A No-Budget Extravaganza from Rats Ass Productions!
Behind the Scenes
by Carl Russo
Let us introduce you to the stars. Click the photo to see actor Stacy Kiser mugging between takes on location in San Francisco's Alamo Square. Doesn't he look so fascist-chic as Officer Chott, the film's heavy? We adapted his headgear from a Belgian police-issue riot helmet and his baton from a sawed-off broomstick. The jacket bears real SFPD patches. Without a permit, we were more than a little nervous that we'd attract the attention of the city's finest. During our most complicated shot involving Chott brutalizing a group of protesters waving picket signs, a police jeep rolled up the path a few yards away. I stayed focused on a close-up of Stacy, but suggested he hide the pepper spray. The jeep passed without incident. The same thing happened about an hour later when a motorcycle cop appeared. He never stopped, much to our relief.
Click to see our 11-month-old title star, Mathieu Dorning, as Baby Pepper, contemplating the fabulous, furry baby boom. Mathieu's a charmer on camera but a tyrant on the set. The future-former child actor trashed his playpen dressing room after the caterers' Cuisinart broke and he was served Gerber's. Scandal has already rocked the production, mostly due to a scene where Officer Chott attacks Baby Pepper. But we can assure you that no babies were harmed in the course of making this movie. In fact, the little tyke's parents were always present, easily bribed with pizza, beer and featured roles.
Click to see director Carl Russo trying to coax a tear from Mathieu, who only wanted to laugh. The highlight of the day involved faking a crane shot. I set the camera on a tripod extended about eight feet high, getting a wide shot of angry protesters jerking their signs and chanting, "You suck!" I hand-cranked the tripod so the cam lowers to reveal the back of Chott's shiny helmet in the foreground. Originally I'd envisioned a crowd of about 20,000 protesters, but I was delighted when eight friends actually showed up.
Click on the storyboards! I needed some authentic footage of Baby Pepper being wheeled in his stroller through a real political demonstration, which would entail a Medium Cool-style risk. There was an anti-war march scheduled one weekend last spring, and I worked out a plan with Mathieu's parents, Marion and Kevin. On that Saturday morning, we loaded the camera gear in their car and drove to the Civic Center, a grassy mall behind City Hall, where the protest was to take place. On the way I showed them the storyboards, stating that these two shots were only ideals. I admitted I had no illusions that we'd get the exact shots, but in the unpredictable confusion of live events, we'd have the same images framed in our heads and could place ourselves accordingly.
The protest was small, possibly because a marijuana festival was in full swing on the lawn of City Hall (only in San Francisco!) and the How Weird on Howard Street Fair (ditto!) was happening three blocks away. More likely, activists were saving their strength for a massive march the following month. We got some useable footage—Mathieu's parents rolling him past a federal police cruiser and through a procession of Women in Black—all the while pretending we were shooting a home movie. In June I was able to get plenty of riot troop footage on Market Street by posing as a gawking tourist with a camcorder. Things were a mite tense: cops smashed a reporter's camera a month prior to this event, but I left before they turned their attention on the anarchist Black Bloc, who are always ready for a showdown.
Click to see the old-skool animation session. Well, not entirely old since this is video and not film. But it can still be done without the use of skanky character-generation programs (i.e., Disney/Pixar crap which I hate hate hate!). And I only burned my hand once on the lamp.
And thanks to Apple's cool Soundtrack software, I threw together a groovie movie soundtrack that might even be danceable.
Photographs by Malcolm Cecil and me.