Whew.  Somehow, between my 319 and 419 projects, I made this film too.  It premiered in class this week and I couldn’t be more pleased.  It’s headed to the LDS Film Festival in January and other national festivals.

I produced this funny little movie for my History of Creativity class final project because it challenged my creativity in every way.  The following comments were taken from my final class report.

THE PROCESS

Filmmaking is a group endeavor.  No wonder every film ends with ten minutes of names scrolling across the screen.  Although the director gets the most recognition, hundreds of people contribute to the filmmaking process.  PYRAMID SCHEME was much smaller than the average Hollywood production, but it required careful planning and organization to finish the film.  I was surprised to learn just how complicated the filmmaking process can be.  Producing PYRAMID SCHEME required imagination, delegation, communication and dedication to complete.

THE STORY

PYRAMID SCHEME is the story of Neil, an eccentric geek (not unlike Dwight Schrute) with a plan:  to travel back to ancient Egypt and become a god by impressing the pharaoh with modern technology.  His time machine works—but lands him on the wrong side of Egypt, so instead of holding court with Pharoah, Neil presents his wonders to some farmers.  He displays many devices (including an iPhone) to amaze the farmers, but nothing seems to impress them.  After several failed attempts, Neil returns to his boring life in the present day.

THE THEME

The central message of PYRAMID SCHEME is that civilization progresses along a continuum of creativity.  One day in history is not much different from the next—instead,  innovation happens over the course of centuries.  I chose to present this theme with a satirical twist because Neil’s scheme is so ironic:  his modern technology is of no use to ancient Egyptians because technology is not backward-compatible.  They have no electrical sockets to plug in modern devices, let alone electricity to power them.  A cell phone is of no use to these nomads, not only because Egypt lacks cell towers, but because ancient Egyptians have no one to call.  Their society lacks the centuries of innovations that have led to the present day.  This paradox makes Neil’s plan a silly one, and it highlights the linear nature of creativity.  Every invention is the latest link in a centuries-long chain of innovation.  I chose to make an absurd comedy for this project because it conveys the irony of Neil’s worldview.  Another potential theme that emerges from PYRAMID SCHEME is the weakness of globalization: one peoples’ creativity does not necessarily benefit another people. 

THE PRODUCTION

I’ve made film projects before, but none compared to the scope and difficulty of PYRAMID SCHEME.  Several aspects of production were particularly challenging:

The budget:  We had no money.  This was a personal project without any department or company support, so everything had to be done on a budget of zero.  This obstacle helped our creativity because it limited our abilities.  The farmer characters were cheaper to costume than a Pharoah character, so the story evolved.  By the time props and costumes were purchased, gas tanks were filled and the crew was fed, the project cost about $150. 

The camel:  The original script featured a camel and the Pharaoh’s caravan.  But the closet camel rental I could find was in St. George.  This was too far from campus for a simple weekend shoot, so I rewrote the script to include a goat and some farmers.  But a goat was just as hard to find!  I contacted dozens of local ranchers, asking to borrow a goat for the weekend, but no one was willing.  Transporting a goat was another serious obstacle.  I almost bought a goat on Craigslist for $40, but I didn’t want to own a goat after we finished filming.  Since my expectations were too specific, I nearly rewrote the animal out of the script.  Then I heard about Dr. Robinson, a BYU professor who lives near Little Sahara and owns an alpaca ranch.  I begged for his cooperation so he met us at the sand dunes with Metadona, his beautiful alpaca.  I’m sure alpaca are absolutely not native to Egypt, but it adds some great humor to the story. 

The alpaca:  Getting the animal to our set was the easy part—filming with animals is known to be extremely difficult and unpredictable.  Metadona was cooperative for the most part (but very stubborn and strong!).  Her biggest problem was a fear of the microphone we used on set.  The real difficulty was working with Dr. Robinson’s schedule.  Because of family plans, Dr. Robinson had only one hour to help on set.  The forced us to film all the alpaca shots together and shoot the rest later.  It was a huge pain to plan for this inconvenience, but we made it work.  It was also challenging to edit the footage together… if you watch closely, the alpaca disappears from many angles.

The sand: I’m still cleaning the sand out of my shoes.  It made a mess of everything: the bearings on the tripod, the camera lens, the food and our eyes.  Little Sahara was the perfect location, but the sand made basic tasks difficult.  It takes three times as long to hike in sand as it takes on cement.  And it shows everyone’s footprints, so we had to carefully plan where people were allowed to walk so their footprints didn’t ruin the shots. 

The Egyptian:  We had a guy volunteer to supply our project with authentic Egyptian phrases, but he totally dropped the ball.  We looked up some phrases and tried to fake it instead.  Our Egyptian music also failed us, so I used some music from Mystic India.

The four-wheelers: It turns out Little Sahara is a VERY popular place to camp with four-wheelers.  There were dozens of people riding around the dunes while we were filming.  Some riders even came right through our set!  We couldn’t really ask them to stop riding, so I spend hours adjusting the audio in post-production.  Somehow it worked!

The crew:  It’s hard to trust people, but it’s VERY hard to trust people with your movie.  I relied on many peers to complete this project, but some were more reliable (and creative!) than others.  For example, the Director of Photography decided not to come to the sand dunes—without any notice.  This required me to film the scenes with an unfamiliar camera while directing at the same time.  It was multi-tasking to the extreme.

THE RESULT

Creating PYRAMID SCHEME involved a over dozen people, hundreds of hours, and a high level of ambition to complete.  I’m not a total beginner filmmaker, but I’ve never made a project like PYRAMID SCHEME before.  The film took on a life of its own and required constant problem solving to complete.  I’m very satisfied with the finished product because it showcases the talents of everyone involved.  It ties in creativity from the ancient past, the present day, and the distant future.  And it’s entertaining each time we watch it.  The ancient Egyptians didn’t have motion pictures, but I’m sure they’d laugh if they watched this one.