"Cinematic Shrimp" hopes to turn you onto some great short films, talented filmmakers, and helpful moviemaking tips. Check out the Cinematic Shrimp Vimeo Channel to watch more of our Shrimp picks!

NAR WILLIAMS

It was hard for me to believe at first that TURBO was a film school thesis because unlike many student films, it has a level of spectacle and energy that screams Hollywood. The visual effects, choreography, and pacing in this flick are indeed popcorn worthy -- it's easy to think that director Jarrett Conaway has some great summer blockbusters ahead of him. TURBO is a video game movie with a Karate Kid feeling to it -- it's not surprising that Conaway cites the 1984 classic as an influence, along with TRON and The Wizard. No power glove in this one -- the futuristic "turbo" is a 4D fighting game played in an arena, and young Hugo is out to win the ultimate prize: a spot on Pharaoh King's pro team (and all the fame and glory that comes with it). He'll have to beat Shamus, a hotshot in the Johnny Lawrence tradition, and Ruse Kapri, his scrappy chick rival. TURBO runs about 20 minutes. After you watch the film, check out my interview with director Jarrett Conaway for his insight into film school, how he used his black belt in karate to achieve the choreography, and his experience with the RED camera system. —>Follow Nar on Twitter HERE!

GLEN ("Merrick"):

—>Follow Glen/"Merrick" on Twitter HERE! I'm not going to say much here because TURBO is a longer film than many of the shorts we've posted so far, and I want to give you a chance to watch it (this is why we're only going with one movie today - expect a few more early next week). I love the increasing number of projects we're finding in which burgeoning filmmakers are generating product which challenge, or exceed, Hollywood's quality levels. Makes one wonder how, or if, the industry as a whole will eventually adapt to this new breed of "everyman" movie mogul. As a throwback to a number of 80s films (THE KARATE KID, TRON, and several more that pop to mind), the filmmakers behind TURBO realize exactly what kind of film this is, nail that kind of movie, while demonstrating a startling visual flare. Director Jarrett Lee Conaway knows how to shoot a film that looks good - I'd also recommend checking out his grimly apocalyptic ANTHEM (HERE) and his breezy FOOLISHLY SEEKING TRUE LOVE (HERE). Enjoyed LOVE in particular, although I probably would've gone with a different narrator. Without further delay, look upon TURBO!

TURBO

TURBO from Jarrett Lee Conaway on Vimeo.

NTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR JARRETT CONAWAY

NAR WILLIAMS: TURBO is unlike so many short films I'm used to seeing -- it has a "summer blockbuster" feeling to it that is rarely seen (or done well) in the short film medium. What film(s) inspired you to become a filmmaker? JARRETT CONAWAY: Thank you! That was certainly my goal when I was making TURBO. I've always known that I wanted to be a summer blockbuster director and felt that making a short film with a certain level of spectacle would be challenging and hopefully get some attention in Hollywood. There are so many films that inspire me! I watch everything from small indies and foreign films to big event pictures. I really wanted the film to have a future retro feel to it, so some of my favorite 80s movies definitely influenced TURBO. A few that come to mind are The Last Dragon, The Wizard and TRON.
NAR: What made you want to make a film about gaming? Are you a gamer? JARRETT: Yes! I'm a huge gamer. A matter of fact I love gaming so much that for a long time I wanted to work in that industry. I was Executive Editor of an IGN affiliated website for several years in high school and college, then I got a summer internship working in marketing at Electronic Arts. I was going to the E3 convention since I was 16 or so. I really play everything, but my favorites are the Metal Gear Solid and Soul Calibur franchises...oh and of course Modern Warfare 2. I wanted to make a film about gaming because I've never been fully satisfied with films about it. I thought it would be interesting to make a film where the gamer was the hero of the story. I was trying to imagine what videogames might be like in the future, when we have photorealistic avatars. The heart of the story really is a kid who admires his older brother so much that he wants to be him and the game allows him to be. But, of course his journey is to learn to be himself and fight his own battles. I also thought how cool would it be to fuse the Dance Dance Revolution pad with a fighting game. I actually made this film before Project Natal was announced, so when I saw the announcement video I was grinning. I think one day something like TURBO will exist. It's almost here already.
NAR: TURBO was your thesis film for USC film school. How long did it take to make? Was it made entirely by students? How was it funded? JARRETT: I'd say it took about two years from concept to completion. We were raising funds and in pre-production for at least five months and post took about a year on and off. The film was funded with loans, donations, matching funds, credit cards, grants and scholarships. We also got a fiscal sponsor through Filmmakers Alliance so we could offer tax write-offs to donors. The film was produced all by students. I've been fortunate enough to make relationships over the last few years with many professionals that also came on board, some for pay and some for free in other areas. Our production designer had done some art direction for Game Boy games in his past career and our sound designer...well he won an Oscar for Braveheart. He saw the short in rough cut form and took it under his wing. That was an amazing learning experience working with Lon Bender.
NAR: What did you shoot the movie on? JARRETT: We shot on the RED ONE camera in 2K mode. If I could do it again I'd do it in 4K, but we shot this when the camera first came out and we were the first student film anywhere I believe to have shot on it. My post supervisor and I were a little cautious about whether we could handle the 4K workflow and we also knew that I would be shooting lots of slow motion which you could only do at 2K. I wasn't sure whether intercutting 2K slo-mo footage with 4K footage would work well at the time, so I just stuck to 2K. I also knew I wanted to stay in a digital format because we couldn't afford to develop and scan 35mm film at high res for the vfx team. If I had waited a few more months it would have been a lot cheaper though, because at the time I was renting the RED for stupid prices compared to what you can get it for now. I think if I were doing it now, I'd even consider shooting on a Canon 5D SLR. NAR: There's a great debate between filmmakers: is film school really necessary? I guess it's hard to argue with taking a class taught by Zemeckis... JARRETT: There are plenty of great filmmakers who never went to film school, but I knew I wanted to go. Getting into the MFA program at USC was my dream. A very very expensive dream...that I'm going to have to pay interest on. So, if you are well off financially and you can get in, I say go to film school! But, I also say don't expect to learn everything in film school. I was constantly watching films, watching all the special features, listening to the commentaries, etc, before I went. I was also just constantly making shorts with any equipment I could get my hands on, just learning by making mistakes. I know incredible filmmakers that have gone to film school and incredible ones that haven't...but I do think in a world where it's so easy to just start making films, there is a bonus to having formal training. I've never met someone who is working as a cinematographer who didn't go to film school. As for the Zemeckis class, yes I was very fortunate to take that course. It was 12 students and Bob every week for a semester learning about performance capture directing. Film school is the only place where you'll experience something like that. But, the real benefit of film school isn't the alumni that already have Oscars, it's the people sitting next to you. They really will be the crew on your films for the rest of your life. NAR: TURBO features some elaborate visual effects and choreography -- which strikes me as pretty ambitious for a thesis film. What was it like supervising these two production aspects on top of everything else? JARRETT: Well, I have a black belt in karate and used to perform on a stunt team in high school, so I was comfortable with fight choreography. I would come up with some ideas, storyboard them out with an artist, then show them to Ilram Choi, a friend of mine and top notch stunt man. Together we'd shoot the fights on miniDV, and edit a pre-vis of sorts. What was most challenging was matching up the players' moves to the moves in the fight on the screen. We shot all the stuff with the players first and we had a bit of a language as to what certain moves would do in the game. For example, blocking had a very specific hand gesture. From there we cut the scenes together and inserted storyboards and then worked in the fight rehearsals we shot. It's all about refining it. I definitely learned a ton. The VFX were challenging mainly because there were so many of them. We found a team of brilliant vfx artists out of Chapman Film school. They were completing a pretty awesome short film called "The League" and I was eager to work with them. We found a way to raise funds so four guys could work on it for six months. Every week they'd deliver shots and I'd give them notes. It was a very collaborative process. You can check out their work at www.emberlab.com
NAR: Is TURBO a prelude to a feature film? JARRETT: Well, I wrote a feature script with a friend of mine, Brent Strickland, who is the current writer of the Wonder Woman screenplay. It's a first draft and we are hoping that the likely success of Tron Legacy will jump start some interest in making something like TURBO. I'd really love to make it as a feature one day, but it might just have to be my Avatar. Right now it's hard to get a budget to make something as big as TURBO for a first time filmmaker. I'm looking for scripts and writing things that can be done for a few million, instead of 100 million :-) But who knows, maybe one day I'll be showing TURBO the feature film clips at Comic Con! NAR: Ha! Awesome. I'd gladly moderate the panel. Good luck and good work!
You can learn more about the film at http://www.turbothemovie.com. There's also a behind the scenes video made by actor David Lehre HERE.

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