Hi all, this is Sarah. Wanted to add to Mark's development explanations of the filming of "Points and Oil".  When we went down the road (pun intended) of an alternative idea to the marriage sequel, we took some detours before we arrive at the alien invasion idea. We started talking about movies in general, and what made a great movie. We made the leap to using famous movie storylines for our movie. My first suggestion was "The Graduate". The movie would be about Michelle marrying another Mini and JoJo showing up at the chapel, interrupting the ceremony, and the both of them running off together. We fleshed out some ideas on this storyline, but eventually I could tell Mark wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea as I was. I finally asked him why - and to me, his response summed up his feeling for Michelle, his Moke of 25 years. He told me "I just don't like the idea of Michelle being a slut". We moved on and the idea for Points and Oil was born.

i will confess that I was a little reluctant to do this movie. We had a ton of stuff going on and I wasn't looking forward to the 5:30 AM wake up calls. Mark pointed out to me that a day was coming soon where we would sell JoJo and having a movie after his restoration would be something we would enjoy looking at years from now.  So I sucked it up and smiled thru the first early morning call, and laughed my way through every bit of the planning and filming process. We made priceless memories. I can't say enough that everyone should take Mark's recommendation and make your own movies. You won't regret a minute of it. And, as a result of the good times we had, we have decided to hang onto JoJo - at least until we put the final chapter of the "Michelle and JoJo" Trilogy in the can. 

Get your thinking caps on and your cameras out! 

Sarah and I were honored to have won the film festival. She was confident we would but since most of my test audience was family and not being gear heads, they didn’t get it at all. This did not give me a lot of confidence. After the first movie the plan for a sequel would be a wedding and perhaps JoJo’s adventures in getting to the maternity ward as he learns that Michelle’s due date came early. On some road trip last year Sarah said it was just too predictable, that is what everyone would be expecting (you out there Old Mini Mover?). The biggest non-predictable storyline we could come up with was that the pair of Mokes could save the planet.   “We only have four minutes” was my constant statement as the ideas started flying. Our last movie featured only Beatles music, which means most websites won’t allow you to post it due to copyright laws. This time we bought the rights to the music and special effects that we used. We used the opening scene to bridge the first movie to the sequel and give our audience the brief idea that this would be a wedding movie. Having moved to Atlanta, we no longer had a beach setting so we went with an industrial setting. Filming early weekend mornings became the norm. My crew did not like the 5:30 am wake up calls although my two stars never complained. During the capture scene, filmed at sunrise on a Sunday morning, a police cruiser pulled up while John Childress and I (I was dressed as the alien) were pushing Michelle to her next scene. Since we were in a retail strip mall, we noticed a storeowner looking at us long and hard as he came in earlier. I am sure he thought the alien was about to conduct some breaking and entering. Sarah, driving JoJo, did some explaining.  The cop said, “Well that explains a hell of a lot” and drove off. Most of the filming involved staying out of scene as the Mokes are driven. There were some unique driving techniques developed over the course of filming both movies. Most scenes I am “duck waddling” in the back pushing or pulling the rear bumper of the Moke depending on the terrain. Other times we simply pushed the Moke into the screen shot and let them go. We would later speed up the film to make it look like there is some real speed to the shot. I was the director and the alien. I had to get dressed up, push the Moke to speed, run it front of it while it was still rolling and costar in the scene. Then I had to take off the alien head and preview the scene on my iPhone which was the controller for the movie camera. The whole movie was shot using a Go Pro and a digital camera for the stills. The train scene was blind luck and since we had a caboose shot in the can already it came together well. Having Mokes at MME this year was another great opportunity. We made the Moke Brigade roundels and gave one to every Moke that participated. Those were the first scenes shot in the movie. We could not get the net used to capture the alien to spread out as it fell to earth. The best shot we have has a human hand in the scene. After days of trying, I gave up and went with that take. The torture scene showed a bit too much alien junk so we masked that out for the sake of the kiddies. Maple syrup was used as motor oil. I like the fact that the scene starts with Michelle’s reflection in the mirror as the camera rises you see the alien is being torture by her. A bit sadistic… Spitfire transmission gears painted gold are the medals seen on JoJo and Michelle in the last scene. The after credit shot was a last minute idea. Most folks under 60 got the reference to Ferris Bueller. Thanks to Mike Guido for putting on the event.  I hope it grows, seeing Minis from all over the world in these film festivals is a really cool thing.  Why were we the only American entry?  You guys are crazy, I am sure your ideas put on film will have us rolling in the floor.  Have you seen the runner up movie? Amazing. The editing of that film in mind blowing. Since the winning prize is money, we didn’t have a way of memorializing the event. So we made a moving poster. Check it out.  It is the last photo in the album:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/12285689@N00/albums/72157675042340165/with/30435916135/

 

 

Congratulations to the winners! Great stuff!  How'd they do that?

That was the most entertaining 14 minute video i've ever watched, i really love to watch videos about minis.  Now i'm thinking of doing a video for next years entry, a video of me on my mini chasing a Bigfoot.  I may need to contact my friends from Bishop and Sonoma California where there are  reported 489 Bigfoot sightings for the last 50years according to BF database.



Thanks for sharing the video.

Wow - to say the videos were great would be an understatement. Amazing job! Would it be possible to see some of the other entries? I'd like to hear more about what was involved in the making of the Caldwell's (and their team) Moke movie!

. . .

Along with other entertainment at the Mini 57, the Friday night party highlight was the International Mini Film Festival. We had entries from 7 countries making it truly international. The following are the top 3 winners. $600 in prize money was awarded, so consider entering one in our next Festival. You can win $100 just for entering! Go to classicminis.org for more information.

Congrats to the winners and thanks to everybody that entered!!!
Sit back and enjoy. https://vimeo.com/187431558