Translator: Carla Gattone Reviewer: Denise RQ
Tom Campbell: Hi, I'm Thomas Campbell. Peter Campbell: And I'm Peter Campbell.
TC & PC: And we're 8mufnz.
TC: We're going to tell you a little bit about ourselves,
and start from the beginning of the story; here's the story.
PC: We were born as non identical twins in the small town of St. Apton, Minnesota.
TC: We never knew our father
because he was arrested and put in jail for a bank robbery;
PC: and our cousin was in the state penitentiary for bootlegging.
TC: Our mother was abducted by aliens in a corn field,
PC: and we were raised by a pack of wolves somewhere along the Canadian border.
(Laughter)
TC: Our older brother is a salamander.
(Laughter)
PC: After realizing we were loosely related to the Kennedys,
and the DEA was on our trail for our Moonshine Operation,
TC: we fled to Maine on a gypsy caravan drawn by a herd of alpaca.
(Laughter)
PC: Just after crossing the Vermont border,
we ran out of food.
TC: We remember our subjugate wolf mother saying, "I'll pack you food,"
but it turns out she said alpaca food,
(Laughter)
TC & PC:... for the alpacas.
(Laughter)
PC: So we ate the alpaca food,
TC: the alpaca died,
(Laughter)
PC: and I stepped on our older brother.
TC: So here we are.
None of that was true.
PC: We made the whole thing up.
TC: We like to tell a fake story
because we find the fake story to be a lot more interesting than our actual story.
PC: As entertainers we lie, so we're professional liars.
TC: As storytellers, I mean as filmmakers, we are storytellers,
so for the TEDx event we were asked to tell our life story,
and the problem we had with that
is that we don't think we have much of a life story.
PC: See, we didn't come from rags to riches,
we don't really have tales of retribution or revolution.
in fact, we had a pretty run of the mill Cape Elizabeth High School experience.
TC: We had the most run of the mill Cape Elizabeth High School experience,
as you would say, like in high school I did track and field,
and I came in second to last place every time.
(Laughter)
PC: That's even worse than last place.
TC: it is worse than last place, it means I'm not even the best at being the worst,
that's the most who cares place there is.
(Laughter)
PC: You guys all remember Chewonki, right?
Well, when I went to Chewonki,
it rained for the entire week, and I got sick on the second day,
and every pair of socks I had was soaking wet.
TC: I had two friends, and I'm pretty sure one of them didn't like me.
(Laughter)
PC: I spent an entire semester in P.E. Adventure Class creating an oar,
and I put the wrong finishing oil on it, and it gave me a hand rash.
(Laughter)
TC: We had a pretty mediocre Cape experience actually,
and our academics were even more mediocre; C's across the board.
TC: I got a couple of D's. PC: I actually may have failed a class.
(Laughter)
TC: I remember I wrote a 10-page essay about Media Consolidation,
and I still don't know what Media Consolidation is,
and me and the teacher marked it up;
he marked it with a red pen, went from the front to back,
when he finished he put the paper down, and he laughed at me, and he said,
"Tommy, you're a riot."
(Laughter)
PC: My 4th grade teacher pinned me as a slacker because I told her to shut up.
(Laughter)
TC: See, in high school we felt a pressure
that we had to accomplish work based on other people's expectations;
or at least at the time that's just how it felt to us.
PC: So we diverted our attention to other areas of school, namely the arts.
Specifically, music and theater,
and outside of school, we pursued our hobby of filmmaking.
TC: In college, everything seemed to change;
it's a freer environment in college,
we took the initiative to want to succeed for ourselves.
It's different from high school.
PC: There's an understanding with your professor
that you don't have to go to class, but if you don't, you'll fail.
I remember specifically after graduating high school,
in the summer between graduation and my freshman year of college,
I made the conscious decision to get straight A's in my major
which I decided to be music.
TC: Everything just became easier for us,
and our filmmaking really improved as a result.
PC: As did our grades.
TC: I just graduated from the University of Southern Maine
Magna Cum Laude this past spring.
PC: And I currently hold a 3.95 GPA at USM.
But don't get us wrong, we're not knocking academics.
TC: If you're the top of your class, it's great;
if you're not, like we weren't, don't get discouraged.
Find something you're passionate about, pursue it, put time and effort into it,
PC: You'll probably not love your product when you first finish it.
It's probably not going to be your best work; our first 20 films stink.
TC: But that's OK, because we're sticking with it,
and now we're producing works that we're proud of.
PC: For instance, we have five award winning films now.
Starting 2012, our film "Halloween Special" won six awards
at the Film Chowdah Student Festival, including Best Film.
TC: In 2013, we won first place for the Portland 48 Hour Film Festival
with our film "Crá Croi"; and it was screened internationally
at Filmapalooza in New Orleans this past March.
PC: At this 48 Hour Film Festival, this year in August,
our film "Subcontractors" also won five awards.
TC: We also won first place for two other film festivals this past summer.
PC: We're doing professional work as well.
Tom and I have designed the soundscape for a number of commercials,
including companies such as the Maine Technology Institute and Akamai,
which is the leading content delivery network in the world.
TC: And we're busy doing a bunch of other work, too.
But after--
(Laughter)
- not so fast -
but after all of this, we're still broke,
my car's busted, and I can't afford to fix it.
PC: I have a negative 180 dollars in my bank account.
(Laughter)
That means I have to raise 180 dollars to be broke.
(Laughter)
TC: But that's OK, Peter-- PC: Sound key 2 please.
(Music)
TC: But that's OK; because we're busy doing work that we love doing.
We're taking the initiative upon ourselves to want to be successful for our own good,
and we're proud--
PC:... we're proud of it.
(Laughter)
TC: Peter please, relax.
We're not just making movies for festivals,
we're making the movie of our life.
PC: And you know who's the hero of our movie?
Us? That's right. It is.
But who's the hero of your movie?
Us?
(Laughter)
No. It's you.
PC: Like you, Chaz, great speech. Who's the hero of your movie? It's you.
TC: You, you two in the second row there I see, who's the hero of your movie?
Is it your turtle? No. It's you.
PC: You in the back, with the bowl cut, I used to have a bowl cut too.
Who's the hero of your movie?
TC: Everyone on this side of the room, you're the hero of your movie.
I want to see a show of hands,
who of you believes you are the hero of your movie?
I want to see those hands!
Are you the hero of your movie?
TC & PC: Now put those hands together and give yourself a nice round of applause
for being the hero of your movie!
(Applause)
TC & PC: Thanks. We've been great.
(Applause)
TC & PC: Now, you thought we were done. We're not done yet.
Just wait. Hang on a second. We're going to show a movie.
TC: You've seen some of our more recent films,
"Subcontractors", "Crá Croi"; "Pinch" was at Nikelodeon,
some of you have seen that.
We're going to show a movie you probably haven't seen,
this is the very first movie we submitted to a festival,
and it's the first movie that got us
some amount of attention from the Portland film scene.
PC: We shot it in 2011,
we originally shot it as a drama, and we hated it.
So we re-edited it,
and shot some new material, and we turned it into a comedy.
PC: So without further ado,
TC: here is "Ye Apprenteth".
PC: Enjoy.
(Video) (Music)
(Knock)
Man: Come in.
HD: Joseph Carroll. JC: Nice to meet you, Hector McDonald.
HD: So you're my new apprentice.
JC: Yes sir.
HD: How old are you?
JC: I'm 16. And you?
HD: 21. So where are your parents?
JC: They're on their way to Ipswich.
HD: Sailing?
JC: Oh no, business.
Speaking of, what do you do Mr. Carroll?
HD: I'm a municipal worker.
JC: Clerical?
HD: Yeah. So, is this your first job?
JC: No, sir.
HD: OK, well I'm going to show you around the house, show you around your work area.
JC: No, sir.
HD: What?
JC: Where am I going to be staying?
HD: Well...
I hope this won't be a problem, but you'll be staying in the barn.
JC: No, sir!
What do you do for work Mr. Carroll?
HD: Municipal worker.
JC: Clerical?
HD: Yeah.
JC: Maybe-- I brought something sir.
HD: Oh, wow.
It's a kite.
JC: Yeah.
HD: Did you make it?
JC: Mm-hmm.
HD: Cool.
I have to say--
JC: Don't believe him.
HD: What?!
JC: Sorry, sir.
HD: No, I don't want to see your kite. Put your kite down.
JC: What do you do for work-wo-wo-work, Mr. Carroll?
What do you do for work, Mr. Carroll?
HD: Mun-mun-mun-mun-icipal--
JC: Clerical?
HD: Worker.
JC: W-W-W-Work.
No-no-no, sir.
HD: W-W-W-Work-er.
JC: No-no-no.
OK, how did you just do that? Yeah, I'm a witch.
Oooohhh...
(Knocks)
(Applause)