Tags: Filmmaking, Macbeth 3000, Movies, Shakespeare, Supergun Projects, Youtube
Supergun Cinema’s own hit, mega-spectacular, cult classic, iconic, lovable, crappy, action-packed movie “Macbeth 3000: This time, it’s personal” was made on practically no budget during the last years of high school. But before the almighty glory of Macbeth and Macduff’s pseudo-sexual conflict, were two “prequels”…
“King Lear 2000″, and “Hamlet: The Original Motion Picture” were two short films done for high school English class projects. The latter, Hamlet, was the second project where Geoff Meech, Dennis Logan and Bill Stepec worked together on. The first one, which I think involved Bill simulating masturbation with a large model ship, didn’t stir up the school into a frenzy, but Hamlet had quite a different reception. After screening it in class, word spread around the school about the lightsaber battle between Hamlet (Bill) and Laertes (Dennis) as well as the “matrixy” fight scene between ol’Hammy and Claudius (Geoff).
Within a few weeks, Hamlet had been scene in multiple classrooms to a majority of the school. The few VHS copies circled around and were lost in time; but the next year, in grade 12 English, King Lear was the subject and Supergun Cinema officially formed with higher ambitions and bigger ideas. King Lear 2000 ended up being 45 minutes long with credits and bloopers, containing scene selections from the play, but done with incredible amounts of “schlock”. We ended up doing a presentation and screening the film to several English classes in the lecture hall, before selling 50 VHS copies to students to raise money for a feature. Hamlet went on to be selected for the Toronto International Teen Film Festival, now Youngcuts. King Lear 2000 was quickly buried in a lead box, and Macbeth 3000 also went to Youngcuts and is lurking somewhere in Geoff or Harmeet’s basements.
That feature, Macbeth 3000, is the cultivation of all those years making schlocky Shakespeare. But the really neat thing is, that when I was checking around on Youtube, I came across TONS of schlocky high-school Shakespeare movies- and I’m diggin’ it. I’d recommend perusing the net one night in search of it, but here’s some highlights of the “other” Macbeths and Shakespeare out there:
Macbeth! The Trailer:
[wp_youtube]IVPsGeMlX0U[/wp_youtube]
MacShaft:
[wp_youtube]RWHYVMQinnY[/wp_youtube]
Hamlet:
[wp_youtube]ZmY8Q-kVH5A[/wp_youtube]
King Lear: The Office
[wp_youtube]3BlquzDdsbA[/wp_youtube]
Some of them have the same shots and jokes as we had with eerie coincidence, so perhaps this is evidence of Shakespeare influencing digital filmmaking nerds a certain way. I don’t know, but look for the answers in “Space Caesar 5000: Space Dogs of War!”…. Not.
Leave a Reply