Excerpts from Flipside

With no huge time-consuming project or production on the docket for this Summer, I decided recently to invest in a 1.5 TB harddrive and begin the arduous (but nostalgic) task of digitally archiving everything to do with what Mister Films Productions has created over the past decade. I already have a closet full of various containers designated for past projects, but VHS tapes are starting to show their age and I don’t trust CD’s (would you also believe that some of the original materials are on floppy discs?).

Anyways, one of the most packed container houses all materials related to FLIPSIDE- our first feature length project which was shot literally over the entirety of the year 2000 and was completed that December. It was a near-catastrophe most of the time as there was usually no script, plan or know-how involved in the filming. I was usually at odds with someone on the cast or crew and spent the majority of the movie being an arrogant asshole. But it had it’s moments of fun- I think. And it stands as the most ambitious project we have ever tackled.

The plot centers on a trio of college freshmen who discover that their toilet is, in fact, a magical gateway to a parallel universe in which they find a disillusioned teen bent on wiping both worlds out of existence as revenge on God …and HILARITY ENSUES! The movie ended up screening at a film festival in New York that, to this day, we’re pretty sure was an elaborate scam as well as a legit festival geared towards teen filmmakers in Toronto, Canada.

But the real reason we’re here today is because I came across the original, hand-written screenplay for the movie which I scrawled on 80 pages of notebook paper (both sides) sometime in 1999. And in the interest of reminiscing, I’ve decided to share some of the wonderful singular bits of dialogue from what it essentially the first thing I ever wrote. Made all the more entertaining by the total lack of context. Enjoy…

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THOMAS: (picks up the phone) You won’t be saying that tomorrow when you wake up in Mexico.

THOMAS: (sighs heavily and tosses the chicken aside) Man, this is a freakin’ chicken! Do I have to give you the magic carpet speech too?

MR. BLACKSUIT: Six billion years it has taken for this moment and the best opening line you have is “AHHHHHH!”?

NICK: (smiling slyly) And I’ll have a 10% longer life!

DANA: When I first met you, I thought you were some kind of psycho. (She turns around to find him holding a knife over his head, poised to stab her)

NICK: We’ve got less than a day. 24 hours, at most.

NICK: Does this mean I just wet my bed?

DREW: (looking ill) Hey, when you were talking about the brain melting… was there something else you didn’t tell me?

MR. WHITESUIT: Wait, hold on, were you guys talking or thinking about root beer?

LANDLORD: Yes, that’s a large pepperoni and breadsticks. And please hurry because the universe is about to be sucked inside out.

LANDLORD: Well, I might as well level with y’all… I’m Lucifer.

THOMAS: You son of a bitch! You killed our friend! And us! … sort of.

BLACKSUIT: Thirty minutes may seem long, but I’ll need time to escape the massive explosion.

NICK: (turns around) All right, no more jacking around… time to save the universe.

***

Ah, memories. Check out this clip from the finished 70 minute movie…