(24MB, mov file)

A GUY WALKS INTO A BAR...

    ...And the rest is no joke

This film was made for very litle money to see if it could be done.
A portion of the profits after expenses will be donated to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).

SYNOPSIS by the director

Last year I overheard a conversation while waiting for a friend to meet me for lunch at a restaurant  in Studio City, CA. The two men I overheard talking were coming from an apparently famous AA meeting in the area and were not speaking in hushed tones. I never saw the face of either man, as they were sitting behind me.

One man told a story of how once, while driving drunk, he killed a family as they changed a flat tire on the roadside. He said his lawyer had gotten him off on a technicality, and after the courts made him join AA, he had been sober ever since. At that point, my friend arrived and that was that, I had my own conversation to contend with.

I used the very compelling  story that I overheard as the premise for “The Bartender”. I spent a lot of time, thinking  about what I would do in this situation, hence the ironic ending. It is a very strong subject that I don’t, unfortunately, think is appropriate for children. However, if you know anyone in recovery they will think differently about it. It seems that not everyone can forgive and forget.

The Bartender is an Experimental Short Film by Writer/Director Tom Kennedy.

The aim of the experiment was to see if a good story could be told inexpensively, using today's technology and non-actors, just real people.

The film was shot in 14 hours over two days (8 hours of Interiors, 6 hours of Exteriors), with a lot of help from his friends, using two Panasonic 3-chip DVX100A cameras set at 24p on Panasonic Mini-DV Master stock and was edited on an Apple G4 laptop computer using Avid Xpress Pro software. The film was then onlined, dubbed and bumped up to DigiBeta and from there to HD by Picture Head in Hollywood.

It runs 15 minutes and is a proponent of the theory "What goes around comes around".

Did the experiment work?

YOU DECIDE.

(24MB, mov file)