Is it real or is it Replica?
“From one, many,” sure it’s E. pluribus unum in reverse (for a refresher, read a penny), but it’s also the de facto battle cry of copy shop chains, which seem to make copies of themselves nearly as frequently as they reproduce customers’ [place your original here] on 20 pound recycled white bond.
Such chains may have to find a new battle cry (something more akin to a whimper and sigh) with the upcoming release of director Raymond Daigle’s comic debut Replica, an indicting portrait of copy shop cogs that make more mayhem than copies as corporate chicanery inevitably erodes their esprit de corps. Think David, David, David and Goliath, or more specifically, stars Josh Staples and myself in shop aprons taking orders, then taking down the Man.
A sneak preview screening plays at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 20 as part of Short & Sweet, a short films showcase hosted by the A Street Gallery, 312 South A Street, Santa Rosa, CA. $8. For more information, call 707/579-9124
The Wild Bunch - North Bay filmmakers forge a new cinematic scene
Raymond Daigle is working hard to finish the editing and sound on his first feature film, and once word gets out about how he made the movie and what it's about, he has every chance of becoming a celebrated legend within the independent filmmaking world. Replica is a broad, surreal comedy about the poor human beings who, like Daigle in real life, work the graveyard shift at an internationally known 24-hour print shop. The film was shot, without management ever knowing, during the graveyard shift over nine nights in April of 2004 at the actual outlet where Daigle worked.
During filming, the company's name was covered up by fake signs featuring the fictional store name Replica, and since the store was actually up and running as the movie was shot, there is the occasional moment of confusion when real customers wander in and find themselves in an alternate version of a late-night print shop.
"It was a really fun thing to do, a fun movie to make," says Daigle. "I will tell you, though, that the first night of shooting was absolutely the scariest night of my life. It's fun to sit around and say, 'Hey, maybe I should direct a movie!' But when you are actually standing there in front of a cast and crew, and they are all saying, 'OK, tell us what to do,' it's terrifying. I almost threw up the first night on the set."
Daigle hopes to have the film completed by September, after which he will attempt to distribute the film himself over his website, still to be built.
"With Replica, if we can somehow get the word out just to the Kinko's workers of the world, and if only a fraction of them find the website and order the movie, we'll do well," Daigle says. "My first and foremost reason for making the movie--and I'm serious--is to give something back to the copying industry. I wanted to make a movie we can all gather around and have a laugh about."
Daigle hopes his experiences making the film, and any legend that arises around how he made it, will inspire other untried filmmakers to give it a go.
"Today, in the place and time we live, this is the best time ever, ever, ever to be an independent filmmaker," he says. "There are no longer any excuses. You can't say, 'Oh, well, I would make a movie, but it's too expensive' or 'I just can't do it because I can't get access to the postproduction equipment.' The power to make movies is absolutely in anybody's hands right now. Anybody who wants to can do it."
