Shelburne What?! creating a buzz

One thing that can’t be argued is that it reeks of raw talent.

The editing, directing and acting are sharp, the numerous hours spent on the cutting room floor prevalent in the higher than expected quality of the results.

Although some of the scripts may be described as vulgar they are also clever and funny equaling to today’s popular genre of youth television series like Jackass and the Tom Green show.

Luke Marciano and Alex Faye are the creators of the movie, as well writing the scripts, editing, acting, filming and any other facet leading to its completion, along with the help of local friends and classmates in Shelburne.

The filming of Shelburne What?! was released at the end of December after over a year of takes and scenes of various stunts of boredom, skits and random events as well as a chunk of film staved off for Shelburne’s scenes of skateboarding.

“My friends and I have been making short movies since we were 12,” says Marciano, “Over the years we would kill boredom by filming random sketches and random things. We were kids fooling around with a camera.”

From there filming evolved from improved skits that were compiled into their first movie ‘Mint Tea and Coffee’, to a more scripted and edited compilation of skits.

By the beginning of summer 2006 they began filming Ref Hard 2, a movie inspired by a referee’s costume found at the local Frenchy’s, with a cast consisting of Marciano, Faye, Evan King, Devon Ripley, Franz Petermen and Alex Balcolm.

“I really wanted to do a good job on this short film so there was a lot of effort put in by everyone. No one was getting paid so I had to rely on my friends kindness and generosity in helping out,” says Marciano.

Numerous hours were spent filming the movie, mostly in the late evenings to accommodate for working schedules.

“Sometimes it would get frustrating because you would spend five hours filming and maybe walk away with 30 seconds of footage that you can use,” explains Marciano

Faye and Marciano also created a rap parody for Shelburne What?! to NWA’s song Straight Outta Compton called Straight Outta Shelburne, a comical rap describing growing up in a small town, complete with a music video.

Marciano is currently in Alberta pursuing a filming career and Faye is heading off to school to study computer science and hopes to keep his hand in his hobby for the future.

“I want to get into Internet media in general,” he says, “that’s where I think everything is going right now...there’s a lot of good things happening with video production.”

Shelburne What?! Premiered in December to a cheering crowd of 200, making the video a local hit.

People can view segments of the movie on either You Tube, Google Video or at Video Focus.