By
Kate VonderPorten
Arizona Daily Wildcat
2 UA students create low-budget movie, learn to juggle school and work
Surely, all great film directors were inspired by a taco containing fish.
Well, maybe not all - but UA students Porter McDonald and Alden Corey certainly were.
While eating in a restaurant in San Diego, McDonald and Corey said they came up with the idea of "Fish Taco" for the name of their first movie, debuting tomorrow.
"We had just been eating fish tacos and felt that they were perhaps the funniest thing in the whole world," McDonald said. "We thought 'how funny would it be if we actually saw pirates in the deserts of Tucson.'"
Corey and McDonald took that idea and ran, creating a "raucous comedy" mockumentary about high school students abducted by villainous pirates who then wreak havoc on the modern-day Tucson desert. The whole movie was filmed locally at such recognizable spots as Sabino Canyon, the Town Hall and the Ronstadt Bus Center on Congress Street.
"People are going to be hit over the head with goofiness and over the top humor," McDonald said.
Drawing on past experiences with film and video, McDonald and Corey, both fine arts seniors, decided to expand their knowledge and enroll in Access Tucson, a local television organization.
"We went to high school back in Connecticut together and both took film and video classes, so we knew a little bit about film," McDonald explained. "Then we went to Access Tucson and became members and took their digital video class. They helped us out a lot and knew about the project from start to finish."
McDonald added that being students made it impossible for the filmmakers to afford making an "actual" film which is why they decided to work in the digital format.
The filmmakers, in an effort to recruit volunteers for cast and crew, posted bulletins in the theater, fine arts and media arts departments as well as at the Tucson Film Office, bringing in recruits even from Phoenix.
"Something has to be said for every one of our volunteers," Corey said. "They made no money and came out every weekend for three months. The fact was they just loved this as much as we did."
Both filmmakers said it was tough to balance school and filming over the 20 months it took to create "Fish Taco."
"These past two weeks we were working all day every day to prepare for our upcoming screening," Corey said. "In 20 months, we only stopped working during Christmas and last summer."
In addition to long hours, the two funded the project completely on their own.
"It was quite expensive, especially for college students. We would estimate that the whole project cost us the equivalent of 750 meals at Los Betos," McDonald said.
All joking aside, McDonald clarified that both he and Corey still strove for quality despite a tight budget.
"We wanted to make a cheap movie and to really celebrate the cheapness of it and use it to our advantage," McDonald said. "We are tightasses about how it looks. We didn't just want to do it cheaply. We wanted to make it look cheap and kitschy -- so the mockumentary style fit that really well."
"This was before we even knew about 'The Blair Witch Project' - although no one will probably believe us," he added. "Our movie was conceived pre-'Blair Witch.'"
As a final note to his audience, McDonald offered up some advice to budding filmmakers.
"We just made it happen and this will hopefully inspire any art students to say 'F' it and to go out and make a film."
Corey added, "There is a moral to it -- do whatever you want to and don't get discouraged. No matter how wacky of an idea you have about the world, go for it."
