Week one

The Film

The film I will be creating this semester can best be described as a comedy. It is about two con artists that must flee Mormon Utah after catching some heat (selling fake bibles) with a local (and very corrupt) policeman. They choose Colorado to escape the clutches of religious tyranny. They know Colorado has friends they can lay low with, and they know they can escape the law because of medical marijuana laws (not a very smart thing to think). What they do not realize is that the dirty policeman is actually after the money they stole from an old lady’s house during the con involving the selling of fake bibles. One of the con artists was brought up in a family of con artists, and conning is literally what he has to do because there is nothing else he is good at. This character is a carefree, impulsive, very socially adept, but very dense in every other aspect of life. He constantly is conning people out of things that are quite useless to him, and does not estimate the risk involved in each con because of his impulsive nature. This character got his whole family thrown in jail because of his bad judgment in a con, and he needs another person in order for him to con successfully. The other character is socially inept, cynical, long-winded, false accusational and cons people by making them feel bad for him or about the situation he is presenting. He cons bums for money and his main concern is escaping the law. This character started conning people because his family needed money and was very well intentioned at first. His quality of cynicism is a result of how conning people has worn on him. He is a self-criticizer and a sarcastic asshole. The socially adept character makes the other character believe that the money they are spending frivolously at different places is from the successful con of selling the bibles, and if the smart, cynical character were to know they are spending dirty money he would surely prevent them from spending the money, as he understands the risk involved in spending dirty money when gangsters are involved. Over the course of the film they will discover that there is more to life than conning, and they both are actually more skilled at other things besides conning than they believed.

**a mormon ad linked here**  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pjNWvEMYwo

The Passion

The idea came to me when advertising for the 2012 presidential election began to increase. These commercials are misleading and leave the punch-line "I'm a mormon" at the end to a humorous end. I have always wanted to try to create a comedy and have dabbled with some shorter comedies in the past.  Most of my films in the past have been based off of poems I have written. In this way I structure images to words, but they only resonate with some people and I would like to create a film with a broader appeal.  The Blues Brothers is a great film that has inspired me with its simple humor and relatable characters. I want to create characters that jump from the screen, as people will be able to recognize people they know in the personalities I plan to present.

Tentative Locations 


The landscape of Utah is quite distinguishable from other places in the country. I am thinking that I at least need to travel to Grand Junction to get a similar landscape for the scenes when they are fleeing Mormon Utah. If all goes well, I will be able to film in Utah and stay in Grand Junction where I have some friends that would be able to accommodate a room. These scenes will require little technical aspects in terms of crew and will only incorporate 2-3 actors, so I believe this is quite feasible.