charlieuniformtango Brings The 'Comic Strip' To Life

It’s fair to say, what with Batman and Supes punching each other towards friendship and the box-office about to be exploded by Capt America and Iron Man’s lovers' tiff, that the contents of comic books have firmly cemented their place on the screen. However, with the aforementioned heroes and their super-powered brethren it’s more the characters and stories that have translated to motion rather than the form itself. For charlieuniformtango directors Jeremy Bartel and Lan Freeman, and executive producer Jeff Elmore, their ‘Comic Strip’ was something else altogether.

Rather than taking a well-known scenario or famous face, the trio instead focussed on the bare essentials of the funny-pages - i.e. the comedic content and the three-panel-structure. Committing the films to a strict three-shot limit, the hope is to ignite the imagination of all filmmakers brave enough to take part. Adhering to the old adage of ‘limitations breeding creativity’, the initial four films (the latest of which was only released yesterday) manage to play with the concept whilst leaving plenty of space for shorts to follow on their YouTube channel.

We caught up with Jeremy to chat about the formation of the idea, the challenge of meeting the stipulations and where it’s all headed!

What’s the concept behind ‘Comic Strip’?

It’s a live action comic strip. Most comic strips are limited to three panels so we limit Comic Strip to three shots. That’s where the limitations end. Comic Strip can be about anything as long as it’s funny, strange or thought provoking.

What gave you the idea for the project?

The idea for Comic Strip came when Lan Freedman, Jeff Elmore and myself were talking about the desire to create more of our own original content from concept to finish. But to make content that’s both funny and cinematic takes a lot of talented people, resources and of course money. Inspired by the three panels of comic strips we came up with the parameter of only three shots to make collaboration and production more sustainable. And to even begin to build an audience online you have to consistently be generating content as opposed to making one or two sketches a year.

How did you pick the first three sketches? How did you go about getting them produced?

We shot ten Comic Strips in four days in late February. Internally we consider it Season 1. We were editing all ten simultaneously and landed on the first three because each is a good representation of different uses of the format. For instance Comic Strip 003’s title is literally the punchline of the strip. Where Comic Strip 001’s title just reinforces the joke within the strip. We produced these on a very, very tiny budget. Jason Burks, our DP volunteered his time, his crew and his camera gear. We couldn’t have done it without him and his eye. Also people like John Williams of the Casting Station who hooked us up with some pretty incredible actors who worked for next to nothing. I hope people take notice at the level of talent in Dallas and the surrounding area.

Did you run into any problems on the shoot? On paper, these should be fairly easy to create, given the number of shots ;-)

Honestly, no. For Jeff, Lan and myself Comic Strip is a dream come alive. The biggest challenge was leading up to the shoot because we were the writers, directors, art directors, wardrobe, location scouts, you name it. Minus a demanding shooting schedule everyday felt like play.

It sounds like a silly question, but was there much discussion over the edit? We guess that if there are only two cuts they had better be timed perfectly!

It’s not a silly question. We worked closely with editor Alex Campos and we probably ended up with three to five versions of each Strip. The three shots is a great parameter for collaboration but at times we strongly disagreed with the direction the edits should go. We shot a lot of options and it’s true that editing is an extension of the writing process but with a new collaborator who’s seeing the footage fresh and has no preconceived notions. If your editor doesn’t think something is funny that’s probably because it isn’t. We used all of March to find Comic Strip’s voice in the edit and it was exhausting but fun as hell.

What’s you’re creative inspiration for the shorts?  Are there any sketch comedies that you’re using as stimulation?

We all grew up fans of Monty Python, SNL, The Jerk, Kids in the Hall, anything absurd, irreverent, that pushed boundaries we loved. But the most inspiring thing to us is simply good storytelling. We love talking about surprise in storytelling, how to structure a story in a way that is not only engaging and immediate but sincerely takes a viewer by surprise. Every film released whether its makers want to admit this or not follows some version of a recognizable dramatic structure that’s been repeated since Aristotle. That’s because it works and our brains love repetition and structure, but the challenge is making that structure feel fresh every time you attack it.

We’re also reacting to what we feel a lot of sketch comedy is missing: inclusion. Historically almost every well known sketch comedy team is white and male centric. We’ve actively written Comic Strip for a broad audience and wanted to get away from using the same performers over and over. Hopefully this also makes Comic Strip feel more cinematic. Some of the strips definitely feel like they’re a scene pulled from a longer film.

charlieuniformtango is pretty much a one-stop shop when it comes to production. Did the team leap at the chance to collaborate on this?

Everyone we work with from editors to VFX artists is in this industry because it’s their passion. Working with passionate people makes our job easy. There’s no hand holding, people take responsibility and insert their perspective into the work. Working in post-production is best when you let go of your preconceived notions and let a smart, funny, talented editor or audio mixer show you what works.

Is this something you’re encouraging all of the charlieuniformtango-ers to get involved in or are you keeping it contained for now?

Absolutely. From the very beginning this has been a company project. Lola Lot (CUT owner) has been our biggest supporter. She’s created a company environment that encourages creativity and growth. It feels boundless.

Where do you anticipate the films going from here?

Again, the thought behind Comic Strip was to create a sustainable project with consistent output. The three shot format is liberating because it makes collaboration more fluid and production more attainable. There are some character driven Comic Strips soon to be released and we’d love to experiment with bringing those characters back in future strips. We’d also love to tell a longer narrative over seven to ten strips. The challenge would be to make each strip stand on its own but if you were to watch all seven in a row there would be a clear, connected narrative. I hope we’re making Comic Strip till were dead.

Aside from ‘Comic Strip’, what’s up next for you?

We all got into production because we want to tell stories. Filmmaking it just the medium we chose. At the moment there’s an absurd horror film brewing at the typewriter. Horror films take themselves so seriously, we want to shake it up a little bit.