Spit-Takes: A Mouthful of Comedy

Spit-Take: the act of forcibly ejecting liquid substances from the mouth. For centuries it has been the staple of stage and cinema comedy. But it's not as easy as it looks. We're going to take you through the "do's" and "don'ts" of the surprise spray...

The creation of this short stems back to something my dear friend and frequent partner in crime Ross came up with: an educational film on spitting. I'd wanted to make it for years and even mock filmed some scenes every now and again, one day expecting to put it altogether into a film.

Then one day I got a call from an aquantaince at the moving image department at Wintec and they were putting together a compilation DVD of the locally produced films in the region and wondered if I wanted to add something to the mix.

Now, I guess I wasn't paying as full attention at the time. That or it was my annoying cellphone at the time, but rather than listen to this as "give us one of your existing shorts", I took it as a "make something, make it now!"

So not even thinking how wierd of a request it was to 'give' them a short film within a weeks time, I pulled out this script, threw out most of the old footage taken and went about making a short educational film on the comedic art of spit-taking.

The DVD compilation is titled "It Came From the Swamp: Short Films from the Waikato" and is now available in stores here and there (I'm not actually sure where exactly, but I have at least seen it at a JB Hifi). Note though, the version of this short on that disc is slightly different to the one here, in that it doesn't have the damaged film artifacts going on in it. Those were an afterthought that were added to the film a little past the deadline for the DVD. A pity as I think it works better this way with the artifacts, but hey, more people are likely to watch it online than on the DVD.

...But still buy the DVD. Papa needs a new summer hat.



The Film



Cast and Crew

Cast
Isabella Ashby
Tanya Barlow
Phillip Bell
Matt Bentley
Thomas Bullock
James Cain
Merran Cash
Blair Carter
Annie Chen
Stephanie Christian
Rosalind Clark
Aimie Cronin
Hannah Dell
Albert Eastgate
Sophia Fitzgerald-Mansell
David Foote
Mhari Hayworth
Joe Hitchcock
Lysette Jordan
Daisy Lawless
Clare Lyons-Montgomery
Ross MacLeod
Brendan Mayall
Jeremy Mayall
Kate Miller
Sasha Nixon
Maria Petrova
Dominic Pink
Samara Roberts-Thompson
Arthur Robinson
Matt Scheurich
Pip Smith
Richard Swainson
Chris Tan
Pam Thompson
Martin Torrington
Levi Waitere
Sean Wallace
Caroline Waugh
Douglas Waugh
Jonn Wilson
Ben Woollen
Gar Kee Wu
John Young

Directed by
Chris Tan

Written by
Ross MacLeod

Produced by
Chris Tan

Origial Music by
Ross MacLeod and Thomas Bullock

Cinematography by
Chris Tan

Edited by
Chris Tan

ADR by
Chris Tan