PRODUCTION NOTES
LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT $TACK$
- Late on a Saturday night, Gerald Webb had an idea for a short film inspired by what he was seeing happen in the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic. Knowing a quarantine was imminently coming, he decided to write and shoot $TACK$ as quickly as possible. Amazingly, 68 hours later and just 46 hours prior to Los Angeles’ Safer At Home quarantine order going into effect, principal photography on $TACK$ was completed.
- Director Gerald Webb wrote and performed the song DROPPING DEUCES form $TACK$’ credit sequence. The idea for the song came to Gerald why he was waiting for the second cut of $TACK$ to come from the editor. Gerald and the film’s composer, Knappy, who produced the song, were in a rap group together in the late 1990s called One a.d. They remotely recorded vocals for DROPPING DEUCES with Gerald in Los Angeles and Knappy in Delaware.
- Diahnna Nicole Baxter previously played Director Gerald Webb’s wife in the film A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME. They were both nominated for best actor and actress respectively by the Burbank International Film Festival for their performances in the film.
- In 2006 at the request of a friend, Mark Christopher Lawrence took a 5-minute phone call from a stranger seeking advice on starting a career in Hollywood. That stranger was Gerald Webb. The two have since formed a close friendship and Gerald has been able to pay Mark’s kindness back by hiring him numerous times.
- Diahnna Nicole Baxter won the first Emmy Award ever given out for broadband content (web) as a producer on the series SATACRACY-88.
- $TACK$ was shot without the following crew members: 1st AD, 2nd AD, script supervisor, production designer, set dressers, hair or make-up artists. The G&E team was 1 person, camera team 2 people and total on set crew count was 7 people consisting of the director, DP, focus puller/1st AC, 1 G&E member, sound mixer, associate producer and 1 production assistant.
- There are 11 “easter eggs” in $TACK$ foretelling what’s to come. Most people watch the film and don’t catch any of them! Did you see them? SPOILER ALERT!!!!
. Visual:
- The car license plates in $TACK$ are from Gerald’s state of birth Pennsylvania and each has secret message if you pay close attention. One says “P8PR2P” (Paper 2p) and the seconds says “T01L3T5” (toilets)!
- The logo on the center of the front grill of the SUV in stacks says ‘DIVOC” that’s COVID spelled backwards!
- The aerial shot at 0:07 is actually played backwards. There is a car backing away from the intersection and a person crossing the street backwards. Gerald decided to use this shot as a metaphor for some of the “backwards” actions he’s seen from people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Reub played by Tarnue Massaquoi is wearing a scarf/ face covering / mask around his neck the entire film.
. Audio- there are several lines in the film that reference what is to come and the Covid pandemic:
- “Our whole territory goes down the TOILET” at 0:40.
- “Let’s ROLL” at 01:10.
- “Keep your DISTANCE” at 02:25.
- “DON’T TRY TO SQUEEZE ME Hector, first I see the product” at 02:41.
- “Pure, CHINA (origin of Covid-19), WHITE” at 02:51.
- “This oughtta keep you FLUSH” at 03:10.
- At the opening film a you will see a credit: “A Gerald Webb jawn”. The title pays homage to Gerald’s birth city Philadelphia. Jawn is a decades old but highly popular slang term in and around Philadelphia. It can be substituted for any person, place or thing or can mean “the best” ie: $TACK$ is the jawn!