Hi8 1/2: The Medium is the Mess

Many, many years ago, in my young & naive moviemaking phase, I had this notion that I could make an ultra-low budget, feature length movie. It was a crazy dream, one that I thought I could pull off. So, with an idea I had for some time, equipment from work and friends as the cast I went off one summer to shoot a movie called Hi8 1/2. Production never made it past that summer. And the tapes from the less than successful shoot remain locked away in some warehouse alongside other discarded artifacts like the ark of the covenant and a sled called "Rosebud". The only good thing that came from that production was the name of the movie--a blending of the recordable video medium of choice with the title of the greatest movie about moviemaking ever made (even though it had subtitles!).

The name Hi8 1/2 has stuck with me for almost two decades. Over the course of those years, I knew I would have to produce something that can capitalize on this perfectly poetic title (at least to me).

Several years ago, near the end of the previous millennium, I found myself in a different career path--teaching high school video production. After a few years of working with teenagers in turning their dreams into silver screen memories, I realized I found my next project that can take advantage of the name. This time I wrote (another) fictional storyline based on a former student returning to his old high school to make a movie for college using footage from the video class's archives. Without getting into too much detail, I was able to complete production, but the piece never came together the way I had envisioned it in post. My apologies (and endless appreciation) to the cast who devoted much time during the summer of 2001 to help out!!

So, this elusive idea of making a movie with the title Hi8 ½ nagged away in my noggin for so many years. Finally during the winter of ’08 I decided I had enough. My brain was filled with too many ideas and the hard drives in the video room were packed with great moments caught on tape: interviews, behind-the-scenes gaffs, teens being teens, fights with Hoban, etc…Now was the time, if at all, to put this baby to rest! I had the spring to plan and write the movie and the summer to edit it (the footage, of course, was already shot over the last eleven years).

All I needed now (back in the spring) was a narrator…a voice to support the story I had been dreaming up for so long.

Next post…tracking down an exchange student, eight years after he left the School.