Event 16 (2006)

Director:

Derek Pearson

Writer:

Derek Pearson (writer)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Matt, a young inventor on the cusp of a breakthrough creation in his garage workshop, is about to lose his girlfriend due to his obsession...

Plot Keywords:

No Budget | Time Travel | Number In Title

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Captain Bung-eye	...	Ally cat
Andrea Chapman	...	Restaurant Woman
Jocelyn Christian	...	Paige
Kate Fitzroy	...	Juno
Ezra Keddell	...	Carrick
Anne Mackenzie	...	Alice the cook
Reuben Morrison	...	DJ
Brett Ormsby	...	Frank
John Porter	...	Barnes
Peter Rutherford	...	Matt
James Stewart	...	Snelling
Julian White	...	Logan

Runtime:

New Zealand:72 min

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Wellington, New Zealand

Company:

Nine Eyes

Trivia:

The first day of shooting was at Motel 22. The second at the lab location that had a 17 spray painted on a roller door. So the crew decided to put numbers somewhere on the set of every location. As the shoot lasted over a year this was latter dropped or forgotten about but lots of sets still have numbers hidden in them.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the past we see the policeman dead in the alley shot through the head. But when his "body" is carried out in a white bloodstained sheet the blood is where his waist would be not his head.

Derek Pearson's "Bad Taste"

As a person who likes a linear narrative, with clear signals as to who the characters are, I struggled to follow this film. We jump back and forth in time (that was fairly clear, though not enough was done with makeup to age the characters who went in the usual direction at the usual speed), and most of the characters take over each other's bodies at some point or another.

At the second Wellington screening (which I saw yesterday) the director said it was aimed at the Playstation generation, who are used to characters with multiple incarnations. I hope someone who is good at that will explain the narrative to me.

I found the characters fairly engaging, though the two (three?) who seemed to be officials in charge of preventing temporal paradoxes or some such were never quite explained, and even a psychopathic killer needs *some* motivation. The central relationship (geek and girlfriend) was entertainingly unstable.

This movie will look OK on TV. On the big screen you could sometimes see the pixels. The sound was adequate, except that sometimes the synching was enough off that I wondered if it was deliberate, to create a "not really him speaking" effect.

As a Wellingtonian, I enjoyed the images of Wellington in 1893, the present, and the 2020s, and the surreal treatment of most cityscapes.

I'd call this a "Bad Taste" for the 200Xs. It's got the same clunky New Zealand makeshiftness (number 8 wire, we call it), the same homespun characters moving in a world beyond their control.

I predict people will rent this movie more than once or buy it (on DVD in October) to try to figure it out, and go on to watch it cultishly, like "Bad Taste".

Pearson said this movie was effects-driven (as was BT) and his next movie will be more character- and story-driven. I look forward to that, and then to someone giving him some money to make his LOTR, King Kong, etc.