Photo Gallery

DECEPTION (1989)

The following excerpts are from Mark’s book TRULY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING;

            While I was in Los Angeles I had a Super 8 home movie camera that I shot some behind-the-scenes footage of PRINCESS WARRIOR, and when I returned to Kansas City and developed the home movies, I was interested in shooting something else on film. I started thinking about how I want to be a filmmaker, but I didn’t have anything on film to show anyone. Most of my work was on VHS home video, with the one orientation video THE HOOK UP on ¾” broadcast-quality tape. So I came up with a plan; to shoot some scenes on Super 8 film to be used in a sample reel of my work that appeared to be clips from an entire feature-length production. It was very deceptive and quite fraudulent, if one thought about it, so I decided to make the ‘story’ about someone being set up for an underhanded double-cross and call it DECEPTION (1989).

“I enjoyed working with those guys, just spending a day with them and having fun shooting. A lot of joking around even when this was a serious film; behind the scenes joking around. But a lot of input from everybody, you can’t be in a film without some thought of, “Well why don’t we do this?” So (input from) everybody, even Risa.” – Johnny Johntz

            I shot 5 scenes and a handful of extra individual shots on silent color Super 8 film that told the story of a woman, three men and a ‘package’. I didn’t have any names for the characters, but the story begins with the Business Man, played by Kevin Walker, meeting his henchman or Hit Man, played by Roger Kitterman, in downtown Kansas City at the very photogenic Crown Center . Roger gives him a mysterious ‘package’ (a small, black imitation-leather bag actually used to store a camera flash. I imagined that it held diamonds, but it really wasn’t important to show the contents for the film.) Kevin then meets the Woman, played by Parisa Vatanka (we called her Risa), at a very photogenic location with a bench on a hill overlooking the campus of the University of Kansas . He hands her the package and tells Parisa to deliver it to someone for him. (I imagined she worked for Kevin, possibly a secretary or assistant but again, it wasn’t necessary to disclose for the film.) A Reporter, played by David O’Connor, is watching them while taking photos, knowing perfectly well what is happening. David stops Parisa in a very photogenic back alley in Lawrence to tell her what’s really in the package and how she’s being set up. Just then, Roger almost runs them down in a car, as they are nearly trapped in the alley. Eventually Roger captures Parisa and takes her to meet Kevin at a very photogenic observation pier off of a dam at Clinton Lake, where the Business Man is unhappy that she’s been talking to a reporter. Finally, we see David waiting for Parisa on a hill silhouetted by a beautiful and photogenic sunset, where Roger appears and shoots him.

           As you might have guessed, I was more interested in the ‘photogenic’ qualities of the production than the story, especially since I was shooting on silent film and didn’t need to worry about dialogue or closure with these short segments of a non-existent movie. I suppose this was a result of my exposure (pardon the pun) to the PRINCESS WARRIOR Director of Photography, Robert Duffin, and his quest for a good-looking sample reel. But I was happy with the results; Many of the shots truly looked like a real film, and we were astonished by the vibrant colors and texture that the image presented. I was also amazed by how dark some of the footage looked with shadows. We shot the entire thing outdoors, since we didn’t have any good indoor lighting equipment, but I wasn’t expecting to see the entire side of a building to be essentially black because it was covered by a shadow. I understood why I would see, in the documentaries on the making of a ‘Hollywood’ film, big lights and reflectors on a set, even if they were shooting outside in the sunlight. I also understood, to a point, why Duffin took so long to light the side of the building during the shoot for PRINCESS WARRIOR. I was more familiar with video cameras that seemed to be more capable of showing details in darker areas, where film had very strict and unforgiving exposure limits. I was not only learning about the nature of film and it’s possibilities, but also realizing I still had a lot to learn about working with the image on film versus video. For Kevin Walker, none of this was ever important, “I just remember having fun doing this stuff. It was all pointless, and I had no idea what was going on in your demented head. I had no idea what the end result was going to be, but I just got a kick out of having fun and doing this stuff. I don’t really remember the differences in filming (video versus film) - I remember the end result. Being a novice to filmmaking and just watching what you do. I remember watching the footage and you literally could see a difference between film and video. That’s about the only thing I can remember with (DECEPTION), just what the final product looked like.”

            Roger Kitterman noticed the difference in making DECEPTION from the videos we made in high school, “I remember that it was fully scripted and locations scouted before we started filming, which was not the case at all back in the high school days. There was a lot more pressure shooting on film than on video, since film developing is not free. It was also odd being in a silent film, but at least there were no lines to remember. As I recall, we did rehearse more than normal because it was film. There was also time pressure with the final scene as the sun was going down.  I remember when I first saw it that you could not see me at all because of the sun behind me - I thought at first it was a mistake but you told me it was on purpose (to create a silhouette). That opened my eyes as to how difficult cinematography must be - what if you wanted to shoot the same scene but have my face normally visible.”