: We didn't come up the name Chicago Jones, that's a homage to a segment of the Robert Townsend movie, Hollywood Shuffle --

Carlos: What homage? We ripped it off. Even the reference to jumping off a cliff with his mother; that's what he does in Hollywood Shuffle. It wasn't just about ripping them off, though; we had the prop gun and the hat, so we built our short around those props. First rule of low budget moviemaking: work with what you have already.

Scott: Speaking of props, why do my hands look so big in relation to the basketball in the action scene? What exactly did you do?

Carlos: I don't remember. I was trying to make the action figure look larger, like the size of a real guy, but obviously I was way off. It wouldn't have matched anyway: you are, as Chicago Jones, not even wearing a shirt, let alone a suit of armor.

Scott: What suit of armor? What are you talking about?

Carlos: The action figure is shiny as hell. Isn't he wearing a suit of armor?

Scott: No, he's Captain Power. It's a space suit.

Carlos: Well, you ain't wearing a space suit either. On top of that, he's shorter than the boulder, but when you see it coming, you're looking down at it.

Scott: Yeah, that's just fucked up. The last shot at the end matches up pretty good, when you punch in for my close-up after jumping the boulder.

Carlos: It would've looked better if you were wearing a shiny space suit. . .Do you remember anything else useful?

Scott: I remember you kept waving your hand at me to move, making me fuck up my dialogue.

Carlos: I was trying to get the framing right. The viewfinder on the camera was not a through the lens, SLR deal. It was on top of the camera, so you had to compose your shots to compensate for the viewfinder's position. If I thought you were a little off, I would wave you into place.

Scott: Why didn't you just move the camera?

Carlos: I don't remember. I think it had a bit to do with trying to make a professional looking film, without the rapid camera movement commonly found in home videos at the time. Besides, I don't think it crossed my mind while I was lying on my back.

Scott: Yeah, the low-angle stuff is great.

Carlos: The shot where you point the gun at the camera is the best. Scorsese ripped it off in Goodfellas.

Scott: Totally! When Lorraine Bracco has the gun on him in bed; I thought the same thing when I first saw it.

Carlos: The framing problems weren't just about where the camera was pointed, though. You kept holding stuff up in front of your face: your hand, the gun, the detonator --

Scott: You told me to wave the gun around to reflect the light off of it!

Carlos: Yeah, I said wave it around, not block your face with it. You kept doing that shit in Death Fish , too.

Scott: I played a chain smoker in Death Fish , my hand is gonna come up to face now and then. I've gotten much better at not blocking my face . Speaking of professional looking, how professional looking is it when I do sound FX live on camera?

Carlos: Not at all, but it's funny as shit!

Related Potluck Episodes:
Some Stuff We Had Lying Around : Movie Trailer Spoof (ca. 1987)
Some Stuff We Had Lying Around : State Penn in Black & White