson. Jack and Ritchie were on hand to talk a little bit about their next projects: Jack and producing partner Melissa are developing an internet series called "Written Off," about a group of washed-up soap opera stars who develop their own show for the internet, and Ritchie is working on a couple of new scripts and moving out of Portland, Maine. We also shared some favorite selections from around the world included our first film from Norway, Nemesis by Stian Hafstad, about a man in search of superpowers and a friend; and Technology, a hilarious document of one man's attempt to explain basic physics, by Alex Kelly and Third Angel of the UK. Selections from our top-shelf animation offerings included three short films by local animator Laurie Rosenwald, including her collaboration with David Sedaris, "David's Diary"; and the award-winning bittersweet sci-fi tale, The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! by Jake Armstrong.

Since this part of the evening was dedicated to selections dear to the cold, analytical hearts of our secret cabal of judges, they were the ones to do the award-granting honors. And the bragging rights for Judges Favorite of the Year went to Nemesis by Stian Hafstad, and runner-up How To Be Popular by John Dilley. Congratulations, Stian and John, for making us laugh and making us think, often at the same time!

You can always find out more about our monthly screening series at http://www.ironmulenyc.com/ and on Facebook. We hope you'll join us for our 9th year of showcasing the best in short comedy films, beginning May 1st at 8pm!

The Iron Mule Team: from left, Lin Sorensen. Victor Varnado, and Jay Stern

Notes From Our March 6th Screening

2010-03-08T23:51:00.000-05:00

On the eve of the Oscars, lucky visitors to the 92YTribeca got an early glimpse of celebrity-driven movie magic at the latest Iron Mule monthly screening, beginning with Iron Mule co-host and producer Jay Stern (left in the above photo), who fielded questions from the audience about his upcoming new feature film The Adventures of Paul and Marian. Jay's currently in the fundraising stage of the project and will be updating Iron Mule audiences monthly as to his progress. Jay's co-star Victor Varnado (to the right of Jay) then plugged the upcoming Comedy Central premiere of his latest directorial project, the feature film The Awkward Kings.

After these shameless plugs, our fearless hosts introduced our Guest Judge for the evening, Rob Cantrell. Rob, a comedian, author, and now recording artist, premiered the music video for his song, "Rub My Feet," directed by Victor.

Following that, our first block of films began with True Beauty This Night, a beautiful film from L.A. resident and German expat Peter Besson, about a very unconventional love story. Next up was Larry Ziegelman's Check Please, an unconventional meet-the-parents story about a father and son's battle over paying for dinner that may make the son's girlfriend think twice before joining the family. Larry (pictured below during his Q&A flew in from Chicago to talk about the film and how his recent unemployment might help him realize his dream of making more films.

Hosts Jay and Victor checked in with Guest Judge Rob, who seemed to be enjoying himself and the films. But would it last? To test his good humor, the next film on the program was Like Jumanji, by Will Newman and Jill Morris. Like the title says, the movie follows the haphazard adventures of four friends who find a mysterious board game that will change some of their lives forever. In a bad way. Will and Jill joined the hosts for a little Q & A (as seen below), sharing the story of the first incarnation of the film, at which none of the cast or crew showed up, and how that lead to a new production with a new and more reliable team.

Our next film, Mum's the Word, was our first from Newfoundland, and the film's writer, the lovely and talented Kerri MacDonald (below), flew down for the weekend to join us. She talked about the local tradition that forms the basis of the movie, "Mummery," in which Newfies put on crazy disguises and knock on other people's doors and then hang around their houses until the host can guess who they are. It's a Christmas thing. Kerri was also kind enough to bring handcarved ornaments featuring characters from the film for each of our producers. Thanks, Kerri, we love presents!

Unfortunately, since our show was running a little long, we lost our guest judge to a previous engagement. Left with an ever-shrinking cabal of judges, hosts Jay and Victor soldiered on. Our last bloc of films for the evening featured the German film, Run Granny Run! by Nikolaus von Uthmann, described as "The race from Ben-Hur, but with old ladies and their walkers." Rounding out the program, The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! follows a courageous astronaut who lands on a lonely planet determined to kill the mysterious man-eating creature of the title, but the Thing might not be so terrible after all. Animator Jake Armstrong (below, hiding in the shadows) talked about the painstaking process of hand-drawing the film, which was his thesis project at the School of Visual Arts.

While the ballots were counted, audience members were treated to this month's Wanna Be A Star? film, Nuh-Uh, starring audience member Ilya Kushnirsky and directed by first-time filmmaker, long-time theater director Annie G. Levy. For more information on this monthly audience-participation competition, please visit our website.

And when all was said and done, one film stood out from the rest. Jake Armstrong's The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9! took both the Judge's Award and the Audience Award for the evening. Congratulations to Jake and to all our filmmakers, and join us next month for a very special double-feature, the Iron Mule 8th Anniversary Show! Two shows, one night, big laughs. You can get your tickets here: www.ironmulenyc.com

New Iron Mule Promo

2010-02-19T14:56:00.001-05:00

Short Comedy Film Shortcomings Part 4: Laughing At Women, Not With Them

2010-02-17T10:11:00.005-05:00

In the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, cranky Christopher Hitchens wrote a "provocative" article entitled, "Why Women Aren't Funny." A hot topic among cultural critics and Jezebel readers, the article offers a confusing and all-too-common take on women and comedy at the dawn of the 21st century. On the one hand, Mr. Hitchens seems to be saying that women have all the power, and making them laugh is the only thing men can do to get their attention; and on the other hand, he explains that women are burdened by more practical concerns, like giving birth, and therefore can't make light of the cruel world we live in. Unfortunately, these conflicting attitudes also influence the portrayal of women in many of the submissions we receive. In fact, some of the gender-based characterizations are so antiquated it makes us wonder if the production team has ever met a human female in the flesh. And while these comic stereotypes are most prevalent in films made by male directors (who also send in the overwhelming majority of submissions, but that's for another post...), we've certainly seen them in work by female directors as well. When women are employed for comedy in these films, it's not because they get to tell the jokes; it's because they can be described as one or more of these three things:

They're Terrifying: The women in this category are all-powerful, all-knowing, and have very little interest in men. Or, at least, not in the "hapless" male protagonist. Therefore, our Hapless Hero (very young, or very nerdy, armed only with his sense of humor) must persuade the Terrifying Lady (bold, self-reliant, built like the prow of a ship) to come down off her pedestal and be with him. While that may sound like the plot of nearly every Woody Allen movie, in the good ones (you know which ones), the woman is still her own person with her own objectives and romantic criteria. In a boon for the character in question, she may also be Diane Keaton. But in short films featuring the Terrifying Lady, she becomes "the enemy," even though she's also the main character's objective. She asserts herself as the antagonist every time she asserts herself as an individual. We're supposed to laugh at the lengths to which the hero will go to win her heart, to bring her down to his level where she is no longer strong and terrifying. But that doesn't make for a very convincing romance, comedy or film. It just sounds like wish-fulfillment.

They're Difficult: Another category with the funny woman as adversary, this type of woman is not a goal but an obstacle to be overcome. Why? Because she demands things of the male protagonist: money, time, attention, emotional engagement, gifts, romance, sex. As a result, the comedy comes from the put-upon man trying to meet the fickle needs of his woman, whose only purpose in life, apparently, is to flummox him. Irrational behavior is one of the cornerstones of comedy, George Burns & Gracie Allen being one of the most satisfying examples. But, unlike George Burns who directed all credit for their hilarity to Gracie, many of our submitting filmmakers seem genuinely angry with their Difficult Women. They play it for laughs but the underlying story is that these wacky women are holding the main character back, miring him in a dismal, half-hearted comedy when he should be starring in the sequel to Scarface, or some other lofty all-male endeavor. As in Mr. Hitchens' article, the comedy that stems from the Difficult Woman's petty day-to-day concerns ironically becomes the reason why "women aren't funny." Having a demanding and difficult antagonist is ripe for humor, if the woman is portrayed as an individual, but it loses its juice if she behaves that way simply because "that's how women are." Because it's often not true.

They're Secretly Men: The weirdly positive category. In the recent film, "Up In the Air," the female lead says to her male counterpart, "Think of me as you, with a vagina." While the movie ultimately upends that idea, many of our submitting filmmakers seem to take the sentiment more seriously. The usual storyline goes like this: the young male lead develops a crush on his buxom, sassy co-worker/bartender/sister's friend. Once he gets her attention (haplessly; see "Terrifying" above), it becomes clear that they're both looking for the same thing: a buddy. She swears, she swaggers, she likes sports, she can hold her liquor; she's actually more "man" than he is. And she's got that sweet rack. The problem is, once you get past the whole "chick acting like a dude" thing, Secretly Man Woman doesn't provide any further conflict (or humor) because she doesn't have any of her own needs or goals. She's like a funhouse mirror where the protagonist sees only a reflection of himself, but with exciting new shapes. There will often be a female character from one of the other categories lingering on the sidelines, providing a vivid reminder of the kind of woman men don't want. She's bitchy, she's demanding, she's emotional, but all a guy really wants is a girl who's just one of the boys.

The solution to all of this is a simple one. Filmmakers: take an interest in all of your characters. Put yourself in their shoes, think about what they want, consider what they add to your story. One-note characters and stereotypes can get an easy laugh, but nothing beats the conflict of individuals with their own believable agendas. Sure, Hollywood gets away with casual sexism all the time, but we don't laugh when they do it either. And we haven't even talked about women as lead characters! But sadly we don't get very many of those either. Needless to say, ignoring or shortchanging women leaves the comic potential of half the world's population unmined. And that's a lot of short films waiting to be made.

Check back with us next week, when we'll be posting another Movies We Love entry, devoted to great funny women in short film. Because we believe in negative AND positive reinforcement!

http://www.ironmulenyc.com/
-

Rob Cantrell to Guest Judge at March 6th Iron Mule Screening

2010-02-14T17:01:00.001-05:00

We're pleased to have Rob Cantrell joining us a special guest judge at the March 6th Iron Mule screening.

Comedian Rob Cantrell, a Washington DC native, has performed stand up on several major networks, including CBS’s Late Late Show and as a Top 10 Finalist on the very first season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. He tours the World making people laugh, most recently as a member of the Marijuana- logues, and as a Celebrity Judge at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. Rob is a contributing writer for High Times Magazine and various TV Shows. In 2009, he was signed to Stellah Records and released his debut comedy/music album Keep On The Grass. Rob lives in Brooklyn with his wife and 14 imperial poodles.

Union Docs Screening at MoMA

2010-02-13T08:33:00.001-05:00

We know we're a comedy film festival, but we'd like to recommend a non-comedy screening coming up; Union Docs as part of the Museum of Modern Art's Documentary Fortnight.

Union Docs is a remarkable organization, and this screening on February 20th marks their MoMA debut. Congratulations to Union Docs!

Information about the screening, other and upcoming Union Docs screenings and events can be found here.

Notes from our February 6th Screening

2010-02-08T13:31:00.012-05:00

Greetings and thanks to those who got a coveted seat at last Saturday's show, our first-ever sold-out Iron Mule program! It was standing room only on a cold February night as we gathered for 12 short films, two trailers and our fancy new 3-D title intro. Almost as good as Avatar, and a hell of a lot shorter.

For those who've attended any Iron Mule shows in the last year, you may remember that this was the moment of truth for hosts Jay Stern & Victor Varnado who had each made a pledge to shoot a feature film before February or host that month's show naked. And boy, did they deliver!... their films. The audience was witness, not to the full monty, but to the trailers for Victor's movie, "Lasergun," and Jay's movie, "Jay Stern's Still Untitled Movie About a Ghost in an Apartment." While they both agreed that shooting a feature in a weekend may not be the way to go, it did kickstart both of them into working on their next project. In Victor's case, that means using the footage he shot to try and scare up money to go back and shoot it better, and in Jay's case, that's preparing for the other two features he plans to shoot this year.

On to the main event, Jay & Victor introduced our guest judge, Ritch Duncan, who shared some wisdom from the book he co-authored with October's guest judge Bob Powers entitled "The Werewolf's Guide to Life." After answering audience questions about silver bullets and the veracity of Teen Wolf, we began the evening with a pair of British films about trying to get ahead. "Audition," by Simon Brown, features a monkey puppet trying out for the role of Othello, and Kat Moon's "The Initiative," revolved around an office drone named First who always comes in second. Kat, a New York native, was on hand to tell us about making the film while attending the London Film School, and how her DP ended up starring in the film after her lead actor quit the night before shooting started.

Next up, "Official Selection" skewered the Hollywood "Art vs. Commerce" debate as two budding screenwriters battle to rewrite the movie they're in. And following that, previous Iron Mule participant Louis Grenier shared his latest short, "Don't Put That There," a monologue about littering that features footage he'd shot fifteen years ago and recently completed. Louis talked about the process of adding new footage to the film and how he first started recording his stand-up monologues. Checking in with our guest judge, Ritch explained that he had been taking "copious notes," such as "monkey puppet" and "exploding car." Any further opinions he was clearly keeping close to the vest.

We then moved on to an animation bloc, beginning with David Baas' "Skylight," from Canada. A mock nature documentary (and a rare success in the genre, see here), "Skylight" examines the majestic arctic penguin and the danger he faces from laserbeam-accurate holes in the ozone layer. After that, Iron Mule was very lucky to have longtime-viewer, first-time-screener Laurie Rosenwald on hand to share three of her animated films. Employing temps she pays "little or nothing" to set her cut-paper-collage animations into motion, Laurie's films use anecdotal monologues to explore superlatives, cable TV addiction, and other pitfalls of modern life. Her third film, "David's Diary," centers on a diary entry read by author David Sedaris, whose articles she has previously illustrated for The New Yorker.

Rounding out our competition entries for the evening, we ended with "Brinquedos (Toys)," a silent, surreal short from Brazil about a little girl's perilous quest for a doll carriage, and "Time Travel: An Allegory," from Portland, Maine filmmaker Ritchie Wilson. In the film, the main character invents a time machine to kill Hitler but mostly uses it to steal cereal, while his roommate watches the many doppelgangers come and go and tries to keep him from inadvertantly killing himself. Ritchie made the trip down from Portland to talk about the film and discuss how he came to live in Maine. (A girl was involved, he said mysteriously.)

Before concluding the program, we introduced a special guest in attendance: Ming-Yi Smith. She met future husband Alan Smith when she was chosen to be in the Wanna Be A Star? film "Kumquat," which Alan directed. The two hit it off immediately and went on to make a sequel, "Avocado," and last month tied the knot. (Their story was recently covered in this New York Times "Vows" article.) In honor of our first Iron Mule wedding, we screened "Kumquat" and talked with Ming-Yi about her memories of the shoot. This month's Wanna Be A Star? film, directed by Iron Mule producer Lin Sorensen, featured a couple Iron Mule faves, filmmaking team dp & Kasey Williamson. In the film, "Go For The Win," dp plays a job applicant struggling through a very unorthodox interview. So far, no one involved in the production has decided to get married. For more information on the Wanna Be A Star? competition, please visit our website and check out our next show for your chance to win.

After all the ballots had been collected, guest judge Ritch Duncan announced the winners: "Official Selection" won our Audience Award, and "Time Travel" picked up our Judges' Award. Congratulations to Vince & Ritchie on your accolades, and thanks to everyone who helped us pack the house. Our next show is March 6th and we'll have lots more great short comedy, including films from Germany, Newfoundland, and Los Angeles, so get your tickets early!

The Iron Mule - Changing Lives!

2010-01-30T10:44:00.002-05:00

Im really humbled that our short comedy film festival has brought two people together and given them an excuse to dress up in fancy clothes for the New York Times.

You can read the NY Times article about the magical romance of Alan and Ming-Yi, and the power of the Iron Mule to change lives, here.

Of course now we have to destroy a marriage to restore balance to the universe.

New Iron Mule Promo

2010-01-29T15:32:00.002-05:00

Movies We Like: Documentaries

2010-01-12T15:00:00.002-05:00

We receive comedy film submissions of all types and genres. While there's no particular type of comedy film we prefer, one of the least successful forms we receive is the comedy documentary.

And we love comedy documentaries when they work. But they often don't.

Christopher Guest et al have made some of the finest comedy films of the past 20 years, but they are also unfortunately responsible for the rise of the "mockumentary." Like any spoof, a true comedy documentary must first be as good as the subject it's satirizing, and then go one step further. (It also helps to actually satirize something. If you're confused, click here.) Many people seem to think that all it takes to be Christopher Guest is to grab a camera and put yourself and your "funny" friends in front of it. After all, these things are improvised, right? Well, not entirely. For starters, these are experienced improvisers who've also spent a lot of time developing Characters and Stories. Yes, we're talking to you, college students: Stop with the mockumentaries! Especially the ones about the entertainment industry, because it kind of feels like you're biting the hand that you so desperately want to feed you.

But we digress. This post is titled "Movies We Like," so we'll use the rest of this space to highlight a few favorites that have played well at our festival.

The first in the mockumentary category is Andy Bobrow's incredible film The Old Negro Space Program. Bobrow's movie, besides being a pitch-perfect lampoon of the Ken Burns-style documentary, is actually about something, and touches on issues of race in American history in a way that only a satire can. One of our favorite all-time short comedy films.

Another great movie in the "mockumentary" category is Alec Cohen's I Got Shot With A Bullet. Unfortunately this film isn't online so we can't post it here, but Cohen's movie is a remarkable portrait of a filmmaker who earnestly documents his own trials but ends up exposing himself as a self-involved idiot.

Of course, actual documentaries can be funny too. We LOVE to receive real, non-spoof documentaries which have a comic subject or approach their story in a funny way.

Lowell Northrop's Have You Seen Axl Rose? takes a series of audio recordings of people who have had first-hand encounters with the reclusive rocker and plays them over footage of an Axl Rose impersonator walking through the streets of Los Angeles. It's an odd, funny, and kind of haunting movie.

Another documentary that played well for us is Jay Stern and M. Sweeney Lawless' Portrait of the Artist as a 16 Year Old. Yes, we know that Jay is a founder, producer, and co-host of The Iron Mule. But if he can't show his own dang movies at his own dang film festival, what's the point of having one to begin with?

And then there was the first movie to appear on HBO after screening at our festival, Jon Rubin's So Many Women, So Little Hair.

One filmmaker who straddles the line between fiction and documentary is Kyle Gilman, who likes to use the term "fictumentary" to describe his films such as The Epic Tale of Kalesius and Clotho. In this film Gilman fictionalizes true stories of his own life, plays a version of himself, and captures it all in a documentary style. For you documentary fans out there, it will come as no surprise that Gilman studied with Ross McElwee.

And finally, we've shown a few "man on the street" documentaries, which combine "real" people and comic setups. These are familiar to audiences through various prank videos and things like Jay Leno's Jaywalking bit. One filmmaker who always seems to get the tone right with this kind of thing is Kevin Maher, whose film You Make the Call is embedded below.

Some other movies worth mentioning: Mondo Ford, a spoof of those odd Mondo Cane films from the 60's that unearths a very convincing conspiracy involving Gerald Ford and alien overlords; Ryan McFaul's The Man Behind the Motion; and Victor Varnado and Jay Stern's Urban Arts.

Do you have any favorite short comedy documentaries or "mockumentaries?" Let us know by posting a comment!

Ritch Duncan to Guest Judge February 6 Iron Mule

2010-01-12T12:52:00.004-05:00

We are excited to have Ritch Duncan join us as a guest judge at the February 6, 2010 Iron Mule screening.

Ritch Duncan is a writer and comedian living in New York City, currently writing for truTV.com. He runs a free, monthly stand up show called "Third Fridays" at Ochi's Lounge, inside Comix comedy club. It takes place (somewhat predictably) on the third Friday of every month at 7:00 PM. His first book, "The Werewolf's Guide To Life," was published by Broadway Books last September.

January 2nd Screening Recap

2010-01-05T21:03:00.003-05:00

In spite of the outrageously cold weather, we had a packed house down at 92YTribeca for our first show in 2010, and incidentally, our 1-year anniversary of appearing at 92YTri.

Victor Varnado began the show talking about all of those lists looking back at the worst movies of the decade, and expressed his dismay that a movie he appeared in, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, wasn't on any of the lists. Co-host Jay Stern urged the audience to join the fight and write to all those list-makers out there, urging them to include Pluto Nash on their worst-movies-of-the-decade list. We urge all of you readers out there to join in the effort and put the flop featuring Victor Varnado on top of those worst-movie lists!

Then Jay and Victor introduced special guest judge R. Sikoryak. Sikoryak presented two of his "Masterpiece Comics" pieces on the big screen via Powerpoint, assisted with vocals by M. Sweeney Lawless. First was "Inferno Joe," a version of Dante's Inferno as illustrated by a series of Bazooka Joe comic strips. Following this mini masterpiece, Sikoyak presented "Mac Worth," his rendition of "Macbeth" as told with characters from the comic "Mary Worth."

And then we were on to the films! First up was Sam Carter's "Beast of Burden," a story about a closet-hiding monster who is dumped by the kid he's been scaring for years. "Beast of Burden" sports a nicely told story, is beautifully shot, and features some good acting too. Sam and producer Eddie Stone were in attendance, all the way from Atlanta, Georgia. It was Sam's first visit to NYC. Fun fact: we learned in the interview that the plot of "Beast of Burden" was thought of by the movie's 12-year-old star.

Next was Thom Woodley and Johnny North's "All's Faire: Episode the Thirde," an episode from a webseries which examines the strange world of Renaissance Fairs, created by the folks who brought you "The Burg."

Next up was dp's "The Lake," the latest in the white-guy-does-rap-but-it's-way-much-better-than-it-sounds genre by our friend dp. This played back to back with Jack Ferry's "Flirting with Andrea Schnoonens," a funny short featuring the comedy team of Pete and Brian. Jay and Victor conducted a tag team interview with dp and Jack Ferry following these shorts, in which they all discussed the intricacies of adapting sketch comedy for the screen.

Last up was the odd and quirky animated look at humans destroying the planet called "We Are All Here," by Yonghwa Choi. Victor expressed mock surprise that this movie with its eco-conscious subject matter was made by a college student.

And then, after a brief preview for another show Jay produces at 92YTribeca, it was finally time for this month's "Wanna Be a Star" movie, "Spinach Pie," directed by Katie Carman and starring Iron Mule audience member Heather Cole. The short, produced over the last month to a title suggested by an audience member at last December's screening, involved lots of dancing in the streets of New York and the consumption of a large piece of spinach pie with whipped cream on top.

R. Sikoryak then announced the winning film. The winner of both audience favorite and the judge's prize went to "Beast of Burden." We were happy to show Sam and Eddie some NYC hospitality, and thankfully they made a film film worthy of the honor bestowed upon it. R. Sikoyak awarded them with their own copy of "Masterpiece Comics," signed by the author, complete with a drawing of Batman next to the signature.

After the screening, the crowd reconvened in the 92YTri cafe, and then later went out into the frigid NYC air to a local bar where merriment continued until 2 or 3 in the morning, we forget when exactly. Fun was had by all, and images of short comedy films danced in our heads as we fell asleep that night. We should really talk to a doctor about that.

Handling Rejection, or It's Not You, It's Us

2009-12-30T11:56:00.003-05:00

Over the last couple of months we sorted through an unusually high number of entries, which also means we had to send out many letters that began with "Unfortunately" rather than "Congratulations!" Nobody likes to be told "No," and we get that. However, this time we received some curious responses to those rejection letters, and we'd like to take a moment to address them. Let's start with this one:

"Iron Mule Team, Thank you 4 your consideration of "[REJECTED FILM]".(Hope U watched it Through. Doesn't make sense til END) Wanted 2 let U know that Comedy Central Late Night(New Division) has bought our project. Your Film Fest rejecting us, will make a Great Story for us to tell to many Future Filmmakers. Maybe also you might want to reevaluate your IMT and their Process of judging.
C U on the air Next Fall.
THIS and another of Our Projects have made it into SUNDANCE. Happy Holidays."

Although a little rough around the edges, this e-mail is a good summation of the more common complaints we receive. (It would also make for a fantastic lecture on English grammar, but, as we all know, in the world of online communication that ship has long ago and sadly sailed.)

As we mention in our rejection letters, we do not consider this to be any kind of definitive statement on the film. There are many factors that go into our decision to accept an entry, including previously-scheduled films, personal taste, time constraints, and a host of other artistic and practical considerations. Mostly, though, we're looking for something different, something unique, so if we've recently received a spate of mockumentaries (please see this previous post), we're not gonna be very enthusiastic about watching another one.

Sometimes, "unique" can simply mean a well-crafted, thoughtfully-executed, short film with an interesting story. Believe it or not, we don't get very many of those. Also, your film may just not work. We understand, we're all filmmakers, we've made things that don't work. Go make another one.

The nice thing about running your own festival is that you get to show the movies you like. There have been several entries we've received, highly-polished and technically-accomplished resume pieces, that we know will play well at other festivals but, for whatever reason, are just not our cup of tea. Our goal is not to predict the zeitgeist or be ahead of the Festival Circuit curve. We like showing things that make us laugh and encouraging filmmakers whose work we enjoy. We're not trying to be Sundance.

Speaking of Sundance: telling us your film, or a previous film, or your DP’s, or lead actor's last film played at Sundance has absolutely no bearing on our decision. There are many things that have played in Park City that we would never consider programming. "Hoop Dreams," for example. And, since one of our goals is to provide a platform for films that may not have found an audience elsewhere, touting your Sundance run might actually work against you. Besides, why would a rejection from a small short comedy series be that big a deal, if your film is so successful? There are plenty of other festivals that will be impressed with your pedigree; submit to them.

Our criteria for accepting a film is not necessarily whether a film is "good" or "bad," but whether it is right for us. There's no hidden reason or secret agenda, and very, very rarely is there anything that could be done in post (editing, sound mixing, etc.) that would change our minds (see previous post about feedback). So, we're at a loss when we receive comments questioning our "process of judging," extolling the virtues of a film we rejected, or explaining that other, more famous people liked it (e.g. "Comedy Central bought our project"), as if a reasoned argument would convince us to like a movie we didn't like. As anyone who's ever told a joke knows: if you have to explain it, then it's not funny. (And for the author of the email quoted above: If your movie "doesn't make sense til END," then what you have is an ending, not a movie.)

We also had somebody recently respond to a rejection letter by explaining that they submitted "only in order to get the short a page on IMDB." We’re pretty sure that's not how that works, but anyway, we prefer to focus on filmmakers who want to share their films with an audience, not chalk up imaginary points with "The Industry." Many of our guest judges are luminaries of their respective fields, from authors to directors to actors to comic book artists, and it never hurts to show your work to people who create for a living. Our monthly series has also seen connections made, collaborations develop, and even a recent wedding. Those who attend the screenings have the opportunity for a relaxed and friendly interaction with fellow filmmakers and film lovers during the Q&A sessions and at our After Party. Not every festival can offer that, because not every festival venue comes with its own bar.

Every entry we receive is watched by at least three people and our decisions are predominately reached by consensus. We take what we do seriously, and we know what we like. Above all, we like to be surprised. Having been rejected from hundreds of festivals ourselves, we know that the only productive response to a rejection letter is to make another movie. And if you really want to get into our festival, check out our archives and see what we've shown in the past. That should give you a good idea if our festival is right for you and vice versa.

For those who would prefer to send us snarky e-mails rather than start their next project, we say: "Success is the best revenge, and we look forward to being thoroughly humiliated by your inevitable fame and fortune."

And to everyone else, we say: "Thanks for sharing your movie with us, and we promise we'll give it a fair shake."

R. Sikoryak to Guest Judge Janaury 2nd Screening

2009-12-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

We are thrilled to have acclaimed artist R. Sikoryak as our guest judge at our first screening in 2010.

R. Sikoryak is the author of Masterpiece Comics (Drawn & Quarterly), "where classics and cartoons collide." He’s drawn comics and pictures for Nickelodeon Magazine, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The New Yorker, The Onion and Mad, among other media giants. In his spare time, he hosts the cartoon slide show series Carousel.

Sikoryak will share some of his latest work with us on the big screen at the start of the show. Don't miss it!

Click here for tickets.

Notes from our December 6th Screening

2009-12-08T14:30:00.005-05:00

For those who braved the cold and rain last Saturday, there was a warm glow of laughter to be found in our recent showcase of short comedy films. After host Jay Stern excoriated New Yorkers for being weather wimps (and co-host Victor Varnado politely pointed out that present company was of course excepted), we launched into our first block of films.

Starting off the holiday-themed mayhem was a film from the Iron Mule vaults, "White Blood Cell Saves Christmas," an animated short by Dano Johnson. As for what it's about, well, the title says it all. (If you want to check out this or any of our other selections, click here for our archives.) Following that was our very first (and hopefully not our last!) holiday film in Gaelic, "Nollaig Shona (Happy Christmas)" by Orla Murphy. Christmas is not so happy for the protagonist, who gets dumped on Christmas Eve and has to console himself with an overdecorated tree and a persistent stray dog. And concluding the holiday trio was a celebration of "Balls," in all the different forms they take, by Iron Mule favorites dpShorts. Filmmakers dp and Kasey Williamson were on hand to talk about the film, their second in a prolific year-long collaboration that also brought us Audience Award-winner, "My Apartment." They'll be back next month with one more short, "The Lake."

Moving beyond the seasonally-appropriate, our next film was by another Iron Mule alum, Josh Bass ("The Ninjews," "Debt Consolidated"). An epic of no-budget satire, "Joey & Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Independent Film," shows just how easy it is to crank out your very own Oscar-bait Indiewood masterpiece in under 3 hours. This was followed by "Knock Knock," our third of four films by Jack Ferry. The movie, a suspenseful mindgame starring comedians Pete & Brian about a joke with a potentially lethal punchline, has shown at CineVegas, Slamdance and SXSW, and we were honored to have it in our program as well. Jack was on hand to talk about how the film came to be; he said he heard the first few lines -- "Knock Knock," "Who's there?" "I'm seriously thinking about killing myself." -- and was sold.

Our last block of films began with our second film from France, "Yulia," by Antoine Arditti, an animated black-and-white film about a woman's surreal adventures in a room full of levers, and which one will bring her to love. And in closing, Iron Mule stalwart Will Carlough shared his latest with us, "Hungover Movie Pitch." Much like our first film of the evening, everything you need to know is in the title as Will skewers the usual criteria for pitching a Hollywood blockbuster, and the pitifully unprepared condition you can do it in and still be successful.

Before moving on to our Wanna Be A Star? film for the month (for more information, click here), hosts Jay & Victor shared war stories about their respective no-budget super-fast feature films which were shot during the last month over 1 (Jay) and 3 (Victor) days. See previous entries on the blog for more details and photos. For those keeping score at home, this officially means that Jay has met Victor's challenge from last February and will not need to host this February's show naked. The audience heaved a sigh, but it was hard to tell whether it was in relief or disappointment.

Then came "Shedge," directed by 92YTribeca programmer and Iron Mule BFF Cristina Cacioppo, and starring Wanna Be A Star? winner Ellia Bisker. Our first WBAS? movie shot on film, "Shedge" follows a hapless misanthrope and her encounter with a mysterious rock star. After discussing the difficulties of shooting on Super-8 in a dimly-lit concert space and editing in camera, the ballot counting was complete and we were ready to announce our winners.

The Audience Award for the night went to "Yulia," and the Judges Award was given to "Knock Knock." Congratulations Antoine and Jack! And join us Jan. 2nd for more by Jack Ferry, dpShorts, the latest episode of the hit web series, All's Faire, and other fun surprises.

LASERGUN - A Three day feature film - WRAPPED

2009-11-24T07:44:00.001-05:00

So for the movie LASERGUN I wanted to try an experiment.

I have always enjoyed the twists and turns that improvisation can produce but hated that it was generally great moments that were separated by imperfect or sloppy moments as well, so I had an plan; I wanted to transcribe improvisation and only keep the good parts and then transform what was left into a script.

On November 8th I gathered a handful of actors in my apartment and gave then the freedom to take a story anywhere they wanted. I coached the work from the side, sometimes suggesting that they go here or there with their improv, but for the most part it was up to them.

I had introduced the idea of a a homemade lasergun and one of my friends had already started building the prop. The group came up with some incredible stuff.

After the work was transcribed and edited, we met on the 15th for a read-through of the script. Some people had created more than one character in the improvisation so we had to bring on some more actors to fill the extra roles.

Finally, over the 18, 19 , and 20th of November, we shot a full feature script. We had such a tight shooting schedule because I was trying to do the feature for absolutely no money, which was not achieved, and one of my co-producers and DP, Matthew Bray, was able to come up with a free crew fro three days.

Yes we had an 18 hour day. Yes, at one point we all got really loopy and started singing songs while replacing the lyrics with references to poop, but in the end, the important thing to remember is that we shot a movie in just three days.

We operated with two matching HVX cameras so that we could get though the whole thing while shooting twice as fast.

Now the editing begins...

Many thanks to the amazing cast and fantastic crew. I would go through and name them all, but I am typing this at five in the morning and my eyes are burning.

The whole idea came from a challenge that I made to Jay Stern, my friends and co-producer of Iron Mule. I gave him a year to shoot a feature and somehow he ended up with nothing with three months to go on th clock. I jumped in the bet as well. The stakes were that if we have not both shot a feature by Feb 2010, then we would both host the show naked.

So, if we had three months, why did we both shoot our movies so quickly? Uh... because we're dumb.

Shooting Wrapped on Jay Stern's feature

2009-11-20T14:43:00.000-05:00

We successfully got a feature film in the can yesterday.

An entire feature. Shot in one day.

Because of the time constraints it obviously had to be a simple project -- three actors and one location.

But to complicate things, we didn't have a script written going into it. I developed a basic story and characters beforehand with the actors (Marian Brock, Paul Herbig and Mickey Ryan) and the cinematographer (Alan McIntyre Smith). Dialogue was improvised, and we shot the movie in sequence so we could write as we went, stopping before each scene or sequence to figure out what needed to happen next.

We shot at Alan's apartment.

Alan had another self-imposed challenge: he wanted to go the entire day without using a single light. This led him to make some interesting decisions. For example, for the last scene, the sun had set, so in order to illuminate the location enough that we could see the actors' faces, Alan decided to light about 25 candles and use a slow shutter speed on the camera. This gave this scene, our only handheld shot in the movie, a completely magical quality that worked perfectly with the subject matter.

Obviously an entirely improvised movie will be a challenge to edit. And while we have enough footage to make a full feature-length film, I may find that it is better in a 30-40 minute version. We'll see once I start cutting.

I will say that I was really impressed by the willingness of the actors and cinematographer to really throw themselves into such a crazy idea. The actors especially were fearless in putting themselves on the line and making fully committed choices. They really gave up their egos to the service of the project, which is a really rare quality in an actor, even actors as talented and experienced as these.

We had a pretty short day to get everything done. Two of the actors had a job last night and we wanted to complete the shoot before Alan's fiancée came home from work. So we spent 11 hours, from 7am to 6pm, including lunch, to shoot.

Alan and I have a long working relationship, and I've also worked regularly with Mickey and have known Paul and Marian for several years. This was a major element which helped make it possible for us to pull this together in such a short time. Not to mention that my four collaborators are really amazing at what they do.

So that's it for my feature. Stills are below. I'm looking forward to seeing how Victor's shoot turns out!

The Jay and Victor Feature Film Challenge

2009-11-12T23:23:00.000-05:00

Last February, Iron Mule co-host Jay Stern announced before the Iron Mule audience that he was going to shoot a feature film by February, 2010. Iron Mule co-host Victor Varnado challenged Jay: if he fails to shoot a feature by February, 2010, then he'll have to host the February Iron Mule show naked. Jay, in the heat of the moment, flush with the prospect of an entire year before him, and, honestly, not thinking clearly, accepted the challenge.

Well it's November and no feature has been shot. Yet.

And the challenge has heightened; Victor has also vowed to shoot a feature by February. Both features shoot this month, and Jay and Victor have promised to premiere trailers for their newly-shot features at the February, 2010 Iron Mule show. Let's hope that's what happens. Otherwise there may be some nudity.

Notes From Our November 7th Screening

2009-11-09T12:28:00.004-05:00

Hello and welcome to our November Screening Recap! An unseasonably warm day lead to another bang-up Iron Mule show, with short films from as far away as Dublin, Ireland and Portland, Oregon. Only years of extensive Programming Yoga could allow for this much stretching.

The show got off to a rousing start with the introduction of Special Guest Judge Michael Kupperman, cartoonist, writer and illustrator extraordinaire, whose work has been seen in The New Yorker, Fortune, and The New York Times, and on Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live and BBC2. Mr. Kupperman led us through a dramatic reading of several of his comic panels, illustrations and satiric advertisements. It was like cartoons with the closed captioning on, and it was fun.

Once Mr. Kupperman was briefed on the task ahead of him, we moved on to the first two films of the evening, also satires of ads. Not usually a fixture of Iron Mule screenings, the two "mockvertisements" nonetheless overcame the shortcomings of the format by being spot-on parodies, funny and short. "Debt Consolidated," by Josh Bass, focuses on a company offering to clear your debt by first explaining how money works (hint: it doesn't come from God), and "Expedulate," by dpShorts promotes a pill guaranteed to speed up the duration of intercourse for men so that their wives can get some work done. Josh Bass will be back next month with "Joey & Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Independent Film," a satire of epic proportions. And we're halfway through a series of four films by dpShorts; next up is "Balls," just in time for Christmas.

The next block of films introduced by hosts Jay Stern & Victor Varnado was composed of Foreign English films, or as Jay described them, "Films in English from countries other than America." After Victor & Jay debated which English-speaking country was more "foreign" (I think it was a draw), the set began with "Something for the Wickend," a British "Office"-type story set in a sexually-promiscuous candle distributor. Next up was "The One About the Sheep," a 2-minute short short from London by Iron Mule alum Toby Roberts about Australians, their wives and their livestock. And closing out the set, from Dublin, was "Bleeding Love," a shaggy-dog story of love won and blood lost. As Guest Judge Kupperman pointed out afterward, "Love transcends language." Or, in these cases, heavy accents.

Our penultimate pair of films started with "Who's Good Looking," an unusual short comprised of a single uninterrupted shot, from far-flung Portland, Oregon. And returning to Iron Mule after last month's successful screening of "Gazoontite," Jack Ferry brings us "Breaking News," a film he put together in a week about a live news broadcast gone awry. Two great examples of the digital revolution at work. And Jack was on hand to tell us about the parameters of his project, which was a Round 2 submission for the FOX reality show, On The Lot. He didn't get in, but we still love him.

Rounding out the evening's program was an experimental student film by Caleb Foss, "An Introduction to Physics." Caleb came down from Purchase, NY to tell us about the challenges of working on the film, which included developing errors made by the lab (fortunately adding to the "experimental" look) and special effects enhanced by the heavy inhalation of bleach. Kids today... The mockumentary, modeled after black-and-white educational films, wreaks playful havoc with it's self-serious, sternly-narrated source material.

While the ballots were being counted, audience members were treated to this month's Wanna Be A Star? film, "Aluminum Siding," a collaboration between dp (of dpShorts) and Iron Mule alum Michael Goldburg ("Happy Trails"). Previous WBAS? actress Jami Simon was more than game as a foul-mouthed, rapping door-to-door saleswoman targeting brownstones, the Met, and other unlikely prospects. For more details regarding this monthly competition, please visit our website: http://www.ironmulenyc.com/.

With all the counting said and done, Guest Judge Kupperman announced the evening's winners. The Audience Award went to "An Introduction to Physics," and the Judges' Award went to "Bleeding Love." Congratulations to our winners, and hey, don't let it go to your heads.

Filmmakers and audience members alike gathered out in the 92YTribeca cafe to debrief and decompress. Meanwhile, Congress debated a budget-neutral, 3,000 page proposal to allow Iron Mule to continue bringing great short comedy from around the world to Tribeca. Tune in before December 5th to see if it passed!

Short Comedy Film Shortcomings Part 3b: Long Closing Credits

2009-10-30T14:31:00.003-04:00

Much like over-long opening credits, long closing credits say a lot about where the filmmaker's focus has been. Usually: not on the film itself. And since nobody wants a burger that's all bun and no patty, here are some words of advice from our countless hours sitting in front of short film submissions.

1. No bloopers. Seriously, we're glad you guys had a fun time making it, but keep the outtakes for your cast and crew who are better able to appreciate them. An audience is just waiting for the next movie to start.

2. No long moody fade-outs. If you have an original score or a song you'd like to use to send the audience on it's way, that's great; keep it under 30 seconds. Using the end credits as a kind of denouement is fine for feature films, where the audience has already committed a couple hours of their time, but if your film is 5 minutes long, we don't need 2 minutes to come down from it. We're waiting for the next movie to start.

3. No interminably-held stills of cast & crew names. As with the superfluous "starring" lines in opening credits, chances are good that we don't know any of the people in your end credits (hell, we don't know most of the people in the end credits of Hollwood movies!). So get your scroll on and be done with it. There's another movie after yours.

On the positive side, screen credit is one of a very few things (along with food and copy) that struggling, cash-strapped filmmakers can offer to those working hard for little or nothing. And crediting those who have made your film possible is extremely important, both karmically and for the more earthbound practicality of getting good people to work with you again. That said, if a viewer wants to follow up on who your gaffer was, they'll search for your website.

The truth is, if we're screening a block of short films and the credits start to run a little long, we'll just cut them off. It's not personal, and if you're just doing it to look professional, it really doesn't. It looks like you don't want your movie to end. And ultimately, if you haven't made a good impression by the time the end credits start to roll, well, it ain't gonna happen.

Michael Kupperman to Guest Judge November 7th Screening!

2009-10-21T17:13:00.000-04:00

We are pleased to announce that acclaimed cartoonist Michael Kupperman will be joining us as a special guest judge at the November 7th Iron Mule screening!

Here's a little something about Mr. Kupperman:

Michael Kupperman lives and works in Brooklyn with his wife Muire and son Ulysses. His cartoons and illustrations have appeared in magazines from the New Yorker to Fortune, newspapers from The New York Times to the Village Voice, and numerous books, including many published by McSweeneys. His first book, "Snake'N'Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret," was also adapted by the author as an Adult Swim animated pilot which can be seen online; two strips from that book were also adapted into cartoons for the Comedy Central series TV Funhouse. Other television work including drawing a TV Funhouse cartoon for Saturday Night Live, and writing for The Peter Serafinowicz show on BBC2 in the UK. He can currently be found on Twitter, where his user name is MKupperman.

Short Comedy Film Shortcomings Part 3: Long Opening Credits

2009-10-08T11:50:00.003-04:00

We have always been perplexed with above the title credits for short comedy films.

Sure, if you are able to wrangle a name actor to appear in your film, then you want to splash that name all over the DVD and in the opening credits of your film.

But if you're making a short comedy and we put the DVD in the player and have to sit through a series of credits such as "Joe Nobody" and "Melissa Who" in a "So-and-so film," then we know pretty much right off the bat that this film is not for us. If we don't already know who these people are, then we don't care. You're just eating time. We'll watch the end credits if we're curious who was playing which role.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. But most of the time, above the title credits show us that the filmmaker is misguided about what is important in a short comedy film.

We don't care what the names of your actors are. We don't need an expensive DVD cover with their names plastered all over it. On that note, we don't need anything on your DVD cover since we're going to watch it anyway (more on that in a future post).

The only reason for names to appear before the title or before the movie begins is if there is a contractual agreement that they appear there. For those of you who don't know, that's why you see actors' names in certain positions in the credits of Hollywood features and why they're listed the way they are on movie posters. An actor's contract may insist that his or her name appear at the start of a movie in a certain position. Other actors' agents may know this and also fight to get their client placed in a specific place as well. These choices are not creative, or even in the power of the filmmaker much of the time.

So if a filmmaker is doing this on his or her own, he or she is merely trying to appear professional by doing what he or she sees in Hollywood films. OK for your feature. You want to look like you're playing with the big boys with the opening credits of your feature. But for a short film, you're just eating up valuable time.

We often receive film submissions with long opening credit sequences in the 2-minute range. We even received one with a 5 minute sequence! We felt that no matter how good that movie was, we couldn't justify screening a movie that had an opening title sequence longer than many other very good short comedies we've shown. Luckily though, the movie wasn't any good, proving, as we mentioned earlier in this post, that filmmakers who spend time on long opening credit sequences don't understand how to make good short films.

We would like to note that an opening credit sequence that is used to set the mood of the film or reveal plot or character information is perfectly fine. A funny opening credit sequence would be great too. It's just that filmmakers who submit to us with long opening credit sequences tend not to do that kind of thing. Because, well, you know (see above).

Signe Baumane's "Teat Beat of Sex" now out on DVD!

2009-10-08T11:11:00.000-04:00

Our good friend, animator extraordinaire Signe Baumane, has just released a DVD of her "Teat Beat of Sex" series!

Signe is a highly accomplished NYC animator, who seems to know absolutely everyone in the animation world. We've screened several of her films, and they always get a very strong reaction from our audience. Signe's (often surreal) work deals with sex in an explicit, yet charming, honest and fresh way. This series is a good example of Signe at her best.

Signe is an independent filmmaker who distributes her own work. She's always making new films and bringing them to festivals and getting them seen by audiences around the world. She's an inspiration to all us independent filmmakers who are trying to make original work and get it to an audience. So help support a real independent filmmaker by checking out the website and ordering a DVD!

Notes From Our October 3rd Screening

2009-10-05T20:06:00.002-04:00

Thank you to those of you who made it out last Saturday to our October Short Comedy Film Screening Event Extravaganza. For those unable to make the show, here's how it all went down:

After introductions were made, hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado told us a little bit about their journey last year to Estonia, where the Iron Mule Festival was invited to do a show in an industrial warehouse. Since words could not describe the splendor, Victor thankfully cut together a two-part series culled from their video diaries of the experience. Although Jay and Victor seemed unimpressed (and at times, downright baffled) by Estonia's post-Soviet squalor, inexpressive audiences and gun-toting waitresses, we got a good chuckle out of it. And after the screen faded to a "To be continued..." we headed into our first block of films for the night.

"Every Seven Minutes" by Josh Bass started us off on the right foot as we began a program of horror comedies, just in time (well, a litttle early) for Halloween. The audience laughed and nodded in familiarity with one of the most terrifying sounds in the modern world: the alarm clock. Next up was Michael Goldberg's "Boo," his NYU thesis film about a babysitter's run-in with a persistant, oversized and possibly spectral trick-or-treater. Michael was in the audience and came forward to take questions about the film, his curious method of auditioning only one person (and then asking for a callback!) and his animation work for Sesame Street. Shouting corrective commentary from the audience was previous Iron Mule contributor and star of the film, Eliza Skinner.

Our Guest Judge for the evening was James Urbaniak, star of such films as Henry Fool, American Splendor and the animated series The Venture Bros. Jay asked if he had any thoughts so far, and boy did he! Flipping through his notebook, Mr, Urbaniak shared a few brief and pithy remarks he'd jotted down about the films. Despite having mentioned, when he was introduced to the audience, that he'd been to a few shorts programs before and "they can be spotty affairs" (it's true, they can be), he seemed to be enjoying himself.

And on to the next block of films which began with more footage from Estonia, this time featuring a dance party with wall-projected "art films," strangely-colored drinks and white face paint. By the end of it, the experience seems to have left our host-heroes exhausted, disoriented and ready to go home, but at least the audience was having a good time. Then came "My Apartment," by dpShorts, a collaboration between dp and Kasey Williamson, who were in the audience as well. The jaunty rap song that narrates the main character's tour of his tiny Manhattan bachelor pad got at least one request for a soundtrack copy, and possibly a sing-along. Though that didn't happen, Kasey and dp were on hand to answer questions about the source of the project (a friend complaining that he hadn't seen dp's new apartment yet), and also their other collaborations which will be featured at the next three Iron Mule screenings. Afterward, Guest Judge Urbaniak offered high praise for "breathing fresh life into the tired rapping-white-guy genre."

The final block of films began with Iron Mule's first featured short from France! It also happens to be our first submission from France, but any accusations of francophile favoritism are beside the point because the film is funny. "An Angel Stops By..." is a story about a porn director struggling with temperamental talent, a tyrannical producer, and an eager priest who must help him clean up his act before the angel of death takes his life. Continuing in a more morbid vein, "Gazoontite," by Jack Ferry, follows a young man who learns that tuning out the world can have its advantages, even if its achieved by rather gruesome means. The first film in the block piqued Mr. Urbaniak's interest in the possibilty of French porn, and the latter film he called "mythic."

Our Wanna Be A Star film for October (for more information, see our website) was entitled "There's Never Enough Cabbage," featuring audience winner Floria Chi and directed by Dan Simon. A disturbing tale of childhood trauma and vegetable imprinting, it was also a fitting end to our program of the hilarious and the horrifying. Star Flora Chi was on hand to draw the name of next month's winner: Jami Simon. Jami will be familiar to that night's audience as the cabbage-eating mother, and we look forward to seeing her again next month in "Aluminum Siding," which will be directed by Michael Goldburg ("Happy Trails," IM 7/09).

Once all the ballots had been counted, James Urbaniak announced the night's big winners. The Audience Favorite award went to "My Apartment," and the Judge's Award went to "Boo." Congratulations and beers were passed around as filmmakers, audience members and judges mingled in the 92YTribeca cafe before heading out into the warm October night. Thanks to everyone in attendance, and we hope to see you November 7th for our next round of the finest comedy shorts, featuring more from dpShorts, Jack Ferry ("Gazoontite") and others.

Short Comedy Film Shortcomings Part 2: In Praise of Story

2009-10-01T16:46:00.002-04:00

Although we here at Iron Mule receive a wide variety of material, our submissions can usually be divided into three convenient categories: Mockumentaries, Parodies and Narrative (with a special, close-to-our-heart fourth category: Crazy-ass Bizarro Animation). This third category, the Narrative one, is the least common, and we’d like to take a moment to lament that.

For starters, we do not by any means believe that every movie has to have a story. Many of our award-winners, judges’ and audience favorites, have been from that mysterious fourth category, the plotless animated pieces that hurtle forward on the steam of their own creative hubris, seemingly making it up as they go along. However, being animation, the filmmakers have clearly had to consider every frame in detail. If only our live-action narratives received that much attention.

Though we are not expecting every film we receive to be structured around a story, it is actually much harder to NOT have one. Because, when a movie starts, a human audience will automatically seek out a story. It’s not our fault; it’s a survival instinct we’ve had for millenia, we can’t help it. If you’re eschewing a story, you’d better come up with something great to put in its place. And this brings us to the first category: the Mockumentary.

Rather than a story, the mockumentary often revolves around a subject or style the filmmakers think is weird (but in a cool way): exercise videos, infomercials, nature documentaries, art films, history. You name it, we’ve seen it mocked with a semi-serious tone. The problem is that these films tend to have only one joke: “exercise videos/informercials/art films/etc. are goofy and self-important,” and the audience will pick up on that pretty fast. Then comes the follow-up question, the raison d’etre for filmmaking (and storytelling): “Okay; so what’s next?” And more often than not, there is no “next.” So, if that’s all you’ve got, you’d better make it quick. We have certainly shown movies like this, structured around one punchline, but they are rarely over 5 minutes long, and often under 3. Mockumentaries also tend to exist because the filmmakers are cracking each other up. And while making each other laugh is a great place to start, it’s imperative that you show your movie (or, better yet, your screenplay) to people who don’t think everything you do is funny. It’ll save you a lot of time and money, and it’ll help ensure that your film works for an audience that consists of more than just your friends. Listen to what they have to say, particularly the criticisms, and then RE-WRITE IT. A few times. Always.

The pitfalls of a parody are a little different. A parody is, in many ways, almost always an inside joke. It comes from the filmmaker’s personal relationship with the source material. If he or she (though these films are invariably made by males) finds kung fu movies to be silly and poorly-paced and over-acted, then the filmmaker will make a silly, poorly-paced and over-acted movie as a bewildering “homage” to a genre he claims to love, not realizing that some people may find those movies pretty entertaining on their own terms, and not as camp. So a parody won’t work for anyone who feels differently about the genre being parodied. (Unless you actually have something to say about the material, or you’re using the source material as a metaphor to talk about something else, but that would be a satire. And that would require a story.)

As opposed to mockumentaries or parodies, narrative is exceedingly easy. You have a conflict; someone wants something they don’t have and other people keep them from acquiring it. For a short comedy, it helps if that “something” is a physical object or a readily identifiable goal: a job, a car, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, money, love, respect, revenge, etc. Even the most well-known and successful mockumentaries (“This Is Spinal Tap”) and parodies (“Airplane!”) have solid storylines. And the bonus: if done thoughtfully and with care, this NEVER gets old. We will watch stories unfold over and over until we die. However, we will quickly grow tired of hearing that ‘70’s cop shows are goofy, or that kung fu movies are over-the-top. If that’s really the subject you want to address, try sticking a story in there. It doesn’t have to have a by-the-numbers, three-act structure, it doesn’t have to be “conventional.” Just try giving one of your characters a simple objective. Then try telling this story to other people and see if they think it’s funny. If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. Which is why it’s even more baffling to us that so few of the films we receive even attempt it.

When we sit down to watch a submission (and at least three different people will, by the way), the first impression goes a long way. If that first impression is, “Oh god, another mockumentary,” or “Oh god, another parody,” your film has an uphill climb ahead. Not just with us but with nearly every other festival you’re going to submit to. A simple story, well-told, will have a much better chance of getting shown than a more ambitious ten-minute, one-joke parody that leaves the audience thinking, as with any bad joke, “Well, I guess you had to be there.”

Why We Don't Like to Give Feedback

2009-09-22T16:30:00.004-04:00

We often get people asking us for feedback about why we've rejected their movie.

In the past, we were more than happy to. We would write up detailed notes about what we thought worked in the film and what didn't. We'd offer helpful suggestions. We'd even rewatch the submission if necessary to make sure our feedback was thorough and helpful. We would take a significant amount of time formulating a detailed critique, and an honest, in depth, yet diplomatic email response.

Our mission as a festival has always been to create the type of festival - and the type of community - we would like to be part of. And, we figured, if filmmakers took the time and effort to make a film and spend the money on a submission fee, if they didn't get into the festival they at least deserved to get something positive out of the experience. So we felt obligated to give them feedback.

And what happened?

Nearly every time we gave feedback, the filmmaker responded, contesting our notes, sometimes point by point. The truth is, people who ask us for feedback never really want it. They just want us to explain why, although their movie is a work of genius, it doesn't fit into our lineup. Or they want us to reconsider our decision.

So why bother? We're not actually helping these filmmakers get better at their work, we're just spending a lot of time on a lost cause.

The Village Voice published a very interesting article about this issue this week. You can read it here. The author gets this right. And the comments are hilarious!

Short Comedy Film Shortcomings, Part 1: The Comedy Score

2009-09-18T11:30:00.002-04:00

Quite often - more often than you might think - we get a submission with a "comedy" score. We find that in the more expensive submissions, where a filmmaker is able to afford live instruments (or a very expensive keyboard), the composer has chosen to use pizzacato, or the plucking of string instruments to indicate comedy. Sometimes woodwinds will substitute for the strings, providing some whimsical musical padding in the background.

We could go into a whole discussion about the role of music in film here, about how often music is overused to amplify an emotional or atmospheric effect which the director has been unable to achieve. In short comedy films, this music (almost always with "classical" instruments) is telling us: "Look how whimsical and quirky these characters are! What a funny situation! This is a comedy folks, can't you hear it?"

Every once in a while we receive a well-produced, well-written, well-made, and well-acted film which has such a "comedy" score, and we show it, in spite of the fact that the score bothers us. For the more expensive student films and many of our high budget submissions from LA, the music approximates what might appear in a Hollywood feature, since the film is being created as a calling card for the director, showing how "professional" and "slick" his or her production is. And a "comic" orchestral score is one of those elements the filmmaker chooses to spend money on.

But most of the time, such a musical choice points to larger problems with the film-- that the filmmaker is relying on the music to indicate the whimsy of an otherwise unwhimsical product. The hope is that by padding a scene with the comical plunking of strings (or the staccato of playful woodwinds) the viewer will be tricked into thinking that the scene is whimsical and the unremarkable characters are in fact quirky.

The best comedies don't shout "COMEDY!" while they're going about their business. They're simply telling a hilarious story. Pizzacato strings are never hilarious. A comedy score is a placeholder for hilarious.

New Website Design!

2009-09-14T23:12:00.000-04:00

Check out our new website deign! Isn't it great? It's by our good friend and wonderful designer Jonathan Cousins. The best addition is that you can now search the site for movies in our database, many of which you can watch online. And we plan to make this blog a place where we can discuss films, comedy, and short comedy films. So check us out from time to time, we'd love to share some great films with you and hear what you think about them.

Iron Mule at MASS MoCA

2009-08-14T17:40:00.002-04:00

The Iron Mule was invited to MASS MoCA in North Adams, MASS this August. Our special "best of" show included guest appearances by Dale Goodson and Will Carlough. Photos (courtesy of Craig Swinson) are below.