Troubled financial IT staff ease their stress by making Star Wars movie
It's not easy being a bank employee these days. You don't know what your bank will be tomorrow. Perhaps it will be a different kind of bank. Or even a former bank.
So perhaps it is unsurprising that Geoff Harmer, an IT chap at Barclays Bank in Basingstoke, England (a little like the nice parts of New Jersey), decided to invest $90 and his artistic talent into making a Star Wars movie.
The opus is entitled Overtime and the action takes place around the bank cubicles, in an elevator (where the protagonists encounter a tall bald man who has something of Chewbacca's gutturals) and, um, around some more cubicles.
The acting might best be described as determined, with the Emmy going to a female employee who manages to brandish two lightsabers with all the grace of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Well, some of the grace.
The film lasts just over eight minutes and is confidently followed by a taster of the employees' next movie, entitled OT2. Time an' a Half, which seems to involve another female brandisher with far more black make-up and significantly less black clothing.
I won't spoil the twisting, cerebral plot which acts as Overtime's spine, but there is some quite stunning news. The movie has been accepted into the 41st. POL-8 Film Festival in Poland.
Held in the small Siliesian town of Polanica-Zdroj, POL-8 celebrates the amateur film maker. And, in case viewing the movie with a large audience fills you with excitement, it begins this Thursday. Flights are still available, though you'll have to get something of a puddle-jumper from Warsaw or Krakow.
You might think that any old amateur digitalia is accepted by the Festival. You'd be mistaken. The Festival Committee viewed 76 movies and only admitted 48. Last year, a Czech film, called At the End of Time walked off with the first prize.
Perhaps the judges are partial to subject matter that considers end-of-the-world scenarios.
Let us hope that is the case. And let us hope that the world's IT community will keep its collective digits crossed for its fellow artist.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
We made this film to raise awareness and money for a Charity called the Nystagmus Network Charity. Please go visit their site at http://www.nystagmusnet.org.uk or perhaps visit this link and donate some cash... http://www.justgiving.com/fraught
Really appreciate the coverage and support of our film, but would like the right message to sit alongside it to. :-)
I hope you raise a lot for your cause.
Chris