For most UW-Madison students, life does not get any more ordinary than a restaurant on State Street. But tonight, if you want to see a fresh take on the status quo, stop a few doors short of the real Nick's Restaurant, 226 State St., and head into the Orpheum Theatre, 216 State St., to see local filmmakers theBirthofSly Productions' motion picture Nick's Restaurant.\
""It's kind of an abstract of every day life,"" said Carlin Cwik, who acts in the film.
The 35-minute film, dreamt up by 22-year-old UW-Madison undergrad Michael Eckblad, who also made the film with a team of about 30 people, will be premiering tonight at 9 p.m. Viewers are encouraged to attend not only the showing of the film, but the after-party as well.
According to Eckblad, ""The narrative just basically involves a couple of people who are going to Nick's Restaurant.""
The film was shot in two main continuous cuts, displayed side by side for the course of the movie, in order to project a sense of simultaneity.
Eckblad's original vision was to show ""time, which is linear, in a multi-dimensional perspective,"" he said. ""Nick's Restaurant"" opens with a girl walking to Nick's Restaurant and a boy, played by Eckblad, waiting for the bus. But, ""if you're focusing too much on the narrative, you've missed most of it,"" said Eckblad.
Rather, the film's flair emanates from the use of the visuals.
""All of the different shots capture so much aesthetically [such as the] nuances in life that you notice anywhere,"" said Cwik, ""It's meant to be interesting, not comprehendible.""
In fact, according to Eckblad, the visuals already present in Nick's Restaurant, which are ""exceedingly rich,"" were precisely the reason it was chosen for the film's setting.
But the visuals were not all Nick's Restaurant had to offer the film. Eckblad and his crew also utilized the restaurant's jukebox to serve as the soundtrack for all but one song. Instead of dubbing in the music during the editing phase, the music played from the jukebox during the filming, which allowed the actors to directly interact with the soundtrack.
""We were extremely intentional about the soundtrack we used,"" said Eckblad, because ""it's not that we don't have soundtracks to our lives, because people listen to music all of the time.""
Working with a coinciding soundtrack was just one of the elements that made the filming of ""Nick's Restaurant"" a unique experience. Eckblad described the film as a ""structured improvisation."" The conversations were outlined in advance, but ""usually the things that were the most interesting were improvised and not planned,"" said Eckblad.
""It was a difficult but also a good experience to have as an actor,"" said Cwik. ""I was cast to look interesting and encompass this role of an intriguing person ... it was a very dynamic situation for an actor to be in."" Cwik also pointed out that she was responsible for particulars, such as the sound of her voice, to add to the stimulating ambiance.
Eckblad pointed to Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Jarmusch, Michel Gondry and Pierre Huyghe as his main influences during the filming of ""Nick's Restaurant."" Also, Eckblad worked closely with video artist professor Douglas Rosenberg during the entire project.
In terms of themes, Eckblad was not attempting to convey any sort of specific message to his viewers.
""Any message that comes from it will be the experience you have when you're done watching it and thinking about what you've just seen,"" said Eckblad.
From the experience of acting in the film, Cwik walked away with the notion that one should ""just slow down and look at all of the cool stuff going on around you.""\
