I came across “Me and You” on the “staff pick” section of Vimeo. I frequent that section often- those kids know how to pick a compelling story.

The title alone was a 75% guarantee I’d watch it- I’m a sucker for chick flicks- but as a filmmaker, it was the idea of a full story told from one camera angle that made me save it for later 4 days ago.

My initial take away:

Cool concept. Engaging, detailed production design. Cute story. A few far-stretched scenarios, but forgivable because of the frequent jump cuts and established fast pace.

Pretty incredible production design actually. The production design carries the story like a third character, with every cut we get a visual of where they are in their relationship based on the amount of clutter and positioning of objects in the room and their relationship to it. It was the hook for me.

And right when I was about to move on I discovered this little “making of” video, and WHAT THE FUCK?! Take everything I said about the production design and multiply it by the power of Greyskull. The room was created from scratch on a stage, one square of carpet at a time, all the light changes coming from the window, the whole SHE-BANGS was a controlled environment. Check it out: 

As a humble guerrilla maker I had just assumed that we were probably in the filmmaker’s or filmmaker’s best friend’s bedroom. I had assumed that the light blue stuffed animal was being thrown from a sidewalk through the window of a second story bedroom by a PA with a good arm.

What I am trying to say, is the production design is fucking amazing.

And so is this SHE BANGS song by Ricky Martin:

CTOB knows short movies...