Essay: The Real 8-Toe'd Joe

This past weekend I returned to my work station after the Berkley trip with Scott, unsure of what to edit next. There are about nine segments similar in content to the one posted last week, but I've picked at them until there's nothing exciting left to do. The only items still untouched are several DVD easter eggs, one of which will document the inspiration for the 8-Toe'd Joe character.

Few people know (or care about) this, but the colorful goon introduced in "8-Toe'd Joe & The Army of Toes" and revisited in "Killer Weed" 1 and 2 is drawn from a real life figure.

I first met John Shirley two weeks after his shoddy lawn mower chewed off the two smallest toes on his right foot. The meeting was emblematic of his heedless, spit-in-the-wind attitude, foretelling a strange friendship.

Several friends and I gathered at our usual spot for hackey sack, a delapidated tennis court in southwest Decatur, Alabama. We hacked and hacked, unaware that John looked on from his Grandma's house across the street. Before long he hobbled our way, dragging a long crutch, and we stopped to welcome this stringy-haired, unshaven, tooth-missing triped. A thick bloody bandage shown from under his right sandal, and it took no time getting the story out of him.

He'd had a bad month. Within a week of moving to Decatur, his Grandpa died. (Or maybe he moved because his Grandpa died, to sit his Grandma. Can't recall.) Then in a park, drinking and mourning a few days later, the police arrested him for an open container violation. Then, the next day, hungover, he accidentally executed two of his toes.

We watched in morbid fascination as John, stumps notwithstanding, attempted to play hackey sack.

Well, as one can imagine, the game was offically over with the addition of this odd, tottering invalid. No matter; John's personality proved intriguing enough for us to engage him outside the court. He came to our parties and became a dear friend. My pal Nathan Wall, I believe, coined the moniker "8-Toe'd Joe," to which he still answers.

The common denominator between John my friend and 8-Toe'd Joe my character was an unfettered devotion to substances. And therefore an underlying theme of temptation pervades KW1, a gluttonous uncontrollable urge in defiance of consequence and penalty. This defines John but extends and relates to the millions of others also struggling with addiction.

In KW1, Joe's willpower fluctuates while grappling with his demons. If, like in the movie, the real John were offered killer weed (aware that it turns smokers into the walking undead), he'd probably start weighing the pros and cons of going zombie.

It's only with great reluctance and support from his comrades that movie Joe gradually turns a corner. This manifests itself most literally in a later scene when he, Chloe and Pope destroy a huge indoor killer weed crop in a blaze of fire.

However, on a metaphorical basis, Joe's redemption really happens during the climax. Having been pushed headlong into the still-sizzling grow room and presumably inhaling the pot fumes, Joe menaces his friends while they're restrained by a mob of ghouls. In a confusing but fun pay-off, 8-Toe'd Joe rips away the stray corpse-flesh disguising his face (a rouse to fool the mob) and rejoins his allies in battle.

It's the act of face-ripping that marks his true turnaround. Joe discards the detrietus, the decay from his old way of life and embraces the new, the immediate.

My friend John has had no such about face. While he's moderated his wanton lifestyle in recent years, he's still awaiting some seminal transformative event to change him, I think.

Best of luck, John.

Your friend always,
Matt

Currently...

Having just scored a commision to direct five pieces for Current TV, I had the pleasure of hiring none other than Mr. Matt Stewart to head up to Berkeley with me this weekend to profile revolutionary blogger Markos Moulitsas.

If you haven’t heard of Current TV, definitely check ‘em out. I’m not sure if the cable companies carry it down South, but that doesn’t mean you can’t submit your work. Did I mention that they PAY?















We just got back from Berkeley, where Matt was indispensable. He even plowed through roughly 60 miles of traffic jam (in the rain) on the way home.

We threw a rant piece together for Current a couple of weekends ago, Blocking the Picasso. It was written (by Matt) and shot/edited in one day. Check it out, sign up, and give us a greenlight!

Featured Making-Of Clip: The Script

Let's pause from post-production a moment and rewind to the opposite extreme. Writing the script took place over a period of two months in the summer of 2004.

Click on the image to learn more.

Matt

"Glib"

Filmed my interview for the Making Of a couple nights back. Scott ran camera and prompted me according to a list of questions I wrote and was dying to ask myself. But I became very evasive right out of the gate.

"So, why don't you start by telling me about our history. Is it true we're notoriously hard to work with?"

"No. Next question."

"That's actually both the first and second question."

"Turn off the camera!"

"Why are you being so difficult?"

"I thought this was supposed to be a fluff piece."

After some misfires, I/we got off to a nice stride. It was less an interview and more a game of Mad-Libs because most of the doc has already been edited. My sound bites are simply meant to fill in the blanks.

I work fast, so afterwards I dubbed off a VHS and began transcribing. It's weird writing out your own interview. You learn things about yourself that you'd rather not know. Below, a list of words I overuse:

phenomenal
essentially
invaluable
invariably
ultimately

If you ever hear me use these words in conversation or even on this site, consider it the greenlight for jabbing a chopstick in my temple.

Matt

.44 Reasons

Hat tip to Chris Merritt, Turner Mayo, and Tim Ros.
Nice execution. Click the image for a video clip.

Bring Me The Head of Jeremiah Jones

I'm looking into becoming a Muslim cleric so I can declare a Fatwa on the booking agent at the Jupiter. Everyone knows what a Fatwa is, right? First the offending individual shames Muhammad, or touches an unclean woman, or prays towards Boise instead of Mecca. After stoking the ire of denominational leaders, the individual is issued a Fatwa, then ostracized and shunned (if not hunted outright). Salman Rushdie has one; Osama bin Laden has one. And soon, so shall Jeremiah Jones.

It all started three weeks ago when our production staff sought to cement the movie's premiere date. Chris shot him emails, visited and called the venue repeatedly. And, really, the goal there was just determining whether April 20 was already booked. A simple YES or NO question. The reply could have literally been one character long.

Jeremiah made no indication that we were even on his radar. To be fair, I've since discovered that he prefers an AOL account to his work email. But then, why even have a work email? Why put it on the website, then not list the alternative one below? His later claim that he recieved no Chris Merritt emails, therefore, is moot.

Since Chris made no headway, I cast my line into the pond. Bear in mind, I'm still in Southern California, and Jupiter's still on the Tuscaloosa Strip, so I had to just call and hope he answered. I left a message or two, and he finally answered on my third try. (I'd obtained his private number through surreptitious means...) After an awkward, forced hello, he honed right in on what I was after, which told me he'd received the emails. He gruffly stated that April 20 was booked, then fell silent and offered no suggestions or counter-proposals. I could see that Mr. Helpful wasn't exactly teeming with ideas, so I arranged to call him back.

The next day, I raised him after a couple unreturned calls, meaning to book the thing for May 4. We set the calendar and discussed details, but he surprised me with a confoundingly excessive rental fee. I went ahead and made the book, but with the understanding that we'd talk further.

I related these findings to Chris, who found the figures baffling, particularly as he'd had ongoing contact with local musicians who'd used the venue in the past. We determined that I'd approached this all wrong, that I'd failed to clarify the profit potential. Once Jeremiah started "inventing" fees for sound considerations and trying to rent a room that should have been free, I stripped my proposal down to a bare bones presentation of the movie alone, no music acts. But my greatest weapon was having onboard two of the hottest bands in the Tuscaloosa music scene: Baak Gwai and Chinese Dentist.

Members of either band graciously offered to pick up where I'd left off in dealing with Jeremiah, essentially acting as a delegation. So, I called Jeremiah yesterday to set this up, telling him first that we had to renegotiate the terms. He responded in his flacid way that he couldn't wave the fees, that they weren't arbitrary numbers, and that the rental fee was what it was. Not good enough, I told him.

I wanted to make it plain that KW2 is a movie with a built-in following, that our track record should speak for itself. While in the middle of recounting our packed releases for KW1 and "Dude, Where's My Boat?" I felt a sudden surge of dead air on the line, even deader than his already vacuous personality. He had hung up on me.

Persistence is my strongsuit, so I called back. No answer. I tried again, but went ignored. After my fifth try he answered, pretending like nothing happened.

"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't just hang up on me."

"I didn't hang up on you..."

Didn't matter to me; if you're cut off in the middle of a civil conversation and they don't answer when called back (until being annoyed into doing so) that's still a hang-up.

I didn't care to argue the point. I simply tried to arrange a meeting with the delegation for some time in the next day or two, and that's when his volume really peaked.

"I don't have time to meet anyone. We got Kenny Chesney playing this week."

"We have time sensitive marketing considerations. You've kept us waiting long enough."

"Man, we got Kenny Chesney! Do you know who that is? You're asking me to worry about something going down in May, months away."

"Aren't you the one who told me you typically book shows 6 to 12 months in advance? Is this a business or isn't it?"

"Kenny Chesney!"

I wittled him down a bit, and he somehow found a way to reduce the trumped up fee, confirming our suspicions that he'd tried to fleece us. More than anything, he was clearly sick of being berated. He said he was trying to feed his baby daughter.

"This is rude. Do you know how rude this is? Bugging me when I'm trying to feed my daughter!"

"Let's review the definition of rude, shall we? In my book rude is not returning emails, not returning phone calls, and hanging up on someone when they're trying to make you money..."

We bickered another few minutes, then ended on a note of mutual loathing. He agreed to see my delegation, but on his terms, meaning I had two hours to get our players in position. The only musician available on short notice was Chris Johnson of Chinese Dentist (who also plays "Charles" in KW2). Johnson graciously obliged Merritt and I by meeting Jeremiah at the Jupiter yesterday evening.

The very first thing our shaggy friend said: "I'm not dealing with Matt Stewart anymore." It was with that abrupt declaration that Chris Johnson became our defacto distribution manager. They spoke amicably on the details, finally agreeing to a number sure to please everyone. (And far below the "bargain" he'd originally tried to bilk us into.) Special thanks to Mr. Johnson for making the deal.

But my emnity for Mr. Jones has still not past. It didn't help when I learned he'd called my office asking for me, and he left a message using choice language. So it's with deep regret and apologies to Western religions that I must now transform myself into a ruthless fundamentalist cleric. In good time, I will have climbed the ranks of a small but faithful congregation, winning their trust and respect and maybe even... their love. When they're prepared to die for me, that's when I'll mobilize the lot and start drilling them for the unholy crusade in which they're about to partake. Look out, Jeremiah. I'm about to go Jihad.

Matt

Premiere Date Set!

At long last, we've firmed up plans for the long-awaited debut of "Killer Weed 2":

Thursday May 4th
Jupiter Bar & Grill
On the Strip/Tuscaloosa, AL
(range of 9 to midnight)

The venue is set, money has been discussed, and the movie will be ready in plenty of time.

For anyone who's followed the depressing string of changes regarding the premiere, you know this wasn't our first choice. The dates were changed more often than an Elton John wig. A brief history of rejected dates:

SUMMER 2005 - Some people may think KW2 is now a pleasant memory, completed and premiered at the target date still blotting the end of our website teaser. Not so. The teaser is a left-over relic from secondary photography; a very optimistic time when we had every reason to believe we'd be done in August, at worst. We should've known that shooting would drag out; that we'd think of ways to prolong the process and frustrate our principles. But the single biggest determinant in axing the Summer launch was Scott's sudden move to L.A. in September.

1/06/06 - Once Scott and myself were living and working under one roof, early January seemed a more than reasonable pick. Post-production was chugging ahead despite busy day jobs, and the 6th corresponded with the tail end of our holiday trips home. Alas, we concluded that our audience would still be on vacation. And, naturally, when the holidays sprung up, there was still a lot to do.

MID-MARCH - So when visiting Tuscaloosa, the usual reply to curious fans wanting to know "When?" was "Sometime in March." While this deflected a lot of questions, it was really just a stopgap answer until we could come up with something more solid. Not almost sort-of solid, but solid-solid. Like a good stool sample.

4/20/06 - Somehow, no one hit upon this date until Scott was perusing his "Girls of the US Senate" calendar one day (looking for Barbara Boxer's birthday) and it leapt right out at him. Apparently April 20th is something of a soft holiday for potheads. And given all the soft mush in their brains, it's likely the easiest date for them to remember. Sadly, the venue was booked that entire week so we went with the next best thing...

MAY 4th, 2006 - This seems like the best fix. It falls within dead week at the University of Alabama -- right between classes and exams -- and gives everyone plenty of notice. What's more, we have a few extra weeks to polish the film and arrange merchandising. This just got serious.

Matt

Grab Bag

Gore pickup for Scene 10. Shot in LA over Thxgiving.
Click here for video.













I had my cameo as "L.C." in the infomercial.

Check out "Killer War", the main KW2 theme,
by our man Joe. Look for more cuts from the
KW2 soundtrack over the coming weeks...

Busy times, indeed. Good times...

Dripping With Draper

Another busy few days here. Last night we shot a behind-the-scenes interview with Scott for the DVD doc, and it went painlessly. Scott took a list of talking points and responded to my prompts from there. May I just say that his insights were informative and well-spoken. No doubt his experience as an editor has turned him off to talking heads blithering uncontrollably for minutes at a time, then blindly stumbling towards something resembling an answer. Kudos.

I can't wait to hack into my existing edit and add his gracious contributions, which is why I spent today transcribing the dubbed tape and later digitizing the good bits. Problem is, they're all good bits. In the next week I begin splicing into my timeline and improving the movie tenfold.

One thing stood out as I shot it and watched it and typed it and rewatched it and dig'd it: Scott enjoys talking about our movie. He enjoys the sense of authorship and oversight. He likes shepherding Chris and I through the spiritual wilderness that is post-production. He likes the element of chance, "the jazz" as Mr. T would call it. And I think that's why I like Scott.

From our earliest collaborations with Bill Moses on, from the Hillbilly sketches on up through 'Dude, Where's My Boat?', Scott's never wavered when faced with a project that's at once time-consuming and profit-averse. He's never needed a reason to do it, which is why we make a perfect fit.

Asked in interview why he works these silly movies, Scott said: "Every time I pull out, (Matt) pulls me back in." Well, I would remind my friend that it was he who pulled me in this time. But who am I kidding; he just beat me to it. We've always seized on a mutual gravitational draw, like two binary stars spinning in formation, each waiting for the other to burn out.

Matt

KW2 Headlines

Update time. A lot has happened in the last few weeks, including holiday travel to and from Alabama, but now it's back to business as usual at the Wm. Moses H.Q. in sunny SoCal.

Scott Draper spent a lot of time in December working with an old colleague to punch out effects shots, mainly keying backgrounds. A lot of technical mish-mash, and time-consuming.

Elsewhere, Chris Merritt and I were coordinating a run of custom stickers for advertising purposes. Special thanks to his parents for footing the cash.

Costume honeypot Karolyn Mayo singlehandedly sewed a miniature version of the Pope wardrobe. This of course is intended for our littlest star, the Pope puppet (Poppet), and my, does he look dashing.

Speaking of dummies, I'm in the middle phases of completing one more, marking a change of plans. I've scrapped my initial notion of reproducing all three principals/puppets in favor of a funnier (and easier) solution. For now I'm keeping the specifics to myself.

Otherwise, I've spent my time editing, and of course writing on other projects. If it was ever in doubt, the "very thin behind-the-scenes reel" (as I've called it in an earlier post) has slowly become this sprawling gargantuan love letter to everyone involved. So, yes, it keeps me up nights.

Scott is in the next room massaging the real movie with even more tender loving care. Something tells me he likes to edit naked.

He outsourced one scene of the film to me for rough editing, and I was kind of nervous I'd screw it up. Worked extra hard on it. Pretty much passed it over to Scott yesterday, and am glad to be rid of it. So far so good.

And the last item: KW2 illustrations are now 90% complete and scanned. It took me a day to do all this, if you count the scans I did for...

"8-Toe'd Joe & The Army of Toes!!!" -- That's right! Making its triumphant return in a special retouched second printing, it's my 2001 comic book all about the real-life 8-Toe'd Joe and Pope and their absurd encounter with the Toe Army as led by Der Fuhrer Toe! Details later...

Matt