We produced a film called "Midnight Arrest", which was about as pretentious, sophomoric, and technically bad as you can imagine.  I take the brunt of the blame for that-- Sid was more interested in the technical end of the project.  I think I came up with the concept of the film:  some guy sitting in a restaurant drinking coffee somewhere thinks about death.  We were so deep. When I watch it today, I literally cringe.  We didn't know anything about what we were doing, and it shows.  We shot most of it on campus, which was dumb-- couldn't we at least have obtained some "locations"?   And the cheesy truck scenes-- notice the postal delivery jeep coming up from behind?  We didn't even bother to re-shoot it  (I'm ahead of myself here-- when I get a chance, I'll put a version on the webpage for your viewing pleasure.)

For some reason, we used the winding handle for the tripod as a tilt-- which worked about as good as you would think.  No cool "steadi-cam" type shots or anything. 

What do the cows mean?  God only knows.  I suppose you would think about them being led to the slaughter.

The one scene I do still like is the group of people watching the two "lovers" as the girl decides to stick a knife into the innocent boy (me).  There's a concept there that was interesting, and could have been nurtured into something more provocative with a bit of work.  The shots of the shadow, and the light reflecting off the knife are kind of cool.   But we were so bloody timid about the romantic aspect of the scene-- why the hell don't they even kiss?   If I could go back and shoot it over again, I'd do this: 

1. the girl strolls by, glancing shyly at the guy who is reading a book instead of just sitting under a stupid tree waiting for the girl with the knife
2. the guy shows some interest, which causes the girl to pretend to be even more shy.  She draws away, he goes back to his book, she comes back, until he makes a bigger display of his interest. 
3. she "reluctantly" lets him take her hand and looks at the crowd, who give appreciative support
4. they lie down on the blanket; he tries to kiss her, she moves away.  He goes back to reading the book.  She looks angry, snatches the book away, and then kisses him on the mouth.   The crowd gives her a standing ovation.
5. As they tumble backwards, embracing, she reaches for the knife.  You see it flash towards his belly.  The crowd looks worried.  Close-up of both faces, as he suddenly realizes he no longer has a functioning liver and she realizes she still has time to get a manicure before shopping that evening.
6. tighter shot of the crowd, dismayed.  She walks away wiping the knife off with a kleenex. The crowd look at their watches, then disperse. 

Come to think of it, that might be as dumb as the original, but it would have a more developed dumbness to it.