DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711140232
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: RANDOM RAMBLES 

SOURCE: Tony Stein 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

SHOESTRING BUDGET, QUIRKY PLOT DELIVER FILM-MAKER'S MESSAGE

When a big-name Hollywood director makes a movie, he is given a multi-million dollar budget. He signs stars to contracts with astronomical salary numbers. He gathers an army of technical help and computer gadgetry that weaves magical moments at the touch of a button.

When John Meadows made his movie, his budget topped out at somewhere between $500 and $700. He put an ad in the paper to recruit his actors and they'll get paid when and if the movie makes any money. The camera he filmed the movie with was a hand-held model somewhere around 50 years old.

But Meadows, who lives in a Chesapeake trailer park, had a dream and a desire. Now he's got his movie. A ``different'' movie? You bet. A quirky movie? That, too. But it says some things Meadows wanted to say on film and he hopes there's an audience for it.

The title is a large clue to the off-beat nature of Meadows' two-hour production. Flash this on your mental marquee . . .

``Renaissance Cabaret

Revenge of the Cobra Lady

Qu'ils Mangent du Gateau

An Intellectual Exercise''

Line three is French for ``Let them eat cake,'' which is what Marie Antoinette was supposed to have said about hungry French peasants who wanted bread. If it was supposed to be a laugh line, it didn't work. They chopped her head off. In Meadows' movie, it applies to a not-too-bright lady vampire. Meadows, operating as Tidewater Cinema Group, describes his film as cult, avant gard and experimental. It took two years from start to finish, involving 58 actors and 28 musicians and singers and a variety of Tidewater locations.

OK, you ask, what's it about?

Here's a sample of what Meadows lists as the content:

Space aliens, vampires and ghosts, a lady detective who kills people, solves the murders and writes books about them, intellectual yuppie philosophers, a preacher, a rabbi and an Islamic clergyman discussing religion, token minorities and token male and female nudity. Very token nudity, brief and fuzzy. Space aliens land on Earth and it's a while before they find clothes to wear.

The most unusual touch in the movie is that the actors use American Sign Language throughout while a narrator does the talking. ``My field is communications,'' Meadows says. ``I want to make the point that it's important to communicate with the deaf. They can sometimes be isolated.'' A deaf woman, Winnie Inabennett of Hampton, taught the cast to sign and Meadows is proud of their accomplishments.

Ask him what the ``message'' of the movie is and he says the actors are talking about a range of issues that people usually don't feel comfortable with. Like religion, politics, sex and social unrest. ``They're controversial,'' Meadows says, ``but they can and should be talked about. And even though they are serious issues, it's a fun film. There are people being silly.''

Among the offbeat touches are effects almost like looking into a kaleidoscope. Frequently, too, there's a silhouette of a woman dancing or tumbling across the screen. That's Meadows' spoof of people who stand up or block you out in a theater.

A native of Tennessee, Meadows says he's been involved with community theater for many years. He took some film courses along the way and the decor in his trailer home runs heavily to movie posters. He's in his own movie, but only because the actor who was supposed to do the bit didn't show up.

His personal resume includes guitar playing and operating a hair salon in New York. That's a little odd to hear, given that he shaved his head for a community theater part and retains the chrome dome look to this day.

His money-making trade is pipe-fitting in shipyards, but he's a full-time student at Old Dominion University now. His field of study is languages. A teaching career is a possibility.

At the moment, he's engrossed in creating an audience for his film.

He doesn't expect the show business paper Variety to list his movie among the top 10 box office money-makers of the decade. But he had a creative vision and if other shoe-string budget film-makers take the lesson that hard work and perseverance can make a vision real, that will be a pay-off in solid satisfaction. MEMO: If you're interested in hearing more, call John Meadows at

543-7012 or e-mail him at jrmd00z(AT)mail.odu.edu

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