VIDEO: Satirical short film ‘Scary Floating Thing’ makes election season even more ridiculous
Election season is almost over, but if you need something to help you survive the next few weeks, the funny and creative guys behind Big Idea Photo and Video Productions in Scranton have you covered.
Months before the inaugural Belin Film Festival, which ran this past weekend at the Waverly Community House, the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock, and the People’s Security Bank Theater at Lackawanna College in Scranton, the festival organizers issued a challenge to Northeastern Pennsylvania filmmakers, giving them only two months to make a short film with a randomly chosen list of requirements to incorporate into their movie: a choice of three genres, a choice of two lines of dialogue, a prop, and a character name.
Among several participating groups, writer/director Jeff Fowler and editor Jer Tobin were assigned the B-movie horror/sci-fi genre and the character name of Cooper McGovern. What they came up with was a clever political satire about the tedious election coverage that turns us all into sweaty, mindless drones reciting talking points and buzzwords, no matter who we’re voting for – “Scary Floating Thing!”
A scary, floating thing is causing people to lose their minds in the peaceful town of Eynon, Pennsylvania. Residents are stricken with a new fever – and the only man who can save them is Cooper McGovern.
With Fowler and Tobin also making appearances in the seven-minute short, the cast includes Joe Palumbo, Matthew Britain Perry Giblin, Conor McGuigan, Betsy Bonawits Seaforth, Ellen O’Brien Sherry, Kieran Sherry, Casey James Burke, J. Domenic DeMuro, and Isabella Palumbo with voiceover work by Garrett Geary. Scranton progressive/alternative rock band Family Animals contributed to the film’s music.
Additionally, Big Idea made a behind-the-scenes video about the Belin Film Festival Challenge that explains how it all came together over the summer:
The only things scarier than the floating things in this fictional B-movie world are the real-life candidates running in the 2016 election. Hopefully America will have a happier ending than poor Cooper was given.
Poster artwork by Desiree Zielinski
