I've had the movie bug for many years. Almost all of the hundreds of short films, videos and projects I've done since I was young have been comedies, or at least my feeble attempt at comedy. It made sense that my first feature "High School Ripped Me A New One" would be a comedy as well. The responses I got from other filmmakers was often less than encouraging. "Dude, do not attempt comedy", "Comedies are really hard to film." and of course the classic, "Holy Crap, you want to film an indie high school comedy with all unkown actors!?" Of course I did. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Ok, maybe having Jude Law as the handsome but troubled romantic lead would have been nice.

People have very different ideas about what makes a film funny. Some people love physical comedy, like Chaplin or the stooges. It's only funny if someone loses an eye. Others prefer a more subtle comedy, full of dry sarcasm and implied humor. Some like believable situations, and others won't waste their time if it's not over the top. Many people just like watching somebody do a stand-up comedy routine on screen. Different strokes for different folks. What I tried to do with this film was to combine a little bit of all of these elements. There are laughs for everyone.

Above all I wanted to make a film that could laugh at itself, as well as racial stereotypes, high school, friendship, materialism and sexuality. I wanted to get away from the idea that all indie film has to take itself so seriously.

Being that this film was completely self funded, it was a constant battle to get this film made. It was the hardest part of the process, but also what made the film what it is. This is a different kind of movie, a movie with a lot of heart, and that comes through in every character, in every frame.

This film is meant for people to enjoy. It is a good, fun movie. It’s good movie to watch by yourself, great to watch with family, and even a good date movie. It's even better when you come home drunk at 3 in the morning. I’ve personally watched it with critic Roger Ebert one night, after many hours of drinking. Within ten minutes he shouted “this is one of the greatest films of our lifetime!”. Which would have been great, but as I sobered up, I realized that we had actually watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. And to make matters worse, Roger Ebert turned out to be a homeless guy named Silky, who had followed me home from the bar. But that’s a story for a different day.

In the end, I hope people take what they want from "High School Ripped Me A New One", but if there is one constant underlying message throughout the film, here it is. It’s all about peace, love and having fun along the way. Life is short.      - Cameron

“High School Ripped Me A New One” is the creative work of Cameron Washington, a young San Francisco independent filmmaker. Cameron’s goal in making the film was simple-to make people laugh. “Hearing and seeing people laughing is one of the most amazing things in the world so I wanted to make a really funny movie that didn’t take itself too seriously.” The high school theme was a natural for Washington, having just graduated himself shortly before writing the screenplay. His personal high school experiences lent to a fresh, clear vision of how the story line would play out. “I thought that two complete losers who showed up to high school one day filthy rich would be a great situation with so much room for comedy.” Washington goes on to explain, “Comedies are so often over looked and under-appreciated, especially on the Indie scene so I wanted to make a movie that would make the audience laugh so hard they couldn’t stop.”

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Having a fantastic idea for a movie is one thing; actually making it happen is a completely different challenge. Washington originally wrote the screenplay in 1998 while hanging out in Los Angeles. Through the encouragement of friends who fell in love with the story and also happened to be San Francisco actors, Washington shot about 15 scenes from the script during the summer of 1999 in San Francisco. “I seriously got my ass handed to me on the shoot.” he laughs. “It was really a crash course in filmmaking.” After editing the scenes into a trailer Washington instantly saw ways to improve the screenplay. “Right away I was able to see which jokes worked, which didn’t, different characters the film needed and what should just be tossed out.” But Washington wasn’t discouraged; quite the opposite, he had a taste of filmmaking and was hooked. “I was obsessed!”

The next year after completely re-writing the script, Washington began preparing to start over and shoot his first feature length film in San Francisco. Knowing that it was going to have to be a self-funded project, Washington prepared for the tough financial challenges of moviemaking. He explains, “I got as many jobs as possible; an office job in the day, served tables at a couple restaurants at night, played trumpet gigs, and got as many loans and credit cards as the bank would permit.” Washington also relied on close friends and family. “I borrowed so much money from friends during production that after a while they would just put it on my tab.” After two years of working over-time and saving every penny, Washington was still ever-devoted to his film and was finally ready to begin shooting. “ When I told film-industry people that I was just about to start shooting a feature that I was directing, acting in, and producing myself they all thought I was nuts.” Not one to be intimidated, Washington pushed forward and “High School Ripped Me A New One” finally began pre-production.

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Since the budget was so limited Washington only had a skeleton crew of seven, whom were lead by Dan Schmeltzer, Director of Photography. Washington did everything else himself; he organized the shooting schedule, made sure everyone was fed and whenever possible found free locations. Everything was set to go except for one problem, there was no cast. “The casting dates kept getting pushed back closer to filming, until we were only two weeks away and there was still no cast.” Wires were crossed somewhere and the casting director had thought production would start July 1st, but Washington and the rest of the crew were set to go on June 1st. The casting director bailed.

Washington had only 6 days before filming was scheduled to begin. “It was a blessing in disguise,” Washington realized later “I was able to hand pick a couple of actors I had known for years.” Robert Amacker met with Washington only three days before production. “I hadn’t seen Cameron in years but he explained that he was about to start shooting this movie in three days and he wanted me to play one of the leads.” After reading through the script a few times while drinking many beers Amacker signed on. Washington, originally planning to cast himself as Andrew, now also had Robert Amacker as David, Orlando Macon as Mob Guy Al, and Olee Wade as his Sidekick Joey. With the four leads cast, Washington was ready to begin shooting. “It turned out to be very advantageous for the film to just have the four main characters to shoot for the first few weeks. Once we started shooting the high school scenes with a full cast and tons of extras each day it got really crazy.”

Each day of shooting proved to be a new challenge since Washington didn’t know for sure where some of actors were going to come from. Finding actors in California wasn’t as easy as it sounded. “One of the first few days of shooting we needed an actor to play the character David’s Dad. I couldn’t get a hold of any actors the night before so that morning Orlando Macon was trying to find someone in Safeway who could play the role.” Cameron shakes his head and laughs, “that scene ended up being one of the funniest in the whole film.” About three weeks into filming, Washington found American Eagle studios in Santa Rosa, CA and the rest of the film was finally cast.

Washington and his small crew essentially lived and worked out of a classic 1984 Dodge Durango van during filming. “That van had everything in it,” recalls Orlando Macon, “the wardrobe, all the grip and lighting stuff and all of the food for the entire set. It was pretty bad. Once when I got my costume for a scene there was part of a moldy taco on it from being stored in the same place.” Washington and his loyal crew even wound up sleeping in the van some nights. Production lasted for about a month and a half.

The film takes place in San Francisco and was shot through-out the Bay Area. The opening montage is a collection of sweeping views of San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland, Sausalito, Sonoma, and San Francisco, all of the beautiful cities that have made the Bay Area famous. The Bear Claw Bakery in Pinole, East of San Francisco served as the “Bakery” and their genius coffee got the cast and crew through many long days. The house scenes were also shot in Pinole and the restaurant and high school scenes were all shot in scorching Santa Rosa. According to Washington, “it got up to 106 degrees some days when we were in Santa Rosa. Luckily someone found a pool on the campus so every day after filming the cast and crew would tear off the clothes and head directly for the pool. It was like summer camp!”

When filming rapped, Washington faced a new battle. “I had huge debts from production. Though I had prepared as much as I could the extra little expenses really added up fast.” But with a bit of tenacity Washington made sure that all of his debts were paid off. Luckily Washington hooked up with a great editor, Christine Corrigan, who had agreed to edit the film in exchange for the editing equipment. The editing process took almost two years to complete due to prerequisite technical issues that resulted in month-long delays. But Washington’s optimism was renewed as he watched his film come to life scene by scene. “Christine and I would laugh so hard at each new scene so I knew we were on the right track.”

The film was slowly modified and fine-tuned from a rough cut to a final full-length feature product. The addition of a great jazz soundtrack, anchored by Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, an eight-piece swinging blues band, brought the film together on a whole new level. The film is rounded out by two hot underground hip hop songs, performed by Binary Star and Reign and by some great original music by Patrick Bowsher.

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