The set we used for “Sheriff Matt Twit”.
My dad bought a Super 8 movie camera and projector, so I confiscated it on one of our trips and took it on the road with us.
We didn’t film too much, and we did not shoot during our musical performances… we were all on stage, after all. I believe the film still exists, and I may dig it out and have it transferred to digital media.
Anyway, on a day off in Sioux Falls, SD we were bored so we took the camera out and started filming this stupid western called “Sheriff Matt Twit”.
We loved the Monty Python movie, “Holy Grail”, so we took a few queues from them. In the Super 8 movie, Ken was Sheriff who “rode” around by pretending to be on a horse, just like the Pythons did. And the term “twit” came from the British slang.
In those days, Ken was going though his western shirt phase, so he was the perfect choice for the Sheriff. Sioux Falls had a great rock formation, so we spent the afternoon filming Ken running back and forth pretending to ride a horse with this goofy look on his face. Super 8 had no sound capability back then, so I think I tried to record a sound track on cassette and then attempted to sync it up with the movie.
Mick Orton
Categories: History
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