John McCarthy and his friends like the idea of superpowers. They also like to visit thrift stores to find vintage clothing.
So McCarthy combined thrifting with clothes that have superpowers, and thus “Super Thrift”was born. The 22-minute film, which he wrote and directed, will be shown around 7 p.m. on October 13th at Malco Studio on the Square.
The movie centers around a group of friends, including Lorenzo, played by Lorenzo Aguirre, says McCarthy, 19, who is majoring in photography and cinematography at University of Memphis. “He’s trying to impress the girl he likes [Nick Shaw], who is one of their old friends. But he doesn’t know how to do it. So he goes to the thrift store and gets a new style to see if he starts to change up a little bit, she’ll soften up a little bit.”
That’s when he spots the shoes. “They have superpowers. And the shoes give him the ability to float.”
No matter how many times Lorenzo ties them, they never stay tied,” McCarthy adds. “You learn the shoes are not only magical, but sentient. The shoes don’t like to have their laces tied because they don’t want to be tied up. It was like handcuffs to the shoes.”
When Lorenzo realizes his shoes have superpowers, he recalls seeing a jacket with the same brand name at the thrift store. But when he goes back to get it, he sees Nick walking out of the store with the jacket. He later discovers it “gives the wearer super-strength.”
Lorenzo found the perfect pair of size-10 super-powered shoes for his size-10 feet. “We got plain white shoes from some discount store. And we had one of my friends, Ayden [Couch-Smith], who does a lot of artwork, paint the design on the shoes. It’s a purple and blue and white kind of swirl. And there’s an ‘S’ kind of hidden in the center.”
Couch-Smith appears in the film, as does Chris “Deebo” Bailey. McCarthy used everyone’s real names in the film. “I cast my friends with hopes they’re already close. It kind of makes their compatibility on screen more natural.”
He began writing the screenplay last January. “This is the first time I’ve ever done a screenplay. I didn’t know what I was doing at first. My dad showed me how to do a preset to make it easier. He showed me the ropes.”
His dad, filmmaker Mike McCarthy, gave him some tips, but, other than that, stayed out of the way. “Super Thrift”will appear alongside a screening of one of Mike’s films, Teenage Tupelo.
The majority of the story came from John and Aguirre. “With the clothes having superpowers, that was more my idea. We definitely collaborated on how to show the effect of giving the clothes life pretty much on a short budget.”
Explaining the flying effect, John says, “We would have Lorenzo dangle his feet down and get close-up shots of his legs and feet on the ground. We did get a lot of green screen shots for a little bit of effect. We had him stand in front of this big green panel. And we put a stool down. He would stand on the stool and kind of hover around. Just the raw footage itself looks silly, but after putting it through a key, we were able to make it look like he’s hovering above the ground.”
They scrapped an effect that made the shoes look like they were untying themselves. “We used fishing wire to pull the laces of the shoe. It worked, but it wasn’t really what we wanted.”
John filmed scenes at Society Skatepark, East High School, Malco Summer Drive-In, and Overton Park, as well as his house.
The movie’s soundtrack was composed by Geepmane.
As for those “Super Thrift” super-powered shoes, John says, “They’re still at my house. More beat up than when we first got them.”
Will they be used in a sequel one day? “It’s possible,” John says. “We really would like to do it, depending on how everything goes with this one. We’ll take it from there.”
“Super Thrift” will show October 13th at 7 p.m. at Malco Studio on the Square.