The Bubblegum Film

Bob Lalush as Death in “The Bubblegum Film”

Back in the day before digital media, instant video feeds, and DVDs, people made movies with film. Little did I know when I was a communications major at the University of Maryland in 1980, that the seeds of a future career direction were being sown.

In a film production class, all the students were assigned to create a short movie called “The Bubblegum Film.” Requirements included making it three minutes long using black-and-white 8mm film, incorporating several types of shots, and of course, something to do with bubblegum. If memories of that class 30 years ago serve me correctly, many of my classmates had films with car chases in them.

But I chose to do a spoof of the Ingmar Bergman 1957 film classic, “The Seventh Seal,” focused on the scene where Death meets the Knight. My first husband Bob played Death, and our friend Eric, who was the best man at our wedding, played the Knight. We had to get up very early in the morning to catch dawn over the Chesapeake Bay on film. Eric said the water was pretty foul tasting during the tooth brushing.

Enjoy “The Bubblegum Film” and compare it with the scene from “The Seventh Seal” in these YouTube links below. BTW, I got an “A” on the project.

And the original film scene with the elements that the parody is based upon: