"Anonymity" (1989)

"Anonymity" is a short film directed by Clarke M. Smith and Peter Beam, completed in 1989 via equipment from Tucson Community Cable Corporation. Though made among other student films, it was not made for any college class. It was "just for fun". It was produced by TimeAxis Entertainment. The lead character was played by Thomas Findlow, the second of several collaborations between he and Smith. It featured a very large cast, and a more extravagant script than any resources would allow.

Realizing the Script
The script went through many iterations, starting off with a rich princess being kidnapped, and slowly brought down to a more manageable story. After the success of “Contamination” and "Escapee", Smith and Beam felt they were ready to take on a bigger film. They wanted to keep topping themselves.

New to the film entourage were Kay and Lei Moats, as well as Lloyd Cook and M. Todd Meador. Supporting roles went to former TimeAxis alumni such as Ande Felix, Sherry Felix, and George Mazarakis. Clarke and Lei (later with full name "Leilani") later began a relationship and married in 1996. In 2003 and 2004, the couple had two daughters.

Shooting Details
Shooting began in April of 1989 at the hair salon Ande worked at, on Prince Rd, Tucson, AZ. Homer Lambert ("Escapee") was cast as one of the kidnappers, along with newcomer Lloyd Cook. Clarke and Pete’s parents and siblings came to be extras. In one of the most horrendous filmmaking problems of their entire career, a full day of shooting intricate and complicated salon scenes came out as snow on tape. Nothing recorded. No one knows why to this day, how the camera malfunctioned. It was never checked all day. From that day on, Smith always checked his footage throughout the day to make sure it was being recorded.Worse, actor Homer Lambert then lost interest in the project and dropped out. Details around this decision are not known or remembered. Pete and Clarke scrambled to find a replacement. Tom Findlow delivered his co-worker Todd Meador. Todd would go on to appear in 2 other Smith films.

The salon was eventually re-done to success, although not with as many extras. However, it enabled Pete’s sister Liz Beam to be in the film. She happened to be visiting. Her scenes were shot later, however, after principal photography was done.

The 2nd half of the film was in Roger Harrison’s job warehouse. Though the warehouse was quite small, one of the accomplishments of the film was how large it looks on film. It was a tough couple of shooting nights, with so many cast members and shots to do. So many elements plagued the production, including the accidental erasure of Lei Moat’s phone scene, originally shot at Pete’s grandmother’s opulent home; sadly redone in a shoddy little office at the warehouse, the final scene filmed.

Film Analysis
For many years, Clarke regarded this film as his all time worst. That is tied now with “Bloodline”. It was fortunate that it was not for a class project, although the plan was probably to use it for a final project for the next level video class, thereby getting quite the head start. After a nice premier party at the home of Pete’s grandmother (who appears in the film briefly with Pete’s other grandmother), the film disappeared into the closet. Clarke later did a shorter, re-edit with a new score. Then a 2nd one digitally, deemed the best version it could be.

Pete composed a few musical cues, but the original version was primarily John Carpenter’s score for “They Live”. The new version used music from Mark Isham’s score for “Point Break”. One of the major changes in subsequent edits, was the removal of a happy, upbeat dance song by Sweet Sensation for the end credits. Clarke felt the downer of a story did not warrant such a song, and replaced it with a more somber, Carpenter piece.

Aftermath
The only aftermath of this very troubled production, is that it lit a fire under Clarke to get right back into a new film, and make up for it. His time at the U of A was coming to end in a few years, and he did NOT want this to be in any way, his last film. Tom Findlow was on his way to graduating soon, and he felt he owed everyone a better film to remember. So, gathering up many members of the cast of Anonymity, Clarke set out to create a very memorable and much loved film - "Arizona Smith and the Lost Ore House" - just a few months later that year.

Video Links
"Anonymity" (1989) (Full Movie)

1999 Visual Audio Commentary

"Anonymity" (1989) Interviews

"Anonymity" (1989) Bloopers (Salon)

"Anonymity" (1989) Bloopers (Warehouse)