My First Film School Project

The "Real Deja Vu"

What do a mysterious woman in black, a love-struck waiter, and a single red-rose have in common with the latest Hollywood blockbuster starring Denzel Washington? Nothing. Well, almost nothing. Read on.

Unless you're completely detached from pop culture news, you're aware that the #3 movie last weekend was "Deja Vu", the latest cinematic opus by producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott. It stars Denzel "My Man" Washington as an ATF investigator who uses a unique form of time travel to solve a murder case linked to an act of terrorism. Although it was met with mixed reviews, I really enjoyed it. However, this post isn't about that movie.

However, this post isn't about that movie. This post is about the real "Deja Vu."

This post is about the real "Deja Vu". (Okay, I think you get the repeating sentence joke. I'll stop now.). My first student project in film school was named, you guessed it, "Deja Vu." Let me take you back in time. The year is 1992. Summer. I'm a terribly bored real estate appraiser who enrolls in De Anza College's Film and TV program to express my creativity and learn how to make a movie (which I never ended up making). In my first video production class, I chose as my class project a narrative music video set to the popular Chris Isaak tune, "Wicked Game."

The video tells the story of a handsome, yet lonely college waiter who, in a dream, abandons his post to follow a beautiful, yet mysterious woman in black in hopes of giving her a rose and asking her out. Or is it just a dream? Hmmm? Filmed on location in Berkeley, CA, the project was quite ambitious for a first timer. (To this day I'm still engaging in ambitious video projects. I guess some things never change.) It involved an all day shoot, at over half a dozen specific locations throughout Berkeley, including Raleigh's Pub and Grill, a clothing store, the Cal campus, and a BART station. We also filmed a scene at my house in San Jose.

Since Hollywood came out with their version of "Deja Vu," I thought it would be fun to experience "Deja Vu" all over again with my own version. What I'm calling the "real Deja Vu." Here are a few fun facts to keep in mind as you watch:

• I tried to create a literal sense of deja vu in the audience by recreating shots in real life that we see in photos at the beginning of the video. Can you catch them all?
• I shot this video on one of those big, ugly consumer camcorders that was popular back in the early 90s. No digital video was available back then.
• It was edited on a LINEAR, tape to tape editing system. Yep, you heard me correctly. Tape to tape. Although not as difficult and time consuming as splicing and taping film reels that traditional film school students were doing, it's still a world away from what we use now. There was no Final Cut Pro or iMovie back then. (Note: I should admit that the end credits were re-created in iMovie years later when I transfered the video to DVD).
• Forgive the poor tracking and quality. It's like that even on the DVD. The clip was created from the original VHS tape which, besides being VHS, was partially damaged due to the process necessary to remove color back in those days. I wanted the video to be in black and white like Chris Isaak's now famous  music video. There was no simple "Black and White" filter. The  VHS tape had to be physically altered in order to make video colorless. The process was damaging.
• Look for my Hitchcock-esque cameo appearance. (Alfred Hitchcock used to make short cameo appearances in his films.) Please ignore the hair. Remember, we're talking early 90s, so cut me some slack.
• The mystery woman was a friend from college. The love-struck waiter was some dude I knew from the dance club scene. I chose him because I thought he had a cool look. Turns out he was the worst actor ever! At the end he has to do a flirtatious wink to the camera. It took over 30 takes to get it right! A wink!
• My instructor said it was the best project in the class. At least, that's how I remember it. :-)
• I got an A. The rest, as they say, is history.

Click the image below to play. Enjoy!

technorati tags: Deja_Vu, Wicked_Game, De_Anza_College,  film_school, music_video, Chris_Isaak, Ron_Dawon, Jerry_Bruckheimer, Tony_Scott, Denszel_Washington, Val_Kilmer, Adam_Goldberg, Cal, Berkeley, Go_Bears