1) Yes, there really was a motion picture short -- consisting of 7, 8 or 13 full minutes (depending on which source you want to believe) -- filmed in Garfield Park.
It happened in the park’s Sunken Garden in July 2021, and the film was released the same year and entered in several film festivals in that year and in 2022.
The short, called Paradox, was about a female scientist who is told by a man traveling from the future that she will invent time travel, but before she can do that, she first must to do something out of her comfort zone -- meet and attract her future husband. The film wraps up in quick order, which should be obvious by the film's time length that I mention above.
Indeed, the entire crew created a sci-fi world in the Sunken Garden and shot the film in one day.
"One of the challenges in writing the script ... is telling a complete story with some depth to it in a really short amount of time, to really have a full arc and everything," said director Glenn Pratt, who also co-wrote the script with Benjamin Dewhurst. The film's producer was Adam Janeira. The stars were Yasmin Schancer, Ransom Pugh and Isaiah Treadwell.
2) No, I wasn't there to see or even photograph the filming. I moved from Indy to North Carolina in summer 2017, but I learned about Paradox while doing research for this chapter. (There are four still photographs -- not mine -- of the film at the link in the previous sentence.). Sadly, there is precious little else about the film available online anymore. Even the film’s production company of record (Renegade) has vanished, and its website is no longer functioning.
While I knew nothing until recently about Paradox, the paradox of the situation is that in 2011, I did photograph the making of a different video short in Garfield Park.
It was a film with a very personal connection: The producer, director and cinematographer was my 16-year-old niece, Erin Dean, who lived in Glen Carbon, Ill., at the time but was in town with her family visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday. And at that point in her life, making and editing her own short videos had become a passionate interest.
That's Erin in the first two photos below, using a Flip Ultra HD camera to record scenes for the video, which you probably could describe as a family affair.
That's because two of the leading actors in the film are my grandchildren, Jakob and Lizzy Konz, who are cousins to each other and second cousins of Erin. The third main character in the film, a masked villain named Venom, is played by Jakob's older brother, Ricky Cathcart. Ricky was 8 years old at the time, Jakob was 6 and Lizzy was just a month away from her 6th birthday. Lizzy and Jakob appear in the first two photographs below.
Two years or so before this, Erin had acquired an interest in photography that evolved into video-making. She came up with a film story concept for Bat Boy's Day Off (Bat Boy being a child version of the famous Batman comics book and motion picture character) set in Garfield Park. And she thought it could work using her cousins to play key roles. So, when her family was in town, the kids walked the short distance to Garfield Park and started filming.
The 3-minute video follows Bat Boy (played by Jakob) on his day off from work at his regular job. He happens to be sitting on the steps in front of his home when, a short distance away, Venom grabs an innocent girl (Lizzy), drags her her to a park lamppost and ties her hands behind her and to the pole.
Venom leaves to hide behind some bushes, and the girl screams for help. Bat Boy hears her plaintive cries and runs to the park, finding Lizzy at the lamppost. He looks around to hopefully fix an eye on some kind of explanation. Finding none, he runs to the pagoda and up the spiral staircase therein to get a good view of the surrounding landscape, using his powerful vision. He spots something, runs down the staircase and into the nearby meadow where by this time Venom has left his hiding spot and begun to approach Bat Boy.
After a stare down of at least 10 seconds, Bat Boy and Venom simultaneously take swings at the other, knocking each other down. But Bat Boy's punch lands much harder, rendering Venom unconscious. Bat Boy gets up to his feet and removes the villain's mask to expose Venom’s identity (Surprise! It's Ricky!). Bat Boy returns to the girl, unties her from the pole and tells her they need to get out of there. The film ends with the two running from the scene and off into the distance.
I didn't stay long out there because it was cold, and as you can tell, Lizzy and Jakob wear coats/jackets when not filming, so I'm sure they were cold, too. Also in these pictures is my oldest son, Joey (holding Jakob's red jacket in the pictures), who is Jakob's father. In the closing credits of the video short, Joey gets a mention as an assistant director.
My pictures don't include Venom because none of the scenes in the short time I was there involved him yet. But I took a screen grab from the finished video, and that's Ricky in the photo below at the point in the story that he grabs Lizzy.
There was a surprise mention in the closing credits that made us all laugh hysterically. Erin's younger sister, Becca, who didn't have a role in the film but stood around outdoors for the entire shoot, is credited for being "bored senseless."
That's Becca in the seventh photo below. Twelve years have passed since this video was made, so I won't swear to it, but it occurred to me recently when I came across that picture again that maybe Becca had bent over backward as shown to vocalize her utter boredom, and hence, the notation in the closing credits. The picture is out of focus, but the moment -- if indeed she is at her boredom apex in the photo -- seemed important to include here. (Sorry Becca!)
Erin has uploaded a copy of
Bat Boy's Day Off to YouTube. Sadly, the closing credits are cut off just before the one for Becca would have appeared. You can view the video short by following the link in the first sentence of this paragraph. Erin did all of the editing and adding of background music to the video. Pretty impressive for a high schooler!
Please note: This video was recorded in good fun; it was not used for commercial purposes. Erin did make a couple other video shorts using her cousins as cast members when they were still small, but she used different venues for those.
Today, Erin is 28 and married and goes by Erin Valenti. She might still dabble some in video-making, but her real passion in recent years has been board games. In fact, she has written a book about them,
For the Love of Board Games (which is available to purchase on Amazon.com). Becca is 26, Ricky 20, and Jakob and Lizzy 18.
Now that you have been introduced to everyone, here are some of the other photos I took that day.
Next up, Chapter 22: Music in the park
Previously in the Garfield Park in Pictures series:
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