The Inheritance

Another year, another CAmm Slamm. Baltimore’s premiere weekend moviemaking competition took place this past weekend, and Stan, Sutter, and I took a drive down to the Old Line State to help our Philly vs. Baltimore nemesis RedstarKGB make it happen. Little did we know we would be making the most ridiculous movie of our careers…

Well, I guess it wasn’t that much of a shocker.

CAmm Slamm is a 48-hour film competition in which competing teams are given from 7:00 PM Friday to 7:00 PM Sunday to make a film that includes a provided prop; in this case, a squishy rubber rat toy. The films are then screened and voted on by the audience that very Sunday night.

Plagued by an unfruitful committee brainstorm session, it was late in the afternoon on Saturday before we even had a loose script, so our film was essentially made in twenty-four hours. Somehow, it came together. For my money, the MVPs were our editor Ian Corey, whose amazing results with some less-than-optimal footage under an insanely tight deadline gave the film exactly the frenetic pace that it needed, and my costar Joel Haddock, who, quite simply, turned on the funny. Other highlights include a colorful title sequence and deadpan cameo from Matt Sutter, and a terrifying appearance from an aged Jason Santa Maria. Also keep an eye out for some amazing Sci Fi Channel-quality special effects from yours truly.

When the grand prize-winning team, Video Kitchen, withdrew from the competition (they made a poignant and funny documentary about how easy it would be to cheat and win at CAmm Slamm), RedstarKGB was upgraded from second place and took the crown! As the process behind this film (and, arguably, the result) was pretty ramshackle, and my performance is absurdly over-the-top, there are some mixed opinions about the value of this achievement. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Inheritance.