About The Show
Cliff Notes was conceived, as so many good things are, in poverty. A group of us had wanted to make a feature for years. We had three-quarters-written screenplays for sweeping period war epics. We had score and libretto for more than one space opera. There was a western, a (very) black comedy or three, dozens of horror movies, from slasher to high-concept undead farce. The only thing all of our ideas had in common was that they all needed capacious volumes of cash to see them made. But cash ain’t cheap. So if necessity is the mother of invention, then we suckled, destitute, at her meager bosom, and were rewarded with the nourishing milk of insight.
We had no money, sure, but we had talent! We had a Flip HD camera and could borrow and re-purpose some sound equipment. And most importantly, we knew people who had more talent than we, and who liked us, and some of whom owned a bookstore. Many of us had worked in a bookstore and we were all readers. This sounded like an excellent and fitting beginning. A call me Ishmael beginning, not a dark and stormy one. So we began to build our idea with these simple bricks: we would shoot in our friends Opal and Carlos’ book store, Cliff Notes, scheduling our shoots on days they were closed. We would enlist some very talented actors we were privileged to know. We would engage the services of the only talented editor we knew who was willing to work for free on a project that had some merit. And instead of counting on amazing cinematography, lighting, and effects to tell a story, we would rely on tight writing and brilliant acting, and just hope that the technical elements wouldn’t be terribly distracting.
So here it is, finally, submitted for your amusement. If you like it, stick around and let us know, because now that we’ve had a taste of the glamorous life of the no-budget production, we couldn’t help developing ideas for some new projects…