>>PREVIEW
MIME MASSACRE
Sunday, September 24
Uptown Screen
Sunday, October 1
Uptown Screen
Colin Decker never had to smear off white face-paint from his thighs left by a dirty uncle who dabbled in mime. A mime never killed his father in Vietnam or stole the homecoming crown from him on prom night. Not even a lewd gesture or an accidental jostle set him off. Colin Decker massacred a room of defenceless mimes because he thought it was funny.
"I was pretty much indifferent towards mimes. The idea of killing mimes through mime was just so funny, though," chuckles Decker over the phone during his lunch break as a stuntman on the set of the Are We There Yet? sequel. "I was like, nobody really likes mimes, so let’s do this."
The short has already won best comedy at the Winnipeg International Film Festival and has found its way into festivals across North America, such as the SoCal Independent Film Festival and, of course, this year’s Calgary International Film Festival. The director returns to home turf with all the razzle dazzle he can muster. This will include mimes protesting with blank signs outside the showing of his short.
Decker began a modest film career, on the beaches of Costa Rica. "I was living down there, trying to start up a business with some friends," he remembers. "Everybody was discussing backup plans and, just bullshitting, I said I’d do either two things – drive monster trucks professionally or be a stunt man. There wasn’t really a school for monster truck drivers, so I ended up looking into stunt work."
A three-week program at the United Stuntmen’s Association in Seattle later and Decker now performs stunt work on unnecessary sequels to Ice Cube film vehicles. Always an eager learner, though, Decker pays attention on the various features he’s done stuntwork on to help with his burgeoning career as a director. And whenever away from a film set, Decker also works as a stand-up comic, taking second place in the Vancouver’s "Funniest Comic With a Day Job" competition.
Combining his talents from all three, Decker created the six-minute short, Mime Massacre. An imaginary katanna decapitates a mime. Out of a hole in a mime’s chest spew ribbons of red like a child would blow Kool-Aid through a straw. Another mime gets roasted alive with an imaginary flamethrower. All the effects used for the gory deaths were staged on set with no computer trickery – the benefits of working as a stuntman.
"The stunts I specialize in are fire stunts," says Decker. "My partner and I created a very innovative fire gel that makes the stunt easier. The trick is to have a very shit-hot barrier gel that will keep the heat off. Besides that, have fire retardant clothing. I was going to do the burn myself, but my FX coordinator, Dave Barkes, had seen me work with the stuff before and begged me to light him on fire. So I did."
A room of corpses behind him, Decker doesn’t plan on stopping just there. An inventive mind for violence, he has much more in store for the hapless mime community.
"I had come up with so many more ways since the shoot," cackles Decker. "I’m planning on doing a sketch comedy show about just different ways to kill mimes. Like knock a guy out with an invisible rock and then into an invisible chainsaw. Whatever keeps the blood flowing is hilarious." |
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