Smeared cinematic jelly all over Kansas City 48
Jelly Jar Man is a bit of an anomaly. First of, it was the only idea pitched. Brian brought it up in the car after kick-off –a bizarre childhood boogeyman/invisible friend named the Jelly Jar Man returns to get revenge on the kid he used to terrify– and I said “Absolutely. Say no more, we’re making that.” We drove to the KC Costco, bought a bunch of jelly, filmed one shot on a KC landmark that we didn’t end up including, and wrote the full film on the drive home. No writing party, no brainstorm, no whittling down of ideas. We simply took the first idea and did it.
Beyond that everything else is the regular serving of absurdity. We pulled Revenge & Comedy as our genre options and decided to make both. Jelly Jar Man is a demented comedy. Just straight looney tune, messy fun. We once again turned to Craig as our leading man and I guess didn’t fully give him the run down on what the film was about because it turns out he hates sticky things and was not super jazzed about being covered in Jelly. As it turned out, the jelly wasn’t super sticky and Craig was game to get gross. Massive thank yous and gratitudes must be given to the rest of our KC48 crew who agreed to do 48 twice in three weeks including: Brian Hogan, Erin Hogan, Craig Bahnsen, Hillary Richardson, Ethan Gaps, Tosh Dillinger, Gabe Rowold, and Bill Gongol. We can't do this without a slew of people who agree to get weird.
What a fun weekend. I am straight up addicted to 48. I would do it every weekend if I could. A new short film that is wild fun and makes the entire audience lose it? Who can get enough of that. I’m serious. It is a dopamine rush that maybe only performing in live theater or an improv troop can replicate.
If there is any unique takeaways from making Jelly Jar Man it’s this; filmmaking is about leaning into your crew’s strengths. Sure you can attempt to hero lift all the technicals and possibly the writing, but that won’t get you far and something will suffer. JJM was not my idea and while I lead the writing in the car, every turn of the story was run through Brian, Erin. Of course Brian played a hilarious and creepy character to perfection, but as we progressed through the shoot at the usual break-neck speed Erin rose above her excellent script supervisor role to legit be the assistant director. With all the jelly mess the order of filming was a serious jumble and Erin not only kept the order straight, she actually had the best ideas for how the story changed in the moment, particularly the ending. The initial idea we had was quite soft, she’s the one who came up with the light bulb ending which resulted in us winning the Best Use of Prop award.
Which brings us to the screening. I’ll be bummed for years I couldn’t make it down to KC to see JJM on the big screen. Especially since it apparently played like gang busters to big laughs. KC48 only had 10 teams participating so the awards screening and the premiere screening were one in the same. While only three exploders made it down to the screening, JJM ended up taking the audience favorite award, followed by Best Use of Prop and Best Editing. I’m proud of the editing for sure, and Erin deserves all the credit for the Prop win, but the audience favorite is kind of a big deal. We were in a “foreign” land with a small voting footprint and somehow won over a room full of strangers. Very cool. While we didn’t end up in the top 3 films, we did something possibly even cooler and I love that. Also, we were nominated in basically every category possible. On top of the awards, Jelly Jar Man's nominations included Best Film, Best Writing, Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Actor (Craig Bahnsen), Best Use of Character, Best Use of Line, Best Use of Genre, Best Costumes.
 |
| Three Tiny Explosions films and their August 2026 screenings |
Funny enough, Tiny Explosions 48 summer isn’t quite over. Tonight is the Best of City screening for the 2026 Des Moines 48 and our film Wag the Cat is screening. I’m sure it will be a fun night, but I do not forsee us taking any big awards with our dark, crude, messed-up comedy. Still, judges are always a mystery. Once we see what the night has in store for us I will definitely report back. As for now, please enjoy Jelly Jar Man and be on the lookout for a behind the scenes look at the making our silly jelly-dipped revenge comedy.
One last thing, Jelly Jar Man is hilarious and a fast paced story. But maybe the thing that will stick with me the longest is the "Jelly Jar Jingle," a creepy nursey rhyme song I dictated into Brian's phone. Brian added a second verse of insanity and his friend Paul Alfonso put it all together in a fantastic composition he performed and recorded. PLEASE, check this out and I am sorry in advance for how long it will be stuck in your head.
Comments
Post a Comment