Sweetcorn

By James Dann

Sweetcorn is a short film written, conceived and gestated by myself, James Dann and Michael Westwood. It’s made from the cast and crew of Chicago Rice, our Manchester based sketch show. The Sweetcorn plot came from when myself and Michael were up in Glasgow sat outside a Wetherspoons and pondering the surrealness of the world. After a few J2O’s and tap waters (with lemon) we realised that the corn-in-a-cup phenomenon was one of the strangest things we’d seen all year (and we’d seen 4 strange things that year). We didn’t quite understand why a hot cup of corn was appetizing or appealing, yet still people flocked to the truck like it was the next gold rush (a name for the film we toyed with for a while, then dismissed one afternoon after ‘Gold Rush’ returned a lot of hits on Google)

So on a limited budget of nothing we went out to shoot our first short! The first stage was getting a tracking dolly to follow behind us as we’re chased by security. The way we got over this was having our D.O.P, Dan Thorburn hang out the back of our actor (Julian Leiners) car as he drove at a steady speed infront and behind us. It was then that I realised what it must feel like to be a dog and run after a car. The thrill of the chase, the heat of the moment, the exhilaration of the diesel fumes that keep you pumping and in a wonderful acting haze.

The technical crew we used were friends that have worked on numerous projects with us before. We’ve all been actors and film makers on eachothers projects at some point in the past. I found Dan Thornburn, the D.O.P, through Facebook when applying as an actor for a short film he made. Dom Old, who did the colouring, is Dan’s colleague and now we all work on films together. The sound was done by Abul Husain, who was a flatmate of Michael Westwoods (M in Sweetcorn) and did most of the sound / sound design for Chicago Rice’s sketches (www.chicagorice.com)

Sourcing the window to throw corn from was another challenge of the film. We had to door-to-door knock on buildings in the Northern Quarter until one agreed to let us do the shot. So one day we walked up the stairs of a corporate office carrying through tins of sweetcorn, pans and corn cobs.

The main thing which stands to mind is how much tinned sweetcorn actually smells and sticks on you. The water is much more dense and congealed that one might think – and every night we ended the day by rinsing and draining corn starch from our hair and bodily extremities. It’s nice like a cleansing ritual of the old, reminds you what it must have felt like to have a good harvest.

So, without further adue, you can check Sweetcorn out here! https://vimeo.com/235842221

Also please see www.chicagorice.com for all of our other sketches.

Thanks!

James Dann