Candy Eye Factory Blog

So here’s the latest on our latest.

The mini-flick we shot last summer has finally been edited down to a 4 minute rough cut. Though the narrative of the piece is currently a tad too murky, The Factory is alarmingly adept at plunking Tina T into dark basements and forming full-fledged movies out of it. We’ve sorta been doing that since the 1980s. Weirdly.

So, just what sort of underground trouble does La Tina find herself in this time around? For now, our lips are still sealed.

Stay tuned though…

Amidst the chaos of our acceptance to the Slamdance fest, Candy Eye booked a Guest Lecturing gig at The University of Wisconsin, Green Bay for mid April. After months of anticipation, the Factory founders headed east, deep into the land of custard, to at last share our work and our ideas with Green Bay’s brightest young artists.

Our hosts for this visit were Art Agency president and photography major Eric Beining and his energized bunny of a bud, Cory Linsmeyer. The duo greeted us at our hotel with timid grins and nifty gift bags, after which they shuttled us to campus and participated in one of The Factory’s favorite pastimes: impromptu Pretend You’re At a Crowded Hollywood Party-themed photoshoots. (Cory, left, nailed the challenge best, no?)

Our hosts then guided us around the art building, introducing us to both faculty and students, who were all as groovy as they were gracious.

Semi-professional narcissists that we are, the highlight of our lovely tour was the series of posters plastered every four feet that Eric had designed in order to publicize our visit. We felt like rock stars, and opted to re-enact our Poster Pose, in person, for our Green Bay ambassadors.

At 3 o’clock we promptly began our lecture for a “record-breaking audience” where we played our hits Digits and The Mallorys prior to unleashing a sneak preview screening of our unreleased next film, The Epicene. We were relieved the attendees had so many questions for us, smart ones to boot, and were surprised that it was the male students in the room, rather than the females, who seemed to be responding most strongly to our über-girly work.

105 minutes of snappy cinema talk sped by, and after our lecture concluded we traded some mom-ish and im-mature pins from The Mallorys movie with some hot, happening pins Green Bay student Jesse Mitchell had designed for his senior show. Candy Eye never met a pin-pusher we didn’t like. So two snaps to you, Mr. Mitchell!

After a quick hit of thrifting and Candy Eye’s first stroll through a ShopKo store, JoEllen confessed she had always been a little bit Bay-curious, so Eric and Cory drove us to Green Bay’s actual bay for some frisky fun under the sun. We soon brought the experimentation inside for a candle-lit dinner at Grazie’s Ristorante where our Bay Boys wrangled up University professor, Sarah Detweiler, and photography major, Erica Millspaugh, for an intimate night of arty elegance.

We couldn’t have wanted more in our overall college experience. (Except real Wisconsin custard, but maybe next time.)

Obviously this blog is a delicious dose of enlightening insight – but if you’re dying to really get inside the minds of The Factory founders, then may we suggest a juicy 30 minute, live-to tape television interview, broadcast without commercial interruption?

Cause we got one of them, kids – coming up soon!

Realizing the energy of the Minneapolis film scene, Twin Cities writer/producer Myron Berdahl recently launched a new talk show devoted entirely to Minnesota filmmakers and their work. Cryptically titled Butter City, Myron kindly invited the Candy Eye crew to appear on the 2nd episode of his nifty new series.

We ran through the opportunity extensively with our agents, managers, and our two cutest lawyers for days on end, and then finally agreed to Mr. Berdahl’s request. Provided that Factory femme fatale Tina T and rising starlet Allison True could appear on the program as well; and that the show shuttle all four of us to and from the studio in a light pink limousine with gray leather seats.

Butter City caved to our demands instantly, and we soon found ourselves in the literally green GreenRoom of Butter City’s St. Paul studio one dreary March morning. We killed the time before our episode’s taping listening to Tina T’s take on the Dark Shadows DVDs she’d been devouring, after which Allison asked the P.A.s to fetch us some colder caviar, please.

We were then ushered into the studio and introduced to the technical staff of the program, who all stared at us without smiling for a hundred million awkward silent moments. We assumed they were just star-struck like the swarms of strangers who come across our paths when we’re at the gas station or the mall, but apparently the crew was just gage-ing our skin tones.

We’re pale. Strangely pale, they sighed.

After adjusting their lighting set-up for our albino-like complexions, and primping and preening our hair and jacket-hoods, we were then met on stage by Butter City’s esteemed host Dan Orozco, the Oprah/James Lipton of the Minneapolis film industry.

Together, we sailed through the taping of the perky yet probing episode in the blink of an eye! Though the reclusive Tina T. had never granted a formal interview before, she charmed the (non-existent) studio audience with her candid quips. And cell-phone photos of Allison’s much anticipated first interview were circulating on internet forums before the studio lights were even cold.

The Butter City series will be premiering locally and (hopefully) state-wide later this spring. We’ll forward you the air dates and times once our agents or cute lawyers get us the specifics. They’re super busy lately, so be a ‘lil patient!

Do check it out though. The Butter City team are awesome and they’ve whipped up a polished, poised, playful series you’ll totally have to Tivo.