Joystiq interviews the "Good Versus Wiivil" creators

Jack Paccione Jr. is one happy guy. Of course, he did just get sent to the Top of the Rock in New York City to show off his short film to the influential members of the Tribeca Film Festival community. Having an extra $10,000 in his pocket certainly must feel nice as well. How did he get there? He won Nintendo's short film competition, Shortcuts, with his film "Good Versus Wiivil."

The film turned a happy-go-lucky Carvel employee into a human mannequin controlled by a Wii Remote. But, what would happen when an evil Wii Remote (the titular "Wiivil") interfered? The incredible concept was backed by fantastic production values, and great performances. We had a chance to talk to Jack Paccione Jr., Jerry White, and Robert McCormack from Escape Goat Pictures to hear more about the production of the winning short film.

What inspired the concept behind the film?
Paccione: Well, I never thought seriously about there being an evil Wii Remote. But, with all our short films we want to get into some kind of conflict as quickly as possible. So, the Wii is a really fun, happy place, and we wanted to mess around with that a little bit, and figure out its dark side. And there we go. That's how it came together.

Are you all Nintendo fans?
Paccione: Yeah, definitely. I actually camped out for the Wii. I camped out in Staten Island, where I'm from. I sat in the rain, where the hordes of fans were waiting. Thank God I was able to get one then. No one can even get one now! The first thing I grabbed was Nintendo Wii with the left hand, and Zelda with the right hand.

So how did you find out about the Nintendo Shortcuts competition?
Paccione: It was Jerry, he's like our PR/research guy. He calls me up and says "Yeah, we got another competition. Alright, let's go." So basically, we follow the same steps. He'll write it, send it to us, we make it a storyboard, draw it out, basically like a comic strip. And then we hit the street running. All of our stuff takes about two, three weeks to film.

How long did "Good Versus Wiivil" take?
Paccione: Ten days. From "okay, there's a competition" to wrap. We were pressured.
McCormack: Filming itself only took two days.
Paccione: Yeah, two days of filming, and sleepless, sleepless nights editing and adding music (which is my favorite part of any movie).
McCormack: He works himself until he gets sick, like he is right now.

So, you had ten days to work on the film. How did you find the people to work on the project with you?
Paccione: Basically, we started with a very small group of actors who wanted to follow us. And then, as we started winning, the actor pool started growing. So we started with one actor, then we had five, and as we started winning competitions, now we have like seventy people saying "count me in." There's one guy that always plays the evil guy in every one of our films. He's a really nice guy, but he loves being the bad guy.

He's the one that holds the Wiivil.
Paccione: Yeah. I couldn't even finish my conversation with him. I say, "there's this guy with a black evil Wii controller," and he goes: "Wait, you're going to have an evil Wii controller?" I'm like, "yeah." And he goes, "that one's mine."

It seems like he had fun playing the character.
Paccione: Oh yeah. He loves being evil.
McCormack: And nobody gets paid, so everyone's just doing it for the fun of it.

(Jack proceeds to tell me to ask him the one question that no one has asked him.)

So, why are the Wii Remote lights colored the way they are?
Paccione: If you notice in the film, the Wii Remote lights up green, although the actual Wii light is blue. No one has ever asked me "why is it green?" Now I'll tell you. Between the three of us, we are huge, huge Star Wars fans. So basically, I was trying to represent the lightsaber battle, the final one between Luke and Darth Vader. And, I wanted to make one red and one green. So, when he plugs in his Wii, the bad guy's light is red, and the good guy's light is green.
White: Our films are heavily symbolic.

It's sort of like the Bible.
White: Very much.

So, did you actually mod the controllers to make them light up that way or was it just a digital effect?
Paccione: Oh yeah, it's a digital effect. Yeah, we just plugged the Wii in the middle of the street, so everything was a digital effect. Real weird stuff we did. There's one scene where he's holding the Wii controller outdoors. We actually printed a picture of asphalt and filmed that in my bedroom. I put it behind my hand and shot down so it looked like we were looking at it outside. Weird stuff like that.

How long have you been making movies?
Paccione: We started about two and a half years ago. So far, our total winnings have been close to $75,000 in the film competitions that we've won so far. We've had a lot of success, and every film that we've made has actually won a competition. It'll be very depressing when we don't win.

So you don't even know what it feels like to lose!
Paccione: Not yet.
White: I'm sure we will some day.

What was the first film that you guys ever made?
Paccione: The first film we ever made was "Misfortune Cookie." We went all the way to end of Tribeca with that. Believe it or not, it was filmed in the exact same location as "Good Versus Wiivil." In fact, if you watch, you'll say "wow." You can definitely tell.

Out in Staten Island?
Paccione: I filmed that in Brooklyn. Then, we filmed "Duel at Red Table" which won $50,000 in Tribeca, and that was a ping pong action movie. You can see all of these on YouTube, by the way.

How did you make the Wiivil?
Paccione: Well, I graduated from SVA (School of Visual Arts in NYC). So, I just painted the entire thing, took all the buttons out, painted it, and used marker. I just kind of fixed it up. We ruined it; it's broken now. But, I do still have it.

You could probably eBay it.
Paccione: Well, I always keep one prop from every movie I make.

So, how does it feel to be in Rockefeller Center, heading to the Top of the Rock, surrounded by all these people?
Paccione: It's very exciting. I like the atmosphere. You'll never know who's going to be around. Like ... Joystiq. I like that feeling. There's a lot going on. It's cool. We're not used to this. We're amateurs.

What's next for you guys?
Paccione: Well, [Jerry] just finished writing a full feature length screenplay. We sent it away to get reviewed from a very reputable company, which sent it back with awesomely rave reviews saying, "we must make this movie." And they never give out rave reviews. Now, we're looking for producers to go ahead because we believe that at this time, we're ready to make a feature film. So, we're looking for backing right now.


We'd like to thank Jack, Jerry and Robert for the interview, and wish the best of luck for Escape Goat Pictures.