Although ‘Scary Movie’ was released to mixed reviews in 2000, it nevertheless became a cultural phenomenon. Written by Shawn and Marlon Wayans, and directed by the eldest Wayans, Keenan, they took the world’s collective love/hate relationship of the heavily cliched horror genre and put all of our thoughts and observations to page and screen. Girl falls while running through the woods? Check. Friends mysteriously dying while the cops do nothing? Check. Reckless teenagers kicking the whole thing off by having sex and driving drunk? Check and check. The brilliance of this film is just how unoriginal it is. But somehow still innovative.

Don’t Call Me Shirley

Before the Wayans family tried their hand at it, the reigning King of Spoofs was Leslie Nielsen. Responsible for at least a decade of laughs, Nielsen starred in several parody films, including ‘Airplane!’, ‘Naked Gun’, and ‘Repossessed’. He even had a role in several of the ‘Scary Movie’ sequels, and a Wayans style spoof of his own called ‘Superhero Movie’, bringing his career comedy career full circle.

This brings me to my next point: Even though Neilsen— and before him, Mel Brooks (History of the World, Blazing Saddles)— made his living churning out a seemingly endless line of spoof films, there’s a distinct difference with the Wayans: Style.

Before ‘Scary Movie’ hit the scene, and changed the way spoofs were made for the past two decades, parody films were exactly that— Films. Yes, there were lots of jokes per page, some obvious and sophomoric, some hilariously clever and well-planned, but the films all had one distinct protagonist and a clear character arc. Some of the scenes and tone of the film were reminiscent of the movies they wanted to mock, but even without having seen any of those films, you could still get the joke.

The Wayans approach was both direct and obscure: Ensemble casts, no character arcs, no distinct story, just spitfire jokes, that you can only really appreciate if you are a die-hard fan of that genre and pop culture in general. The jokes were more simplistic but just made them more accessible. And since several of their films were built off of “in the know” in-jokes, it had the effect of making you feel cool and special each time you “got” a joke.

In a way, the Wayans Bros spoofs— ‘Scary Movie’, ‘50 Shades of Black’, etc. amalgamated the best and the worst of all the movies we love, hate, and love to hate. Even one of their first films, ‘I’m gonna get you, Sucka’, was a spoof of Black-sploitation films of the 1970s. Over their career, they have systematically tackled various genres, with none out of reach: Horror, Romance, Dance, Superhero… The works.

The question I’m left with is: Will they remain the Kings of Parody for decades to come? Or will someone reinvent their reinvention? Only time will tell.

Also Read: For Your Consideration: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Oscar Snubs

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So, today we are going to shine a spotlight on a video from an American production company, And You Films. Which was recently released on YouTube. The project, the latest in a series of videos called “Scene Riffs”, is called BATMAN’S NEW IDENTITY!? And we’re going to be looking at how the filmmakers overcame the challenges of filming in the time of COVID-19.

Synopsis

In this parody of the filming of the opening scene of Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) we see the Caped Crusader (Brendan Jackson Rogers) preparing to take down two Gotham criminals (Will Phillips and Alea Figueroa). But after the filmmakers get the take of the scene that they want they decide to do some retakes. Showing us a number of humorously creative variations on how the scene could have gone. Including cross-overs with famous figures, things going wrong for Batman, a healthy dose of product placement; pop culture references, and some flatulence.

Safety and Filming

Two of the biggest challenges the makers of BATMAN’S NEW IDENTITY faced was having to protect the cast and crew against COVID-19 on set. As well as considering how the filming process would be handled. So how did the makers get around these obstacles?

According to the company’s press release in order to make the filming process safe the number of people on set was limited to a bubble of just three people. Those people being the cast members themselves. Who also took on filming responsibilities as well as acting.

But with such a small crew how did they deal with the filming process? Director Brendan Jackson Rogers made great use of shot-for-shot storyboarding to help the production navigate the shoot. And the crew members continually rotated the duties of operating the filming equipment they had between them. Depending on who was in the shot.

Budget

One other challenge facing this team was how to produce a great film on a limited budget. Brendan Jackson Rogers said most of the productions made by And You Films have a budget of around $500 which is raised through their YouTube revenue and Patreon memberships. So how did they stretch their budget to produce this project?

The main idea behind this series of parodies was actually born out of the limitations of the budget and the safety restrictions. The team decided to create something that could be filmed entirely within the confines of a studio and with the use of a green screen. The filmmakers even humorously referred to the filming process for this video as “Quarantined with a Green Screen.” As well as this the team was also responsible for most of the production and post-production work. Including editing and creating green screen backgrounds. The only external talent on the project being John Mondelli who provided the Batman parody music. Not only did these methods help to keep the crew protected but they also helped to keep the budget more manageable.

Conclusion

This ends our look into the making of BATMAN’S NEW IDENTITY!? Which used some clever methods to overcome filming and budget limitations and the safety restrictions of the past year. If you would like to give the video a watch you will find it linked below.

Also Read: Living In Crime Alley: Batman Fan Film

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