Please note the following information: Don't Take the Drag & Burnouts are two separate entries from two different years of the Demonic Chronic 48hr Stoner Film Race. This film race was the only one to incorporate cannabis into this medium. LSF participated in all three years, but these two films deserved more attention.

 

In the second year of the race, we drew the genre "Grindhouse." Our task was to create a short film that lasted between 4 and 7 minutes. Jayson suggested that we make a fake movie trailer as our short film. The P-Town Skanks allowed us to use their song No Clue, and we accomplished the task. However, stress caused me to black out. Catalina and I thought it was a great idea to work three other jobs while doing this race, shoot part of a music video, and manage a full cast and crew while taking care of a toddler. We had to have a drag queen as our character, use the dime bag storage as our prop, and use the line of dialogue "That's what she said." It was challenging to create a trailer that would meet the minimum mark, but Catalina did it! It was produced by our dear and late friend Rhiannon McMillen and the owner of Vato Loco Tattoo Studio, Javier Arredondo. We never really called when production wrapped. We just filmed when we needed to and stopped when it was time to do the final render for submission. We barely made the deadline.

 

The third year we raced was mostly with a new crew. We drew the genre "Road trip." I initially wanted this year to be the end of our Demonic Chronic Trilogy with Cupcake from the first year and DTTD, but the entire cast from the previous two years bailed. At the last minute, this short film starred David Gonzalez and Jayson Atz, creating something away from Condor and his adventures. Fortunately, Paragraph and Lillith were in town! Our beloved friends from the group ManifestiV. They let us use their "Bumobile" as the Burnouts mode of transport, and in my opinion, it's as if the ride is its own character. Paragraph and Lillith did so much on this shoot. They composed music, acted in the background, played the clown, performed music, and were the keystone of the film. This shoot would have been completely different if they were not on set with us all day. At the time, our then-producer, Nacho, was able to get us not only in a strip club but inside a church for us to defile. During the editing of this short film, Catalina and I had a very difficult time cutting out jokes for timing. We shot for 15 hours and were lucky to have a good handful of late-night extras show up. We wrapped production around three in the morning.

 

Burnouts kicked off the event to set the mood. The theater erupted in laughter from the start to... well... the scene. It was great to hear the audience freak and snicker at one another. In this film, we had to have a Clown, use a golf tee one-hitter, and use the line of dialogue "I learned it from watching you."

 

So, why this cut of the film? Well, the trailer is tighter and has a better flow like a trailer should. It also has more of a grindhouse look than the cut we submitted. The new cut was even screened at Texas Frightmare Weekend 2017 for their fake trailer showcase! And Burnouts has a better flow as well. There are more angles that we couldn't have put in for timing and pacing. It has more jokes, and the end of the film is actually in sync with the correct footage. We cleaned them both up and cut them together in the fashion of an old-school movie experience. We're not sure if this is in poor taste, but we're still very happy with these two shorts. So much so that we took the time to clean it up and create this 14-minute cut. We love it, everyone we show loves it, and we hope you love it too.

 

Thank you for reading!

--Manco​