The Paper Chase - A Short Film From 1995

The Paper Chase - A Short Film From 1995

The title card for the film!

This short film is special.
Why, you ask? Well as the tittle reads, it was 1995. I had graduated from high school in 1993 and decided I wanted to be an actor. I started taking acting classes, then started hanging around the campus at the University of Texas, to see if I could find myself some roles in some student films.

The Paper that started it all!

I met this group of filmmakers. All them went to UT but some had dropped out or graduated. A couple were still in film school. We were hungry and always making something of pushing to make something. Sometimes weeks would go by, and every night we would get together and make in camera edited improve movies. We would make 3 or 4 of them a night.

The prodction company name behind the Case.

Someone had some extra 16mm film leftover from a project. That's right, I said it film! It was right smack in the golden age of indie film too! Tarentino was a new name in the game! Lots of exciting odd and weird films where happening, and with lots of money behind them. Well our Paper Chase was not one of these big budget 90's film. But it was odd and weird.

We had no script. Just the 16mm footage, a camera, some lights , and a shit load of fuck yeah energy to make this the greatest film ever made!

A shot from the choking scene.

I could not tell you how we came up with what you will see in the film, but I do know it was made up shot by shot. I was the only proper actor in the gang, so it was always going to be me as one of the actors. Our director friend Kevin, had done some acting and he was the smallest. I was the tallest, so it would give a good juxtaposition on camera.

Me as a younger man.

After the film was made, we were happy as hell with it. We had a big screening at I believe it was Emo's Bar. We screened The Paper Chase with a few other films, and the crowd went absolutly nuts when The Paper Chase Played! It was a good night. A good memory. And still a good classic film.

And now without further ado,

The Paper Chase

The group of filmmakers that made this film that was Robert Murphy, Tim Harrison, Kevin Pruitt, Stephen Light, Daniel Mimura, Shared Patel, and myself. You will see there where others involved but the names listed where my best pals.

Hope you enjoyed the film!

#shortfilm #1995 #austintexas