Heartache and embarrassment. Rubberwub is a film about coping poorly with the end of a relationship. The word itself is pure invention; a noun meaning, "the continuum mechanics of love that deform reversibly under stress."
I laughed so hard I woke up both my dogs. —Dan Huvane
Rubberwub began as a school project ten years ago; the result of collaboration and dedication from a talented cast and wonderful crew. This project gave me permission to directly be a part of every step in the pipeline of making a movie. The script underwent a total of five drafts throughout its writing.
Much of the film was conceptualized with the help of a written, drawn, and photographic storyboard. The storyboard was essential for identifying ideal rhythms and pacing of scene before the shoot. Planning this way respect everyone's time on the day of the shoot, and wastes less film. Film is expensive, yes, but there's really nothing quite like it. The decision to shoot Super 16mm film was made early.
The parking lot scene iterated through a variety of musical genres, including a weird mash-up of The Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb" and Todd Rundgren's "International Feel," and one featuring a song from the animated Disney feature "The Three Caballeros." All songs which—with the benefit of hindsight—were wrong for the scene, but useful as scratch tracks due to the highly subjective, point-of-view nature of the disorientation of the character in the scene.
Experimenting with the tone and aesthetic of the film was a worthwhile exploration that led to many colorful places. What are my communication goals? Who am I speaking to? What is the desired outcome from the audience interacting with the content? There was, at an early stage in the development of the film, a four-minute long animated introductory title sequence planned. This did not make the final cut of the film. Here is the surviving animation test:
The entire shoot took place over four days, one for each general location: apartment interior, apartment lobby, parking lot, and library.
The film was processed and Best Light color-corrected by Kyle Alvut at Kodak in Rochester, NY. The original cut was 24 minutes long, with different music including Antonio Carlos Jobim and Dan Deacon. While the licensing fee for the latter was relatively—mercifully—low, I would spend time during the new edit a year later (down to 20 minutes) including music I had composed myself under the name sethdonut & His Orchestra.
The film played exclusively in private showings for almost ten years as of 2019. The new cut, based on viewer feedback, dispensed with a strict chronological telling of the story and re-ordered the sequence of events to play into the core of Dan's performance, reminding the audience of the emotional stakes, and created opportunities for editorial juxtaposition not considered in pre-production. The film also benefited from re-ordering time to suggest multiple interpretations of the ending. As one viewer put it, "people want to be uplifted at the end of films." Even the most cruelly ironic and bittersweet film endings may have an uplifting subtext or moral ambiguity. I think I was watching a lot of Lars Von Trier, Gaspar Noe, and Michael Haneke when I was editing.
When You Smile by Lem Arcon & His Orchestra a song I'd heard years ago when I discovered apollosound and purchased the BBC Test Card Music Vol. I. They were extremely pleasant an accommodating over e-mail. One of the conditions for licensing a song from them was to send them a DVD. Similarly, the band the black dog gave me permission to use the song Machine Machina for free, courtesy of Martin Dust. Overall an extremely an nice bloke, and a brilliant band. Additionally, Teo Acosta is a talented, multi-faceted artist skilled in illustration, animation, cinematography, and music. His song Operation Ruthless was a perfect match for a bumping college party.
For the parking lot limp sequence, I was stubbornly holding onto hope that Tony Jobim's representation would throw me a bone and just give me usage of his song Surfboard. No, I kid. But there really aren't any other songs like it, and the tizzy spirit and instrumentation were too indelible to ignore. A compromise came by way of the web site scoreascore. You sign up and musicians essentially bid for your project. No less than 13! artists bid on Rubberwub. Stuart Moore came through with a perfect facsimile for Surfboard, and e-mailed me the stems to introduce one by one in the sequence. Jordan Passman, of scoreascore, was (and still is) a good-natured fellow who deserves all of his successes.
Once the film was all edited I applied for, and was accepted to, the Spirit Quest Film Fest out in Erie, PA.
All that was left to do was cut a trailer, and away we go. Enjoy.
... Or it would have been, but I decided not to publicly release the film for over 10 years. Why, you ask? Well, it's really a matter of the soul. I mean that my main actor Daniel Stebbins, once upon a time, let me literally write "my soul" on a crumpled up piece of paper as collateral to borrow something our freshmen year which he later "lost." A Simpsons plot beat. By refusing to release Rubberwub—one which I believe features his finest cinematic acting work to date—I might finally be able to bargain back my soul after 15 years. So in my soul's absence, this film exists. You see in the end it is spite that makes life worth living.
Directed by Ralph Mastromonaco
Produced by Toby Orzano, Greg Gaskins, Madelyn Bradt
Assistant Director Madelyn Bradt
Directors of Photography Adam Schonberg / Adam Richlin
Boom Operators Miles Baird, Greg Gaskins, Toby Orzano, Evan Anthony, Josh Seiler, Donald O'Brien
Sound Mixing Miles Baird, Greg Gaskins, Rachel Nash, Donald O'Brien, AJ Giambrone
First AC Asah Cramer, Josh Weis
Second AC Pete Hewitt, Jeremiah Franco
Dolly Grips Toby Orzano, Jeremiah Franco, Nic Taylor
Gaffers Toby Orzano, Nic Taylor, Josh Weis
Edit & FX Ralph Mastromonaco
Sound Design Ralph Mastromonaco
FX Consulting Kevin Whitfield
Music
"Machine Machina" Performed by THE BLACK DOG. Courtesy of Martin Dust.
"Wood Planck Star" Written by SETHDONUT.
"Operation Ruthless" Performed by TEO ACOSTA.
"Forgotten Bay" Performed by STUART MOORE. via ScoreAScore.com.
"Windpower" Written by SETHDONUT.
"When You Smile" Performed by LEM ARCON AND HIS ORCHESTRA. Courtesy of Apollo Sound.
Color Processing by Kyle Alvut for Kodak
Color Correction Ralph Mastromonaco
Some sounds from freesound.org. These works are licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License.
Thanks to RIT FVASA Laura Blank, Alex Pagliaro, Jess Coulston
Shot with ARRI
Thanks to KODAK Joanne Ristuccia, Nancy Ensman, Kathleen Medina
Shot on KODAK FILM
Executive Producers Pete Hewitt, Daniel Alexander Stebbins, Adam Schonberg, Rose Glaeser, Ralph George Mastromonaco
Special Thanks to The Wallace Library, Wegmans, Shalini Saycocie, Tal Nagourney, Mike Dispenza, John Theroux, Drew Ganyer, Kathryn DeFeo, N. Handy, Jeremy Abel, Asa Alger, Evan Anthony, Andrew Maruska, Jordan Passman, and Cory Armbrecht
Thanks to the Rochester Institute of Technology, Marianne O'Loughlin, Adam Smith, Therese Hannigan, Jason Arena
The Story, All Characters and Incidents Portrayed in this Production are Fictitious. No Identification with Actual persons, or Products is Intended or Should Be Inferred.
All Rights Reserved.