Daily Nebraskan

Issue date: 9/24/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Tim McKenny [Click to enlarge]

You probably remember when you were a kid and you discovered your parents old bazooka video camera from the '80s in the closet. You probably also remember finding a stack of old blank casettes somewhere else.

You no doubt remember putting the two together with a wizard costume and your dog in the backyard, talking in a funny accent and running back and forth with swooshing sounds, Fido nipping at your heels.

Then there was your big premiere, where you showed the film to your parents and your grandparents from out of town. They would ooh and ahh at how cute you were, and you felt great. Then you put away the camera, shelved the tape and, until you were just reminded, forgot ever doing it.

Now that you remember making that film, did you ever wonder what would happen if you kept on doing that? What would you be making today if you never put that camera away?

There is a Lincoln man who knows the answer.

Meet Joe Smith.

"I've always been interested in making movies. I used to make little ones all the time when I was a kid," Smith said. "I don't have any formal training, unless you count all the video stores I've worked in or the films I've seen."

Smith has no official background in film, yet he is a filmmaker. This summer, Smith premiered his first official film, a crude retelling of the 1993 horror classic "Leprechaun," complete with a formal red carpet premiere event at Box Awesome.

All those in attendance loved it.

"('Leprechaun') isn't necessarily for everyone, but you know, we wanted people going into it not to be a critic," Smith said. "People can't go into a movie anymore without being a critic. It's always like, 'Yeah, I really liked that new Batman movie, but...' We didn't really get that, though."

Smith's version of "Leprechaun" was shot in a very home-movie sort of way. He made it linearly with one camera, one tape, zero budget, no editing and all homemade costumes and props. He starred in the film in several roles, including the eponymous leprechaun.

Apart from Smith, there was only one other person working on the film, the film's co-star, Julie Reynolds. This means that while one person was on camera, the other person would have to do all the filming.

"I think it's just because we wanted to work with what we had," Reynolds said. "We wanted it to be raw, with all the bloopers and boners left in."

The end result of this incredibly basic technique was "Leprechaun."

"We watched the film 'Be Kind Rewind,' the one where Jack Black and Mos Def remake old movies for a video store that they accidentally erased all the tapes at, and we thought, 'Oh, we should totally do that!'" Reynolds said. "Then we were watching TV on St. Patrick's Day and saw 'Leprechaun.'"

The project started out as just a fun thing to do, but it began to occupy more and more of Smith's and Reynolds' time.

"We were in school at the time, so we just worked on it every Sunday and Monday and just kept pushing it," Reynolds said. "We work so well together. We had our fights, but it's cool."

Smith said, "It was hard because it was just the two of us, and I had my vision of what I wanted to be done, but when I was on camera, I had no control. So it's pretty much 50/50. It is what it is."

After the successful premiere of "Leprechaun" at Box Awesome, Smith and Reynolds continued to show it to family and friends. After a while, they even took it on the road.

"We took it down to Albuquerque and showed it to people who didn't know us, and they liked it," Smith said.

"('Leprechaun') got a lot of laughs, a lot of really good feedback," Reynolds said. "There were a mix of people and ages, and everybody seems to love it."

Reynolds said a friend who is a teacher even showed it to their class as a way to prepare the children for a small video-making project.

Smith's and Reynolds's "Leprechaun" was a moderate local success. What's next?

"We were going to make another film that was kind of an after-school special thing about high school bullying gone too far," Reynolds said. "But we've scrapped that."

Smith says there is another film in the making, however.

"We're working on sort of a channel surfing idea," Smith said. "Two people are going to get bored and watch TV, and we're going to act out all the channels they're flipping through."

Smith said that this time around, the video won't be quite so crude. They will have to do some editing and some post-production, but the spirit will still be there. There is no set name or release date for the film, so for now, "Leprechaun" remains his sole work.

"It turned out the way it turned out," Smith said. "I thought it was great."

caseywelsch@dailynebraskan.com

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