by Benjamnin Svetkey
Brit director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) has filmed his
digital-video feature Time Code 2000, and true to his word, he
recorded the movie in exactly 93 minutes in LA on Tuesday.
Talking to Canada's Jam! Movies website, Figgis explained: "It's
basically shooting an entire feature film in 93 minutes on one
tape. Obviously the actors have to know their timing." They'd
have to - they're expected to improvise the film based on rough
trajectories for each of their characters. "It's all a bit of a
mind-blowing idea," Figgis continues. "It's entirely gratuitous on
my part. I'm just fascinated by the reductive process that video
offers." The shoot is reported to have started at noon, and to
have included four locations. The experiment also included an
online component: one of the actors chatted with web users
during filming.
The impromptu nature of the project wasn't quite as impromptu
as it seemed, however. It transpires that Figgis had shot the
digi-feature once before and that this was in effect his second
take. "I've shot it already. I'm just shooting it again (today)… It'll
become clear very soon. I can't talk about it right now." What is
clear is that the new record-setter for cinema's briefest shoot
stars, among a cast of 20, Salma Hayek, Stellan Skarsgard,
Jeanne Tripplehorn and Figgis's actress-girlfriend, Saffron
Burrows.
