In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a movie coming out this week about a Caped Crusader guy who fights crime and stuff. Yeah, it looks like the world has been seized by another bout of BatMania, thanks to Friday’s debut of The Dark Knight.
While Batman is always portrayed as a hero—a deeply flawed, ridiculously somber hero—he’s just a guy, albeit a deeply flawed, ridiculously somber guy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone capture that better than Phillip Lybrand of Tucson, Arizona.
I dig Lybrand’s two BatMovies, which are outright hysterical; there’s the quirky , which reveals a stunning new use for the BatUtility belt, and the funny yet messed-up , which is kinda like Super Friends meets The Breakfast Club. Both these flicks—apparently two-thirds of a trilogy—have what all the best fan films have: a unique point of view, lots of B-roll and swift editing that doesn’t waste your time. They say what they have to say and then they split.
Batman's Bad Day
What I like even more are their nuances, because generally, comedy doesn’t have much use for tone. Lybrand’s two flicks, however, convey a deep-seated, emotional pain at work for many of the characters, despite the yuks, and that comes across through details—the pacing, framing and acting.
Lybrand, who uses the production banner Greenless Pictures, shot the flicks with a Panasonic AG-DVX100 and handled post with Adobe CS3. When not making flicks, he runs a cool website called Tucson Filmmaker Magazine, which even includes a fun article about how he made the superhero costumes in Batman’s Bad Day for $65. If you dig the flicks—and you will—give it a look.
Thanks for the positive words!
A theatre here in Tucson has been showing ‘Bad Day’ before all of their Dark Knight screenings, so in one weekend I’ve had like 10,000 audience members! Thanks again, and keep your eye out for part 3!