Friday nights aren't always about making your own memories; sometimes they're about perusing (and lampooning) others'. In high school, Nick Prueher discovered a gem of an instructional VHS while working at McDonald's that led to future journeys into the past: "Inside and Outside Custodial Duties."
"I popped it in and it was so ridiculous I had to share it with people," Prueher said during an interview with The Eagle. "So I took it home and I showed it to my friend Joe, and it became this cult thing where if there was nothing going on a Friday night we would have people come over and watch this McDonald's training video for entertainment, you know make fun of it. And then it got us to thinking if there were videos this ridiculous right under our noses, imagine what else is out there."
Prueher and his friend Joe Pickett discovered there was a lot out there. The two have been digging through thrift stores, garage sales and other out-of-the-way places for about 15 years now, and about five years ago put their discoveries to the test.
A friend suggested that they rent a theater and put together a show exhibiting some of their favorite videos. Soon the Found Footage Festival was born, and Prueher and Pickett were sharing some of their favorite RV promotional video outtakes with astounding success.
The duo will be bringing their latest installment of the Festival to D.C. this Friday night at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse.
"The show we're bringing to D.C. took us about a year [to put together]," Prueher said. "It comes from a collection that spans 15 years but the actual editing and narrowing down and figuring out ways to put the clips in interesting ways and coming up with the comedy probably takes a year from beginning to end."
The two take pieces of videos - the best from either one or several in the same vein - and cut them together in a way that pinpoints what's great about the clips. While wading through to get to the meat of the thousands of videos Prueher reports are in their collection is an arduous effort, he says it is well worth the time.
"I think we're masochists in a way; we sort of enjoy the pain of it," he said. "Basically Joe and I just sit, we just lock ourselves in an apartment, hold hands and try to get through it together because we're watching a lot of the most dreadful, the most boring, awful videos anyone has ever seen. We're looking for a glimmer of something that's funny or bad in just the right way ... It's watching the videos and then taking notes while you're watching them, trying to come up with jokes or things that make you laugh, pulling those parts on to a hard drive and cutting them together in an interesting way."
It's not surprising that after hours spent with these videos, the two become attached to their subjects, whom they deeply respect. One montage featured in the current incarnation of the show cuts together clips from a popular children's public access show in Chicago called "Chic-A-Go-Go."
After putting together the piece, they were delighted to discover that the show was still in production.
"The last time we were in Chicago, we decided to show up and see if we could get on," Prueher said. "Luckily they had no standards at all about who they would let on to the show ... It was like a dream come true, to be on one of our favorite shows of all time. So that was a fun thing, and it's obviously fun to share that experience. Whenever we're able to meet the people who are in the videos or in some way interact and find out more about the videos, it's always a big honor for us."
Despite the Found Footage Festival's focus on the discovered absurd, its subjects don't seem to mind the attention. Prueher and Pickett have met several of the stars of their videos, who have all been happy to be plucked from obscurity.
"Luckily, they've all been sort of flattered by the fact that they've sort of become unintentional cult heroes from this footage that they've long since forgotten about," he said.
Perhaps because of the subjects' growing hero status, no one has ever challenged Pickett and Prueher's use of the found videos legally; most are happy to be a part of the experience. The collaborative spirit of the project is perhaps what makes it so unique. At its heart, the Found Footage Festival is still just comprised of two guys who share their hilarious discoveries on a Friday night with friends. But now the living room's a little bit bigger.
Since they began touring, Prueher and Pickett have started to receive new videos from people who know about the show and want to contribute.
"Actually last time we were in D.C. we had a guy come up to us and give us a ton of great public access footage, which we hope to incorporate into our next show for 2010," Prueher said. "Hopefully some more people will come and bring us more stuff from the D.C. area."
To bring Prueher and Pickett your hilarious forgotten footage, you can attend their show Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse. More information is available at www.foundfootagefestival.com, and tickets are available at www.arlingtondrafthouse.com.
You can reach this staff writer at kpowell@theeagleonline.com.
