The Jesus & Charlie Show

U

unknownparts

Active member
Check out our short film " The Jesus & Charlie show" Shot on the DVX100a.

http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1022924

Synopsis:

In the Bible, Jesus Christ told his diciples and the world that one day he would return.

But he didn't know his roomate would be Charles Manson.

One of the funniest and most controversial short films you'll ever see, "The Jesus & Charlie show" makes sitcom roomates out of two of the most influential men of the last 2,000 years.

One is the Savior.
One is the Deciever.
When you put them together you get a really funny TV show.

Shot in One day, and finished just weeks before hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

The short can be viewed here:

http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1022924

Written by Boyd Ford & Steeb "Teeb" Finders
Directed By Jason Vowell & Wylie Whitesides
DP - Scott Edwards
Starring Wylie whitesides as Jesus & Charlie & Victor Brunette as "The Super"


jcpostersmall.jpg


http://www.undergroundfilm.org/films/detail.tcl?wid=1022924
 
Hey, I did like this a lot. I love your guys' sense of humor. That guy's performances were awesome. I love how freaked out Charley was by the gay dude. Is Manson notoriously homophobic, or did you guys make that up?

Also, the set was pretty funny, how it was split between the two. And I liked the detail of the lighting change when Jesus uses his dad's name in vain.

Do you have plans to make any more? It struck me that this would be something pretty funny to podcast in like little 3 minute spots, every month or so.
 
We would love to do episodes...

We would love to do episodes...

We would love to do pod cast episodes, and we are looking into it. The thing is...We are from New Orleans. Most of the cast and crew have been displaced due to the storm.

We finished this short just weeks before Hurricane Katrina screwed the city all up.

We hope God wasn't angry with us...
 
Wow I just watched the whole thing and read your post twice and now I JUST realized that Jesus and Charles manson were played by the same person.

I have to say that just reading the post made me laugh, definitely a great idea and you guys ran with it well. I loved the whole thing where he said the lords name in vain. The only problem I had with it at all was that at times the blocking was a little bit confusing and maybe some line crossing occured. Otherwise great job, I really enjoyed it.
 
haha, I watched this about a week ago (I think) and I thought it was hilarious! His performance as Manson was just phenomenal. I laughed at almost everything he did. Jesus swearing to God was a great idea as well. Bravo!
 
thanks

thanks

It was a difficult shoot. And our first on the DVX. Ton of fun, but alot of planning to oull off two characters splitscreened for so long.

Wylie Whitesides performance is incredible... but he didn't have to act much to play Manson...
 
Lawsuit_Boy said:
haha, I watched this about a week ago (I think) and I thought it was hilarious! His performance as Manson was just phenomenal. I laughed at almost everything he did. Jesus swearing to God was a great idea as well. Bravo!
Click to expand...


was this made just for sake of controversy. it seems like more of a desperate attemept to attract an audience. Looks like your view of Charlie was pretty accurate, but Jesus swearing to the Father..Why is that cool? Jesus was and is sinless and if your gonna make a movie worthy of the one who died for your sins....maybe the Passion of Christ would be more appropriate...I really dig comedy and so does Jesus for that manner, but using Him in a false mannner to draw an audience is pretty cheap if you ask me....
 
thank you

thank you

If we were going for straight controversy just to attract an audience, then thank you for your post. It bumped us back up to the top of the message board!!

We believe Jesus has a sense of humor too... and would enjoy a potrayal of himself that didn't make him look like a cheap, preachy excuse to be "good."

As the director, and not the writer, I can't comment on the moral of the script. But I can say I wish more people would play with the ideas of modern iconism. It's gone so far that I think the meaning of who these people are is lost in our pop culture potrayals of them.

Throwing somthing like this at an audience throws their ideas of iconism off. And I think that is a healthy thing...

and we all need bathroom jokes & sexual preference jokes too.

I'm actually surprised that someone got upset about the Jesus jokes before the homosexual ones...:)
 
dlang said:
was this made just for sake of controversy. it seems like more of a desperate attemept to attract an audience. Looks like your view of Charlie was pretty accurate, but Jesus swearing to the Father..Why is that cool? Jesus was and is sinless and if your gonna make a movie worthy of the one who died for your sins....maybe the Passion of Christ would be more appropriate...I really dig comedy and so does Jesus for that manner, but using Him in a false mannner to draw an audience is pretty cheap if you ask me....
Click to expand...

I don't want to get into any silly arguments that CAN'T be solved, but you don't need to preach the word of Jesus Christ to me. I know enough and really value what he "did" for all of human kind. But I thought it was FUNNY, not COOL, how there was a bit of irony in the fact that Jesus swore to God. It is the irony that makes me laugh, not immaturity.

edit: unknownparts, I think you're right in that works like this are something that can benefit those who view it. It's not showing Jesus in a demoralizing or demeaning manner, but more or less a more humorous and human approach. Because, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't he a mortal human at one point? It's just a comical view and nothing more. It's nothing to take offense to.
 
Last edited:
However your missing one key thing.....the bible. I don't need to rely on modern perception of who Jesus is, really I have a book that has been proven accurate that is quite old. Oh and by the way Jesus' ministry was to "preach to the lost". The word preach these days has been brought to a negative, but the reality is that He came to "preach" good news, to save the lost. I guess to me it's like this, if your goal is to shake things up on who Christ is, and how we need to look outside the box perse..do us all a favor and do some research at the source, then direct a comedy....remember Jesus himself shook things up, but didn't have to use anything but the truth to do it....as far as needing humor I would absolutely agree, however not at the expense of truth....i'd love to see something that portrays Jesus (accurately) on a humerous end, as I know him to be quite a comedian, why not take that approach and make a series of that.
 
another thing I want to throw in, is the fact that you dlang said the portrayal of Manson was right on.

I'm not sure if you've researched Manson much, but he wasn't ALWAYS bouncing around and going nuts like some maniac with half a brain.

I know he did some pretty strange things that society objects to, but to him, in his mind, he felt that he was right at the time. Now, I'm not saying that I believe in the things he did or that I empathize with him, because I don't. But I understand that his mind functioned much different than most other people's. I'd suggest that you try to be a little less judgmental in the future. We all know that Jesus certainly wasn't. (and if you say he was then you need some help)

ONCE AGAIN, I AM NOT NOT NOT A MANSON SUPPORTER AT ALL. Don't want any confusion.
 
dlang said:
However your missing one key thing.....the bible. I don't need to rely on modern perception of who Jesus is, really I have a book that has been proven accurate that is quite old. Oh and by the way Jesus' ministry was to "preach to the lost". The word preach these days has been brought to a negative, but the reality is that He came to "preach" good news, to save the lost. I guess to me it's like this, if your goal is to shake things up on who Christ is, and how we need to look outside the box perse..do us all a favor and do some research at the source, then direct a comedy....remember Jesus himself shook things up, but didn't have to use anything but the truth to do it....as far as needing humor I would absolutely agree, however not at the expense of truth....i'd love to see something that portrays Jesus (accurately) on a humerous end, as I know him to be quite a comedian, why not take that approach and make a series of that.
Click to expand...

Jesus didn't exist in a time where society needs to be told lies for humor. Life, and humankind, has changed dramatically overtime, and there are simply too many people these days who are conditioned to find things like this Jesus and Charlie Show funny.

I don't want to argue about Jesus, because all of the information we have about him is written in a book. I respect Jesus and the bible completely, but I don't set my life's guidelines by it. I simply respect it.

Sure, the word "preach" has become somewhat of a negative word in most people's eyes, but how did it become something negative? By men misunderstanding the words in the holy bible and trying far too hard to push those words onto others. That is exactly why people feel that others are "preaching" to them when disciplining or trying to make a point. Once again, you have to think about all of today's societies around the world and how they have changed overtime.
 
important

important

I think it is important to remember the point of the film isn't to poke fun at Jesus Christ and Charles Manson.

It is to poke fun at us through these characters that everyone identifies with. Most people don't fall into the catagory of "Jesus Freak" or "Crazy Mass Murderer Worshiper" or even "giant homosexual plumber."

Most people I know are real people, with real problems like Jesus & Charlie have in this short film. And thats what it all about.
 
I know this meant to be taken lightly, and trust me i'm not sitting over here stressing that this will make or break Jesus' reputation, but For those who know Jesus they know that this is disrespectul to Him in the way that He died for sins, and to save us from it. He came and lived sinless, then died a sinners death, for you, for me, and everyone in the world...to take that lightly is hurtful and would be for any one of us. I'm sure the heart behind this film wasn't to deliberatly disrespect Him, however in a spirit of passiveness it spits on Him as our Messiah. Jesus was passionate to save and went to His death to do so. I'm not saying that our thoughts of Christ should always be heavy, cause he himself said His burdan was light and yoke was easy...which means he loves light heartidness, and loves to see his kids free, but there is a spirit of falseness that disguises itself in ways were drawn to, like humor, then causes problems...you might not see it yet, but maybe one day.

and lawsuitboy....your comment about me being judgemental, well if you knew me you would feel silly for saying so. I'm not judging in a condemning way, as a matter of fact it makes my heart have compassion on a man who can take Jesus so lightly. And to insinuate that because of the cultural difference is Jesus' time that there was no course humor is kind of naive. Really do some research and you'll see the world was pretty similar in it's problems back then as well, but that didn't change the way He interacted with them. I think it's kind of sad that you would say the world has been "conditioned" to laugh at lies and that's how we get our kicks. Read that a few times and see if it strikes you kind of odd. When is the last time lies ever did something good for you....I think we can all say that they for the most part always let down. If we accept what the world is conditioning us to accept, watch out......sooner or later more extreme forms of destruction will mask themselves as humor, or whatever acceptable form it may take

oh ya you were right about Manson, I really did say that in ingnorance. Your right I don't know anything about the guy prior to his news career. One thing I know it who he is now, and really it seems like the actor did a pretty good job from what I've seen. As far as before he went nuts (if there was a time) NOt sure. And to clear it up, if Manson asked God into his heart and recieved forgiveness, well he'd be forgiven..
 
i'm gonna puke. if people are allowed to say things like "He died for sins, and to save us from it. He came and lived sinless, then died a sinners death, for you, for me, and everyone in the world" then i don't see why i shouldn't be allowed to say what i believe. because i have no reason to believe otherwise. so here goes. jesus was a crazy. he didn't eat for a long time and it made him see things. and way too many people believed him.

BUT that stuff has nothing to do with this thread. this is about a film! lets talk about the camera work and about the acting and about the writing! this is DVXUser.com! not jesus.com! or bible.com! come on. if you don't like it, don't watch it. in order to protect the freedom to speak the ideas we agree with, we must protect the freedom to speak those we disagree with.
 
Last edited:
This film was ate up...just the way I like em'.

First of all, I have to compliment you on your creativity and willingness to unabashedly welcome controversy. Not all filmmakers are willing to push the envelope of cultural and societal acceptabillity. Not only did you push the envelope, shredded it. My hat goes off to you.

As for the previous criticism you have recieved. Congratulations. I'm glad your film provoked a genuine response. It's good when films make people feel...as long as that feeling is "I want a refund."

As for your film itself, I personally found the concept to be intriguing. Very creative concept. At first though, I must admit, I was convinced that you were doing this just to be absurd....which I am fine with...but as the film went on, I could really see that there was indeed real meaning to it.

Beyond the story, I liked the sitcom style that you went for with this. Considering the bizarre sitcom combinations the Networks come up with, I wouldn't be too shocked to see this come to Fox in the Fall. I also thought it was very interesting that the same actor played both Jesus and Charlie Manson. I thought your lead actor was really good and pretty convincing and humorous in both parts. While I will make no attempts to testify regarding the accuracy of either portrayal, I will say that I had no real problem believing him as either character.

The biggest weakness in the film for me was the "Super" character. I just thought he was annoying...but then again, perhaps that was what you were going for.

Overall though, very good. I will definitely be telling a few friends to check this one out.
 
dlang, I really didn't mean to imply that you are a judgmental person. It just sounded a bit strange saying that the Manson portrayal was right on.

I understand everything you've said, I was just replying to what you said, trying to state my point of view, but I obviously didn't get it across very well. But how can you say that some people have not been "conditioned" to laugh at such things? Sure, maybe not in the traditional sense of classic or op. conditioning, but people learn, through others, that things that aren't necessarily true (stereotypes are a good example) are funny. As of right now, I am just basing my statements on knowledge I have accumulated from news reports, text books, conversations, and past experience. Sure, the world had lots of similar problems in the past, I definately agree with that. But there is no possible way that everything was the same in the past. Every generation faces the same path, but there is a different light shed on each. Or so that's how I see it. How else can each generation of human life be so different? I'm ill right now, so if my statements aren't making any sense, I apologize, haha.

anyway, I don't mean any disrespect to you or your beliefs, dlang, or to anyone else on this board. I also think that truthfulness is something that, along with many other things of course, could mean the difference between humankind surviving for hundreds more years or destroying itself (I'm digging pretty deep on that one). You're right, lies do absolutely no good. But of course, there are those hundreds of other situations where people might say a lie might be necessary (I'm not one to say whether it's right or wrong).

". . . that disguises itself in ways were drawn to, like humor, then causes problems...you might not see it yet, but maybe one day." that day has come. I know what you mean. Don't worry, I'm an observer and a learner. I'm very close to my grandmother who is a very spiritual woman. And her views of Jesus Christ are very similar to those you have stated here on the message board in your last post. Like I said before, I don't follow Jesus and the bible closely, but I do honor it and him. I just wanted to clear that up.

Finally, I just want to add that I see this video portraying Jesus in a slightly similar manner that you suggest. Of course, some of the jokes are a bit more vulgar or extreme than I'd imagine would really happen, but it's still heading in the same direction. Wasn't Jesus' motivation in the video to help Manson? I watched it awhile ago, so please excuse me if I'm incorrect on this one. What do you think?

Jon Coy
 
Captain KickAss said:
Overall though, very good. I will definitely be telling a few friends to check this one out.
Click to expand...

haha, I linked a few friends of mine to this one as well. Moving past all of the stuff about Jesus, the acting was fun, and the overall atmosphere of the apartment was pretty good.
 
HAHAHAHA....it does look like the film succeeded in its controversy and I was the lead instagater...now that's irony (laughter) I mean come on did you really expect there to be no comments on such a script....Anyhow I said my piece now I'll get back to talkin' camera.....it's my second favorite subject to talk about..hehe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top