Bikini Bandits
The "Bikini Bandits" series, which is being produced by advertising agency Gyro Worldwide, isn't likely to win any awards from the National Organization for Women. But Steven Grasse, 35 year-old director and co-owner of Gyro Worldwide, doesn't seem to care.
"This is all about four girls in bikinis who kill people. It's basically got hot chicks with guns and lots of meat snacks," says Grasse. "It's Russ Meyers meets Quentin Tarantino." Grasse and his crew of 60 men and women are filing four four-minute short films for AtomFilms. Each of the shorts focus on the same gang bikini-wearing females. "Bikini Bandits," the first in the series, introduces the gang as they assault a G.Mart. "Bikini Bandits," is short on dialogue but long on laughs, according to Grasse, reporting that the cast consists of strippers and nude models discovered during casting call at a local Philadelphia strip club. The rest of the episodes have the girls continuing their crime spree. All of the films being shot on location, and Grasse says Gyro Worldwide is paying great attention to eye-catching detail including a decidedly phallic time machine.
Despite its Internet roots, the "Bikini Bandits" sequels are being shot somewhat un-Internet fashion, in this case on 35mm film rather than more typical digital video. Hosting site Atomfilms will take care of the encoding once the projects are completed, employing Enron Communications to convert them to Real Networks' Real G2, QuickTime and windows Media Player formats.
"It's sort of like (the way) they shot the Back to the Future,' episodes two and three," says Grasse. "We map it all out ahead of time and shoot out of sequence, but it really doesn't have an impact on the actors or us." In addition, there are plenty of product placements and cross-promotion deals, most notably Gyro Worlwide's own clothing line, Sailor Jerry and retail store, G.Mart. "Because we come from advertising background, we immediately built in all the cross-promotion that will carry forward.