My friend, Johnny Johntz, and I wanted to make another short film and I started to bounce around ideas. At the time he was living with Jamie Kretsinger, a friend of ours from KU, in an apartment near the Kansas City Art Institute where Jamie was going to school. I wanted to challenge myself by limiting the shooting location to an apartment, so I would have to work more with characters than rely on impressive locales to make the film interesting. I ended up writing a comedy about nuclear holocaust. The title I finally came up with was WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA (1989), a comedy about a group of people who find out that they are sitting at ground zero for a nuclear attack, and are helpless to do anything about it as the missiles are on their way. This would allow for 20-30 minutes of their reactions to their doom. To make this a comedy, I had to make the characters’ reactions less dramatic and realistic, and yet believable in some way. I asked myself; how would I react in this situation? I would be scared, sad, and angry and confused…a whole range of emotions swirling inside of me. I would deny everything, get drunk or want to have sex one last time. So I decided to assign one of these emotions to each character; they would have one obsession that would drive them in totally different directions and in conflict with each other. They, as a group, would represent what an individual would feel in that situation. The one unifying thing that would bring them all together in the time of crisis would be a pizza. Why a pizza? Why not? It’s a Last Supper sort of idea - they come together to eat a final meal. And I just like pizza.

Roger Kitterman runs the camera as Jennifer Lincoln and Mark Adams perform their scene

Production took place in the fall of 1989, and lasted for just over a month – although we would only get together to shoot on the weekends or someone’s day off. Johnny tried to remember a day or scene that stood out from the rest, “Days don’t stand out for me as being ‘this was a really fun day’ or ‘this was just a real miserable day’. As I look back I experienced all of them very similarly; that there’s a lot of fun in the creative process, there’s a lot of fun in the joking around with people and just the friendship on the set. It’s just fun to be with people and working on a project. But the waiting at times gets frustrating and sometimes it’s very long days. So I think it can be frustrating doing that stuff, filmmaking. Especially Adamstar. (Laughs)”

Adam Leatherwood remembered, “That was a fun movie to make. And it also seems that was the one where it was not only more structured in the sense that we had a script, but it was also more structured in terms of shooting time. I don’t remember how many days we did it in. It seems like we did it in three or four. But they were full days. It seems like we would start late morning, 11:00 or so, and we would run it for six hours and do this, and try different things. But (WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA) was a much more serious effort. A much more concentrated effort (than previous films). And again, one of the things I found to be most striking is how much time it took to get a 15 second or a 30 second scene in with just the right lighting, the right interaction. The right flavor, if you will, between the characters and the dialogue. But it seems you did allow me to improvise in some cases. You gave me a little bit of latitude with dialogue. Not a great deal, but enough to pull it off.”

One highlight during the production was Adam character’s entrance, which I wanted to push the envelope of believability a little. When we see Ace standing in the doorway, he’s wearing a party hat and sipping champagne as if to celebrate the impending doom, and there are streamers behind him in the hall with balloons dancing in the air. Johnny enjoyed shooting that scene as well, “I had a lot of fun with (Adam Leatherwood’s entrance). Leatherwood’s character is such a party kind of guy, that literally when you open the door and let him into your apartment, he’s got a party in the hallway going on! There are streamers and balloons going on! He’s a party in himself, I mean he’s a one man party! And so (it was fun) just kind of setting that up. Leatherwood I think is another great actor, He’s really missing his calling in life – well, he’ll be a great attorney BECAUSE he’s a great actor!”

Everyone tries to listen in on Bill's phone call with his mother

"Isn't nuclear holocaust beautiful...?"

Another scene where Adam’s acting abilities shined was when Roger Kitterman’s character, Bill, receives a phone call from his mother, and Ace comes out of a closet (no metaphor intended) as he’s decorating the apartment for a party. After discovering that he’s adopted, Bill hangs up the phone and Ace starts to tell him to take it easy. Then Adam says what I think is one of the funniest lines in the entire movie, “You know, life’s funny that way. Just last week I found out I owed the bank $24,000 and my insurance rates were going up. But now I don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Isn’t nuclear holocaust beautiful?” He then turns to Jamie’s character and yells, “BABOOM!” and laughs as Jamie continues to cry. It was simply hilarious and a lot of fun to shoot, as Adam recalled, “Do you want to know what I remember about this particular scene, when (Roger Kitterman’s character) just got off the phone (and he finds out he’s adopted)? I remember doing about four or five takes. And in one take, I’m standing in a closet and I’m suppose to be drunk. And I completely lost my balance. I don’t understand how I did it, but all you guys heard was me thrashing around. And it would have been a great take, but everybody on the set started cracking up so we had to do it again. But I do remember that about that particular scene, we shot that again and again. That was fun.”

For Johnny Johntz, however, making a movie in his own living room proved to be a little annoying, “I can actually remember during that film, really for me for the first time, I was really getting on to some people about, ‘Come on! Let’s keep this moving! Let’s shoot it again!’ Especially that line-up scene! And there was just joke after joke going on, which I do as much joking around as anybody but I felt like, ‘Come on! Let’s get this! Let’s nail this! Let’s keep it going!’ Maybe because your film crew was in my apartment and I wanted to go to bed, I don’t know.” Although it did have it’s good points, as Johnny remembered fondly, “God it was wonderful having Jennifer there. That’s all I remember about that film quite frankly. I just remember seeing her come into my apartment, and we’d had her in a class or two and she was really pretty, and asked, ‘You got her to play that role?’ and I couldn’t believe it! So here she comes into the apartment and we were like, ‘Wow, this filmmaking stuff is really cool.’”

Adam Leatherwood also remembers shooting with Jennifer Lincoln, “WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA…I remember I was working at The Kansas City Star at the time. I remember my ex-wife had an aneurysm when she saw that gal (Jennifer Lincoln) was on the set. I think that was the first (film) that you had written that had a script to take a look at. And that was a bit odd, working with you with a script. I didn’t feel as free to improvise with some things. I tried to stay as closely to the script. But it still had that casual flavor of, ‘Let’s get together. Here’s this idea. Grab the camera and lets go do it and see what we can put together.’ Obviously WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA was a little bit more structured, in terms of our efforts. With the script, it seems to me like we did have some read through's, which was the first such setting that I had with you. But it still felt a little bit constrained in some senses, because I didn’t feel I had as much latitude with that particular character, as I had with previous characters when we weren’t working with a script and it was all by the hip. So there were some elements of it, the structure of the story was a little bit more coherent. In WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA, the dialogue between the characters flows pretty easily. And it flows pretty easily, I think in part, because it was scripted out. But by the same token, some of the improvisations that had been hallmarks of some of the previous efforts weren’t there.”

WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA went on to win 1^st place at the 1989 Kansas Film and Video Festival. It also won the Certificate of Merit Award at the 1990 Chicago International Film Festival. I never anticipated the reaction to the film from friends and family, as well as people I’ve never met. I think people saw me in a different light, as a real filmmaker rather than some guy shooting a silly comedy with some friends on a home video camera. This is why I call it my first breakthrough film; it was the first time that strangers could watch and enjoy my movie without knowing the actors. THE HONEY THIEF and PETER’S TREASURE were not as interesting if you weren’t family or friends watching someone you knew acting silly. WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA stood on its own. The story was unique, and had the right mix of satire, humor and characters. This subject matter had been done before as serious dramas, but I felt the time was right for this kind of comedy. The Cold War was almost over, although at the time we didn’t know how close the end was; within weeks of finishing our film the Berlin Wall was torn down. I grew up under the threat on nuclear war, and as kids we honestly believed that we would die in such a holocaust. But during the late 80’s, there was Glasnost and a definite warming up of the Cold War. Suddenly, I looked at the USA & USSR’s stand off and Mutual Assured Destruction as such a ridiculous position to put their people in, that I found some humor in it. Unlike Stanley Kubrick’s DR. STRANGELOVE, another satirical comedy about nuclear war, my film dealt with the people who had nothing to do with the events unfolding. All they could do is stay in the apartment and wait for the end, helpless and unable to try to stop the attack. I think most people identified with this concept by seeing themselves in the same position, and I hope it made them think of what would they do if they had those last 20 minutes.

It was amazing that this was shot entirely on VHS home video. (This was the late 1980’s, remember?) The lighting was very crude, using special lights that my father used at school to light a still life for art class. As an interesting note, Jennifer Lincoln and David O’Connor have never met in real life; when they had scenes together they had to be shot separately. It was an educational experience in the power and illusion of editing. Jennifer was still at KU in Lawrence and would have to drive into Kansas City for the shoots. She was only present a few times, and David was unable to be there. Any wide shots had to be done as medium shots, reverse angles and cutaways to hide the fact they were never together.

Producer Bill Shaffer of KTWU at the 2001 Oscar Micheaux Golden Memorial Anniversary event in Great Bend, Kansas

In 2001 I was video taping an event, and ran into a producer and director for the PBS affiliate in Topeka, Kansas named Bill Shaffer. I was amazed that Bill remembered me from 12 years earlier and my early film, as he explained, “WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA – A: It was a damn funny movie. B: It was beautifully done in what looked like a very short amount of time and space…limited resources type of thing. I saw what I thought was probably a third or fourth generation copy and the only thing I said was, ‘I’d love to grab Mark Adams and remake this entire thing with really nice video cameras, something that’s real sharp and looks good, but I wouldn’t change a thing about the content.’ I wouldn’t change anything – well, I think there was one shot where you came out of the bedroom with the girl, and I thought your shirts should have been mixed. You should have been wearing her shirt and she should have been wearing yours. (Chuckles) But that was just another little touch that I thought would have been nice to have put in, but otherwise I would not have changed a thing! There was nothing in it that I would have altered. And I don’t mean to say it was a perfect film, but I mean to say that it was so well put together and well written and tight and concise – I mean I never got bored with it for a second. It was always entertaining. And the people who were cast in it I thought were perfect. I don’t think anybody could have done a better job. I thought it was excellent. And I remember voting for it at the time, for whatever the top prize was – I may have also been on the judging group at the time (for the 1989 Kansas Film And Video Festival). But I thought it was just a great little piece of work. And out of the number of shows that were shown there, it was one of the few that I saved and I still have at home. And every once and a while I pull it out and say, ‘That’s what I want to watch! I want to watch WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA!’ (Laughs) I just think it’s a great little film. I think you did a terrific job. And I think you should continue your work, I think you’re doing a good job. To me WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA is a small masterpiece. It’s one of those little films that sticks with you over time. Obviously it stuck with me.”

Mark Adams answers the door

Roger Kitterman recalled, “This was the first film of yours that I was in that actually had a script (and camera angles etc). I would agree that this was a breakthrough film for you. I liked the script the first time I read it. There was more effort shooting this film than any other I was in. Since we were just out of college and basically all unemployed (at least I was) we had the time. My favorite scene to shoot was one that I had little involvement - Leatherwood's toast. His personality and facial expressions mixed with the difficulty of remembering the lines was classic. As usual, you were the best actor in your film. I felt I was typecast a bit for the film (except when I was playing death/manipulating the skeleton). The overall experience was a lot of fun. As I recall, the entire cast was never all present in the apartment. I remember that when you got slapped, you really got slapped. I was impressed the first time I saw it all together and was proud to have been a part of it. It was a film that people outside those who made it watched and enjoyed.”

The News Anchor deals with the situation in his own way

Mark Adams films with Scott Klaus while holding a cue card for him

I’m sure the one person who would find the film embarrassing is Scott Klaus. I knew Scott from my video production classes at KU, but he was more interested in broadcast journalism. In fact, he was a perfect TV News Anchor; a tall, good-looking man with an incredible sounding voice. I shot his scenes for WAR, DEATH & PIZZA in Lawrence, along with Kristin Smith helping us transform his basement into a news studio. At the time he was the anchor for the Sunflower Cablevision’s local news, but we couldn’t shoot on their set. I discovered that he had trouble memorizing dialogue; he was used to either reading from a teleprompter or script in his hands, or speaking from notes during a live remote. I had to write out his lines on sheets of paper taped together and scroll it beside the camera. But it worked great, and he looked and sounded like a real TV News Anchor. His most embarrassing moments came with his character’s on-air admission of cheating on his wife (he wasn’t married at the time in real life), and the scene of him getting drunk. He seemed really uneasy about the drunk scene, knowing that someday the footage may come back to haunt him. Also in the scene he couldn’t read his lines from our crude ‘teleprompter’, since his character would just be rambling on and not reading the news, so he had to memorize the dialogue. The first take he messed up a line, the second take was the funniest but Kristin laughs in the middle of it. After that he became more hesitant in his performance, obviously feeling more and more self-conscious about the whole thing. So I ended up using the take where you can hear Kristin laughing. Scott later became a reporter and anchor for WDAF Channel 4 in Kansas City, and married a reporter for KCTV channel 5. So I’m sure his part in the film would be a source of embarrassment for him if it were ever shown to the general public. The last I've heard about Scott is that he's now living in Tampa, Florida and no longer in television.

Kristin did remember shooting the scene, “I do remember the shoot with Scott Klaus in his basement. I know Scott was very apprehensive about acting in a manner in which he would not normally behave. He was very straight-laced at that point in his life. He did start to lighten up as time went on and he worked with all the crazies at Sunflower. I don’t think he could imagine doing any of those things, so it was harder for him to act like it. I remember having a good experience and enjoying it, but I don’t remember any specific details. Scott (did) very well as a local TV anchor. Scott was unusual as an anchor when he was at Sunflower because the clean-cut imagine he projected was his true self. Now, I don’t know what his true self is, but I imagine he’s much the same. He may even be a father, which would certainly complete the Ward Cleaver image. He always had a lot of integrity and feeling for the people he interviewed, which is different in this day and age of shoving a camera in a victim’s face.”

 

Death arrives to the party

Death's name tag, just in case no one recognizes him

“You do know why (WAR, DEATH AND PIZZA) is good, don’t you? IT’S FUNNY! (Laughs) It is! No, seriously, it is! It’s a funny piece. It’s done very well and it’s clever. A lot of people caught into that more than they do the dramatic stuff. It sells and it wins people to it. Keaton and Chaplin all wanted to do dramatic films. They wanted to put themselves into something that would be ‘heavy’ and that would mean something – Hell, they only had four people watching it. The stuff that they like is the stuff that is funny. They’ll bring their friends. They’ll come back and see it again. So I’d encourage you in that direction just because I think it sells.” – Bill Shaffer

Mark Adams: Truly Independent Filmmaking