Precipice Productions

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Precipice Productions is an independent production company located in Studio City, CA. Established in 1999 by Todd Lampe (Writer, director and editor) and Bob Favarato (Producer), Precipice Productions specializes in independent short films, as well as videos, demos and industrial promos. Most of their shorts are comedic, with the fauxumentary format being a favorite style. They usually shoot films for little or no money, utilizing as much of the current digital technology to optimize their projects.

Their first short film, The Silent Partner, about a writer on a deadline who may or may not have a partner, was accepted by KJLA's Cinema LA program, aired on over 2,000,000 outlets in Southern California.[1] This fauxumentary delves into the production of artificial fruit and where it is created (on an artificial fruit farm), and a scandal revolving around the creation of artificial fruit flavor from the farm. This film is notable as it features Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In's Alan Sues in a key role. He plays Sparky Schlosser, the head horticulturist at the farm. Todd had been working with Alan on his one-man stage show and asked him to appear in the film as a favor, to which Alan agreed. The film also features Lou Wagner, Stephanie Silverman, Joe Basile, Frank Walton, Michael Ciccolini and Karen Rambo. It is mostly improvisational.

Todd was a member of Group101 Films, a groundbreaking filmmaking collective that specializes in producing short films at the rate of one per month. He participated in two waves, producing 13 shorts in that time short time span.

A comedic caper called Influence was produced in 2002, starring Jenny Mollen. It was featured in a number of film festivals in Southern California and Florida. Jenny also appeared in a micro-short, a horror spoof, What was that?, which was created for AMC's Monsterfest 2003.

In 2003, a collaboration with writer/actor Samantha Montgomery and Michael Ciccolini resulted in Strongerable, a fauxumentary short fcusing on an acting class for Action Movie actors. The film had a brief run at the Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles and was considered for an Oscar in the 2003 Awards season. It also won best short at the Lancaster, NY short film festival in 2006, as well as being featured in several film festivals across America. Strongerable was shot in 6 1/2 hours and is mostly improvisational, as most of the actors that showed up for the shooting didn't know what they would be doing.

Later that year, Todd collaborated with Mary Fantoand 451 Productions. Together, they produced Charlie, a short film about a long relationship. Charlie had a very successful run in the festival circuit, winning the audience award at the Santa Monica Film Festivalas favorite short, as well as being selected for South by Southwest Film Festival, The Deep Ellum Film Festival and The Farmington Funny Film Festival.

In 2004, the documentary short From Chameleons to Chocolate was a finalist in The Reel Inspiration Film Festival. This film focuses on people's passions in life and how they pursue them.

In 2006, after completing two more projects, DIBS, a comic caper about the search for a missing sofa, and The Language of Laundry an homage to silent films about a couple who meet in a laundromat, Producer Bob Favarato moved from California and now works with Precipice Productions on a consultant basis. This resulted in Todd collaborating with ErinRose Widner and Skelligs Productions.

Their first project, the short film Chance Meeting, was met with high success at several film festivals, including Dances with Films, The LA Shorts Festival, The Method Fest, and others.

Their second collaboration, a microseries spoof of the TV show LOST called DESERTED was created, and had a very successful run on Itunes as a podcast. DESERTED is a surreal collection of episodes about a cast of characters (including comic actor Rasika Mathur) lost in the desert, with humorous and mysterious results. If you haven't seen LOST, many of the references won't make sense, but DESERTED has its own storyline without relying too heavily on LOST. DESERTED is an 11-episode series that is now available on DVD. Order here on AMAZON

Precipice Productions is currently shooting An Inconvenient Penguin, a combo spoof of the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth and March of the Penguins. It is slated for a Spring 2008 release on Amazon.com as a download. Official website

Contents

[edit] Other films of note

  • QuĂ© Pizza - The pizzas just don't stop showing up. Over 100 pizza boxes were used in this short.
  • CinemaFone - a phone call to an automated movie menu spirals downward. A top 50 finalist in 2003 on TriggerStreet.com
  • The Leftovers - Leftover Chinese Food seeks revenge. Part of AMC's MonsterFest 2003.
  • The Theory of Bootytivity - In a collaboration with Hot n' the Biscuit, a comedic hip-hop group, Gary Anthony Williams as "The Gravy" goes to Hollywood in search of the pefect booty. Gittin' Fat wit' Pu', starring Jenni Pulos, and "Little Miss Moffat", starring Letitia Fox, were also produced to accompany their live stage show.
  • Enchilada Girl - A music video featuring Elizabeth Cornejo in search of the perfect Enchilada.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • a orange-haired doll nicknamed Hitchcock is in at least one scene in each short film project.
  • Often works with the same ensemble of actors, including ErinRose Widner, Michael Ciccolini, Gary Anthony Williams, Warner Munroe, Jenny Mollen, Bennett Dunn, Lance Reifschneider, Eric Matikosh, Floyd VanBuskirk, Stephanie Silverman, Frank Walton, Mitch Roche, Casie Tabanou, Mick Nguyen, Jayme Jensen, Ali Spuck, and others.
  • Met several of the ensemble of actors while working with Fred Willard's MoHo Group in Los Angeles from 1995-2001.
  • Most of the technical credits in the films are false, using names of friends' kids or family members instead.
  • Every short film usually has a "post credit" scene, as a button, inspired by the film Airplane!.
  • Influences include David Lynch, Preston Sturges, Joel and Ethan Coen, Mel Brooks, Marti DeBergi and Augie Gibbons.
  • Have never worked with Carrot Top

[edit] External links


[edit] References

  1. ^ The Silent Partner It developed a cult following and several fans, mostly because of the co-star of the film, a cat. In 2000, their next significant project, Artificially Speaking, was produced.<ref>[http://precipiceproductions.com/Artificially%20Speaking.html ''Artificially Speaking'']</li></ol></ref>