DVC 8 - Lorinda Norton "Techno Dad/TechNO Mom"

[Lorinda Norton]

Directing and filming one’s parents sounds like it could be a challenge unto itself. This, however, turned out to be my pleasure and privilege. My folks had never done anything of the kind and acted just a little nervous, but when we finished they said they had fun, so I’m happy.

It's pretty short—the download shouldn’t be long for all of you. My apologies for the low audio levels; I bumped them up as much as I dared!

Thanks for watching. :)

[Hugh DiMauro]

I can articulate why I loved it but must be careful not to spill any spoilers. Your track dolly use was a grabber from the get go and set the tone for a very polished, professional looking movie which you maintained through to the end. Your choice of actors was inspired and much appreciated and, let me tell you, your female lead <<smile>> is not only a looker but her facial expressions had me in stitches. I'm smiling now thinking about it. It was a nicely shot, well-edited, eye pleasing movie. You came up with a great film in a short amount of time. I loved the ending.

AND, Lorinda is the first DVCer who submitted two movies for one challenge! Who's gonna try for three? :-)

Great job! I loved it!

[Mike Horrigan]

I won't spoil it for others but I really liked the "fantasy" dream sequence. ;)

Nice dolly work as well.

Mike

[Sean McHenry]

I too like the dolly. That and the music reminded me of all those "home shows" as we call them here. Folks selling houses on TV do that around here sometimes.

Looked, sounded and acted pretty well. My parents aren't actors so I know it has to be tough to get a solid performance without overdoing it but Mom worked that dream sequence pretty well.

Older women with guns = cool stuff. And shooting a TV is fine with me (or two).

Overall: another good one from Lorinda and crew.

Sean

[William Gardner]

:) The "punchline" had me laughing out loud. Nice work, especially from the "actors". I think you should have had dad say "Well, they're still a lot better than they used to be" a third time at the very end, since that line cracked me up each time I heard it! :)

Thanks for the laughs, Lorinda,
Bill

[Chris Barcellos]

Lorinda:

I have a theory I'm testing as I get older. The ability to master remotes is inversely proportional to the amount of decades you have under your belt. If you are in your second decade (teenager), you can handle any number of remotes. By age 90, you can only handle 1. Your piece was funny to me, because I see my father and father in law, and mother in law struggling with these remotes every day. They are in their 80'. I know they want to do what TechNomom did here. Nice job !!

[Mugurel Dragusin]

Very enjoyable piece, well told story and nice dolly work!

I liked the fact that is showed how some people are more or less open minded but also how the technology got better in some ways but at the same time more complicated. :)

[William Gardner]

Originally Posted by Chris Barcellos

I have a theory I'm testing as I get older. The ability to master remotes is inversely proportional to the amount of decades you have under your belt. If you are in your second decade (teenager), you can handle any number of remotes. By age 90, you can only handle 1. Your piece was funny to me, because I see my father and father in law, and mother in law struggling with these remotes every day.

Unrelated diversion: Back in the 1990s, my mother was working hard to become more "computer savvy". I watched her working on the computer when I visted one time and I was struck by the fact that she wasn't using a mouse. She didn't even have it hooked up! I asked her why. She said that she tried one once but it was so incredibly counter-intuitive: you moved it up and the pointer moved down, you moved it left and the pointer moved right. And that wire kept rubbing your wrist!

Yep, you guessed it, she had the mouse upside-down and it never dawned on her to rotate it 180 degrees. The way she was using it looked the most like a "real" mouse so she figured that was the way it was supposed to be used.

She's come a long way and is now a regular mouse user...

Bill

[Josh Johnson]

The movie Hot Fuzz had a cop kicking an older woman. This is the revenge of that; older ladies with rifles! That was funny! :)

It seems like the current fashion to say it, but Nice Dolly work! I liked it, how are we supposed to pick only 3 favorites!?!?!

[Ronn Kilby]

Charming - what a cute couple. Your Dad actually reminds me a little of me :)
Loved it - although I could have used a little more "bang" in the end - as in the TV-Zombies kind of pyrotechnics/SFX. Hope you win so you'll have a good wireless mic setup :) Good camera work.

[Lorinda Norton]

Hey, thanks fellas, for the nice remarks! You are so kind. I told my parents I’d give them feedback; they will love the things you’ve said. My mom may even start looking for an agent. ;)

This conflict over the remotes has been going on since the early 90’s. Mom used to nearly explode when she was alone and couldn’t even turn on the TV. Because we’ve heard about it so much, my brother and sisters laughed out loud at the movie.

The dollying was tough because I had to step onto my parents’ fireplace mantle when Julie got closer to my dad, which also made me lose sight of my monitor. I really hate flying blind, but it worked out okay. I enjoy using Mike Teutsch’s dolly because I can even set the pipes on uneven desert terrain and it tracks beautifully.

Hugh: My mom blushed when I called and told her you said she was a looker, but she beamed, as well! We gals always love a compliment! :)

Mike and Sean, I will be sure to tell my mom what you said. That was the one part where she did have to act, so she was pretty self-conscious about it.

Bill, I’m with you on that thing with my dad repeating himself—cracked me up too. We also got a laugh out of him including VHS in the list of cool technology. :)

Now, Chris, if I tell my parents what you said it’ll give my mom too much ammunition—unless I say that at their ages (74 and 71) Dad’s current number of remotes is still justified. I’m terrible at math and so is she, so that just might work. ;)

Mugurel, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I worried about people thinking a couple of seniors sitting around talking would be too boring.

Josh: My mom centered that TV with her blast. She’s always been a terrific shot, but we all burst out laughing when she plugged it so well at her current age.

Ronn, those on this board who know me well would laugh at your statement about SFX. I don’t do SFX—kind of an “ON and OFF” person, I guess. :) The plan was to blow the TV to bits because I normally have at my disposal a demolition expert, but he got himself in a bit of hot water and is having to lay low, so I had to cut back!

[John Brickner Jr]

Oh man Lorinda, this totally reminds me of my own parents. They have a bijillion remotes for this and that and my mother doesn't have a single clue on which one does what. She has even said on occassion that she wish there was just "on and off". On a side note to what William was saying. My mother kept referring to the mouse as the "rat". True story.

This one hit home and I loved it! Great film Lorinda!

[Ronn Kilby]

Addendum:

I was in LA for a few days recently at an HD conference and my cell went off. It was my wife, almost in tears, begging me to talk her through the remote sequence so she could watch HGTV on the satellite, preferably with sound. It was sad. I've even written this down in a set-by-step guide complete with 3-color flow charts and detailed appendix but somehow this otherwise brilliant woman just does not get signal routing. Maybe there's a "remote gene."

Still, she makes a damned good Broiled Salmon.

[Brent Graham]

This was too funny! You're lucky that one of your parents is a technophile though. My parents don't know how to "google"!

It's funny, maybe because of Hot Fuzz...I was sitting there thinking "man, how cool would it be if this lady started kicking some &$$"...then, bam!, shotguns away!


Awesome scene, I only wish that the shotgun scene (being the climax in both action and character emotion) was given more time, maybe a smirk, a smoking barrel, a loading of the shotgun shells...something to stage it more than it was given.


Awesome film, your parents did a nice job and I enjoyed your stories sentimental appeal.

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Lorinda Norton

This conflict over the remotes has been going on since the early 90’s. Mom used to nearly explode when she was alone and couldn’t even turn on the TV. Because we’ve heard about it so much, my brother and sisters laughed out loud at the movie.

We have 6 remotes with my setup. My wife has finally learned how to manage and use them until someone accidentally pushes a button for a rarely or never used function. Once it took me an hour and half to get satellite reception back, she still denies "pushing the wrong button".

Originally Posted by Lorinda Norton

Josh: My mom centered that TV with her blast. She’s always been a terrific shot, but we all burst out laughing when she plugged it so well at her current age.

Ronn, those on this board who know me well would laugh at your statement about SFX. I don’t do SFX—kind of an “ON and OFF” person, I guess. :) The plan was to blow the TV to bits because I normally have at my disposal a demolition expert, but he got himself in a bit of hot water and is having to lay low, so I had to cut back!

I've been in a room when someone shot a 27" TV with a .45ACP WWII sidearm. He had brought his old service pistol out to show me and I gave it back to him with the slide locked back and the loaded magazine separate. Then I turned my back on him to do something with his computer, he apparently put the mag back in and released the slide. I was paying no attention to the sound it made or I would have picked up on the slide chambering a round.

He pointed the gun at his TV and pulled the trigger expecting a click.

My ears rang for hours afterward. But there were no "pyrotechnic" effects, just a hole in the thick glass in front of the screen, just like the result your mom got.

I helped him load the "dead" TV in his pickup so he could go dump it somewhere before his wife came home, his one comment was something to the effect, "I think I've always wanted to do that".

As usual, I enjoyed watching your movie. Very well done.