User:Gorilla's Choice

Luke and Joe's Crapulent Adventure Or: MTF The Grand Blanc Motivational Task Force is a short film created by Grand Blanc High School alums Joe Allard and Luke Phillips. It revolves around blundering characters of their same names attempting to motivate the High School student body. Production began in late 2007, and was completed early 2008, spanning both semesters of the 07-08 school year. After screenings of the film were held in classes, it became a hit among many students.

Plot
Grand Blanc High School Assistant Principal Matt Shanafelt, having recruited Luke and Joe to the Grand Blanc Motivational Task Force(MTF), commissions them to bring up the motivation of the student body. Specifically citing the students' inability to make it through the day, and necessity of their having proper character traits. Suggesting that they do whatever is necessary to motivate students, be it with posters or otherwise, he sends them on their way. Charged wiht the daunting task, the bumbling duo leave Shanafelt's office and converse in the hallway. Luke, attempts to talk Joe into wearing a special sash to make them feel and think more motivational. Joe, however, angrily refuses the sash, and suggests they do what Shanafelt said and make posters. As they make their way to get to work, they are stopped by two brash students wearing sunglasses. One of which does nothing but laugh mockingly. It is revealed that they were they MTF of the previous year, and they have already used the poster idea. Luke's sash is defamed during a scuffle, and he mourns the loss, sobbing. Distraught, Luke and Joe go to an empty classroom to think things through. There, they are met with a kindhearted teacher, who, after the initial confusion of the duo's presence, allows them to stay. While in the classroom, Luke devises a plan to motivate students by playing Journey's Don't Stop Believin' over the PA system all day. At first, the plan appears to work well, but after a few hours of the song's repetition, it begins to drive students, and the formerly kindhearted teacher, mad, worsening the school's overall motivation. After being scolded by their brash competitors for their "Journey fiasco," Luke and Joe are left in the school overnight to think of a way to fix what they've done. They go to a computer lab to research motivation, but Luke cannot stave off his hunger. Because Joe "has standards" Luke goes out on his search through the school for food alone. In a discursion from the rest of the film, Luke's search for food is made to look like an old-time silent film played over Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. Luke finally finds food in the form of a muffin given to him a a girl in a trashcan. Unbeknown to Luke, the now Angry Teacher had been informed of the presence of highly hallucinogenic, "Poppy-Berry muffins" in the school, and threw them into that trash can. Luke is sent into a whirlwind hallucination of a muffin singing Spinal Tap's Cups and Cakes while dancing with a teacup. Luke is then abruptly awoken by a hall monitor, running a Saturday school program, and is forced to leave. He meets Joe and they decide that on Monday, they will start fresh with lots of new ideas. These ideas are revealed to include slapping students on the buttock, tearing down the brash competitor's motivational posters and replacing them with their own, and ripping up student transcripts in an attempt to relinquish the fear of poor grades. All the while, the Angry Teacher scolds them for their inane attempts at motivation. After all is said and done, it is revealed that they were being scored on their motivational strategies through a point system first developed by Ross Perot, and are subsequently kicked off MTF for their score of -23 points. Their adventure isn't over yet, however, as during a final conversation, the Angry Teacher chases them off for having broken his spirit.

Production
Production of the film began in Elizabeth Kalush-Degain's Multimedia Production-Independent Study class as Grand Blanc High School in November 2007. Luke Phillips and Joe Allard were assigned to create an independent project, and decided to partner up in order to make a better final product. After much trial and error, they came up with the idea of a collection of short films to be interwoven with school-related topics. One of which was Joe's idea for an animated cafeteria food dance number, along with ideas for montages, and Luke's ideas for a school task force that enforced the closed campus policy, as well as one whose only function was to put up motivation posters. During the initial scripting process, it was decided that the Motivational Task Force could be expanded into a whole film its own, and the animation and montages infused at points throughout. The Closed Campus Task Force was briefly added into the script as a final scene, but was soon cut entirely. The script was officially written by Joe Allard, with Luke editing, pitching ideas, and giving various input on the direction. By December the script was completed and a few scenes of filming had begun. Joe, however, had become ill with the flu, and production was held back until January. Once school had commenced again, filming began again, and the scenes for the Journey montage were shot. Nick Popadich's performance as "Angry Teacher 1" was initially to simply be reactions during the montage, but Luke and Joe so thoroughly enjoyed his performance that his part was expanded. In addition to Popadich's role expansion, many other hurried rewrites were made, in order to speed production along as quickly as possible due to scheduling conflicts and otherwise. For instance the inclusion of "the muffin girls," which was originally to be teacher, Ava Butzu. Some scenes were cut entirely due to problems with too many students' presence at filming locations and time constraints. One rewrite was made, but never used due to it's holing up production(see "Mob Scene" below).Some of these rewrites altered the film's continuity, as well as shortening its length, which could have easily broken 45 minutes, had the script remained unchanged. The film was completed in February 2008, nearly three full months after production began. It was screened before Nick Popadich's Newspaper class, as well as ELizabeth Kalush-Degain's media class.

Mob Scene
One of the aforementioned hurried rewrites on the script came from Luke Phillips and became known as "The Mob Scene." Luke's idea came, not from trying to speed production, but to help convey students' anger over the Journey montage. It would have included the dialogue from the scene in which the brash competitors scold Luke and Joe for the "Journey fiasco." However, in an attempt to add more action to the scene, it opened with Luke and Joe running frantically down the hallway, away from the sounds of a chanting mob. Joe was opposed to the idea from the conception, but went along with the attempt. The problem with the scene had nothing to do with the conception itself, however, but in the execution. The extras who were used to make the mob's chant, "Stop Believing! Stop Believing!" did not take their roles seriously, and subsequently they began to roar and growl with dinosaur sounds. In addition to the fact that Joe's running pace was not fast enough to time well with Luke's. By the time the shot was re-set for a second take, the lunch period had ended, and the actors playing the brash competitors were forced to return to class. The Mob Scene remained a running joke behind the scenes of the production.

Release
An attempt was made to sell the film for ten dollars a copy in order to benefit the high school's multimedia program. However, the disc copy that was to air the film on GBH-TV education access television was apparently lost, as it was never aired, and thus no copies ever sold. After the failure to air, the film was uploaded to YouTube, where it can be seen free of charge.

Commentaries
To coincide with the sale of the film on DVD video, several audio commentaries were recorded. Nearly weekly a new record was staged with Luke and Joe, even though only two were ever intended to be released with the DVD. This allowed Luke and Joe several choices for the best versions to include. There was, however, always a format of recording a "Straight Commentary" in which they would talk about the production and how different aspects were achieved, and a "Finger Pointin' Commentary" in which they jokingly criticized and yelled at each other. Every version of the latter commentary would end with one of the two becoming fed up and "storming out," leaving the viewer to an undetermined amount of silence. Unfortunately, all of the commentaries were lost once the two graduated, and had to turn in their video equipment, including the tapes.

Inconsistencies
Due to the nature of the film's schedule being an hour of production every weekday, many inconsistencies are clearly visible throughout the film. Early on this problem was acknowledged and attempts were made to prevent it as much as possible, such as wearing the same jackets every day, and keeping them fully buttoned at all times. Eventually it was decided that it didn't matter, and the inconsistencies were considered a joke. Some of the more notable inconsistencies include:

-Joe's jacket becomes unbuttoned when they first meet the brash competitors, though the scene is continuous. And is re-buttoned when they walk into the empty classroom.

-Joe's shirt is different from what it was earlier, even though it is the same day.

-The Angry Teacher is wearing different clothes at the start of the montage than earlier, and by the end of the montage he is wearing a tie, even though it is still the same day.

-According to the title cards, the montage takes place over a course of 9 hours, even though the school day lasts for only 6.

-It has been several hours, but neither Luke and Joe, nor the class of student's have left their places.

-During the "muffin girls" scene The Angry Teacher is wearing the same clothes as he was in his first scene.

-During "Luke Gets Scrounging" it is clearly daytime, however, they have been at the school several hours into the night.

-During his hallucination, Luke is wearing a different jacket than in the rest of the film.

-The establishing shots appear to be from two different seasons, winter at night, and spring during the day.

-Luke is suddenly wearing his sash for the shot in which he slaps a student's buttock.

-The Angry Teacher is wearing a tie at first, but throughout the rest of the montage is wearing a sweater.

-It has been several days and Shanafelt has not changed his clothes.

-During the final conversation, Luke and Joe's hair is much longer than anywhere else in the film.

True Purpose
After its release the true purpose of the film was thoroughly questioned. It is rumored to be that the producers were attempting to become a part of the liberal campaign for "hope" and "change." It has been proposed that the only proof was on one of the many "lost" commentaries, which were likely destroyed by Luke and Joe to save themselves from the embarrassment.