Stories from the Set of BCS
Our first movie...
…is “Bad CGI Sharks.” It was out chance to learn – well – how to make a movie. Perhaps we succeeded because we did not know what we wanted to do was impossible. Still, you can see the result by purchasing this magnificent opus here.
And here there is a bit of its story (if you really want to know).
Bad CGI Sharks came to exist with all the stunning serendipity of a romantic comedy. In 2016, Matteo was visited by an old friend from his dying planet of Italy, Emilio Pozzolini, who came to visit Los Angeles on vacation and brought with him his friend, Alessandro Arcidiacono. The three simply enjoyed their time together until, on the very last day of their visit, the topic of current projects were brought up. Emi and Ale dropped the mega-bomb: they had been working as a duo making music videos, co-directing them and splitting other tasks: Ale covering the visual and Emi the audio, and were looking for a project to come to America with and showcase their skills.
Around this time, MaJaMa, disgusted by the sheer deluge of truly shitty movies they were binging still getting released, decided there was no reason that couldn’t make their own movie that would be, at worst, equal in its shittyness. As most of the movies they tortured themselves with could fall under the “sharksploitation” category, they set their sites on that particularly sub-genre. “We’ll call it ‘Bad CGI Sharks’,” Matteo deadpanned one day, referencing these films’ penchant for less-than-stellar special effects. The other two laughed, not knowing one day this would be the most perfect, attention-grabbing title they could come up with.
Peanut butter, meet jelly. Emi and Ale agreed to fly out the following spring to begin production on the movie, lighting the fire under the collective ass of MaJaMa that they always needed to truly jump into action. The script went through three completely different versions, with the first one being far, far too reliant on endless, break-the-fourth-wall, ‘we know we’re in a movie’ jokes. Eventually, the tone was settled on, with Matteo’s character being the narrator that would guide viewers through the journey. Harkening back to the early days of American Graffetus (and damn near every creative project they’d ever attempted), the brothers decided to use themselves and their journey as the template for the characters.
Overly-aware of not being actors, they tried to play to their natural strengths as much as possible, with Matthew in particular insisting they put time into controlling the one thing they actually could at this extremely low budget level – the story. Much work was done to ensure there was an actual character-based plot that moved forward as opposed to the parade of apathy-inspiring stock characters and paint-by-numbers scenarios usually littering shark flicks.
Production kicked off in May ’17, with the entire movie being shot in 21 days and an insanely small budget of $6,257.34. Most shots were done guerrilla style, with the tight, five man crew running around Burbank, looking for random spots where they could spit out their lines as quickly (and, ideally, as competently) as possible.
Any problems were usually overcome, however, by the instantly cohesive nature of MaJaMa and Emi and Ale (known collectively as ThisGasThing). Bringing in producer Sheila Marie, whom Matteo knew from his days baking in the sun as a character herder at Universal Studios Theme Park, the team now had someone to focus on the logistics and casting while they worried about everything else.
Emi and Ale flew back to Italy to start post-production, while MaJaMa stayed in Matteo’s Sherman Oaks condo, assembling their ideal cut from the raw footage. Bad CGI Sharks post-production was then a global affair, with the team communicating regularly between Los Angeles, Italy, and Japan, where Ale often found himself as he birthed the titular sharks.
It took two full years for them to get to the final cut, but they were all shocked that it actually felt like a movie, and, even more so, that most people seemed to agree once they finally launched their trailer. Humbled by the enthusiasm from fans on social media before their movie even dropped, MaJaMa looks forward to the future of hopefully growing the BCS cult audience and finally amusing someone other than themselves with their distinct brand of idiocy. Stay tuned!