MOTEL PROVIDENCE

MOTEL PROVIDENCE marks my fifth collaboration with Philadelphia's premiere comedy troupe, The Minor Prophets. Over the past seven years we've explored themes ranging from father and son strife, workplace outsourcing, cross labor line friendships and faux Americana patriotism. All of these subjects present a unique comedic spectrum of middle class life in the United States.

The Minor Prophets and I agreed to shoot our latest new short film over the Easter holiday weekend in 2014. My visits to the Philadelphia suburbs, where I grew up, are usually limited to holidays, so we've learned to maximize the limited time we have to collaborate. When they sent me the script for MOTEL PROVIDENCE I found it a welcome change up on the heels of our award winning short, SKY BLUE COLLAR.

SKY BLUE COLLAR was slight on dialogue, big on visual gags and accompanied by a pulse pounding soundtrack. MOTEL PROVIDENCE is quite the opposite - with plenty of dialogue to chew on, which necessitated a straightforward approach to capturing it. This was a new kind of challenge for me because of the subtle balance of the comedy. I was most excited about The Minor Prophets having the opportunity to really unleash their acting chops. The Minor Prophet filmography is full of colorful characters under the guise of makeup, wigs and wardrobe. In MOTEL PROVIDENCE we shed all of that but maintain the obscure social commentary one would expect from a Minor Prophets/Derek Frey production.
The subject of adultery combined with solid performances, clean cinematography and slick editing places MOTEL PROVIDENCE firmly in the "dramedy" realm. It's a place The Minor Prophets and I spend most of our time and I hope you enjoy.

The genesis of MOTEL PROVIDENCE:
Motel Providence began as a live sketch entitled "The Cheating Counselor," which the Minor Prophets performed as part of their 2011 stage show Fade to Yellow. The sketch opens with a short commercial advertising the counselor's services, and concludes with a musical number, "Miles From Infidelity," a song written by the Prophets' alter egos, the Positive Dudes, and meant as a warm-hearted critique of the adultery industry. Because of its restless dialogue and heavier, more dramatic moments, "The Cheating Counselor" didn't generate big laughs, prompting the troupe to reconsider it as a short film, one in which they could slow the pace of conversation and rightly balance the humor with the heartache. After adding another page of dialogue to increase the tension, and revising the ending for a more visceral punchline, the Prophets had a script for Motel Providence—the first-ever film adaptation of one of their live bits.