Northampton Community TV’s Crowdsourced Cinema project has spawned shot-for-shot remakes of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Princess Bride. But this year’s title — the time travel epic Back to the Future (aka my favorite movie OF ALL TIME) — meant the Advocate wasn’t sitting this one out.
The way the project works is people volunteer to shoot a scene, then NCTV cuts the movie into 30-second to three-minute chunks and assigns them to individuals and groups. When everyone is done with their scene, NCTV stitches the movie together and screens it at the Academy of Music.
Our high school dance scene assignment dashed my dreams of donning Marty’s down vest and jean jacket for the big screen — no Marty in this scene — but it actually played pretty well to our strengths (see accompanying photos). Staff writer and musician extraordinaire Chris Goudreau got together a band, Art Director Jennifer Levesque made an awesome “Enchantment Under The Sea” sign, and Editor-in-Chief Kristin Palpini rustled up decorations and got her man (Advocate First Husband Brian Hale of HaleChannel Photography and Videography) to shoot and edit for us. They let me play goofy-dancing George McFly. Big thanks to Brian and those who responded to our Facebook event and came to our shoot earlier this month! Here it is:
The full movie will be screened at the Northampton Film Festival, Sept. 27-Oct. 1, at the Academy of Music in Northampton.
— Dave Eisenstadter