Ready to `Rumble'
It may be the first film shot on campus since The Way We Were. But no one would confuse it with the Streisand-Redford classic.
Juniors Court Clinch and Mike Genadri grew up fascinated with low-grade, formulaic martial arts films, the kind you might see on cable TV at 2 a.m.
So it was only natural when the duo got together last year to produce Rumble in Schenectady, an Americanized film that mocks the genre, complete with bad voice dubbings and haphazard edits.
Produced as a sophomore thesis by the two Union Scholars, the film is to premiere at Steinmetz on Friday at 2 p.m. in Olin 106. Prof. Hugh Jenkins was their advisor.
They used a half dozen students as actors including Jon Kreiness, who plays a martial arts teacher, and Ryan Lee, the upstart student who is out to avenge the loss of his father at the hands of an evil gangster. None of the actors had any experience in martial arts.
Rumble, a 15-minute work, was shot entirely on campus in 8 mm format. Some scenes took place outdoors _ one actor had to run through the snow along West Beach about a dozen times to get the right shot. Others were shot in dorm rooms, complete with unscripted entrances by roommates.
The pair edited the final cut in Instructional Technologies, overdubbing all voice and sound effects to simulate low-quality martial arts films. At one point, one of the actors is knocked down only to find a weapon magically appear in his hand. “Editing mistake in my favor!” he exclaims as he resumes fighting.
“We were each thinking about other projects,” recalls Clinch of their decision to undertake Rumble, “but we decided this would be a lot more fun,”