Sweding interview II: Total Recall
This is the second part in a series of Watch This Now interviews with “swede” creators who were inspired by the upcoming movie "Be Kind Rewind."
(See our previous posts on the subject here, here, here, and here).
Today, we’re chatting with Tony Medrano, the bearded 24-year-old graphic designer who plays Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in a goofy adaptation of “Total Recall.”
After the jump, Medrano talks about pulling the video together in 48 hours with a budget of less than $60, how the special effects were pulled off, and how they didn’t need a script because an actor had previously memorized all the one-liners.
Watch This Now: How’d you hear about “sweding?”
Tony Medrano: I was signed up for the Alamo Draft house newsletter (a movie house chain in Texas) and they were having this contest because of the upcoming movie “Be Kind Rewind.” And so we’re like, let’s join. We always talk about doing some kind of project outside of work, but we’ve always been too lazy.
WTN: How’d it all work?
TM: We had 48 hours to get everything done from shooting to editing to everything. So basically, I tried to get a couple guys here, and then they invited some people--their girlfriends mostly. In the end, maybe 10 or 12 people all together showed up—way more than I expected. 
TM: So we all go together over there and just split into teams. We said ok, lets figure out stuff. We watched the movie and picked out the best parts. That same day, we split up into teams and picked up materials. All in all, we spent somewhere around maybe $60. We came back and just kind of started winging it.
WTN: And just started shooting?
TM: What was ridiculous, once we were shooting, we were halfway through everything and we looked at the camera and it wasn’t recording. So, we’re like, aw ****. So we did a marathon rush with another camera doing the whole thing over again back to the mid point.
WTN: Tell us about the group effort.
TM: Everybody pitched in their own way. It was cool, the guy’s girlfriends did the posters and the art. Everyone jumped in and acted. For some reason I was elected to be Arnold. Not because I was the best choice but because nobody else wanted to do it. Changing from Indian to whatever accent I made up in the movie was weird. But who cares? It was fun.
WTN: So everybody got into it?
TM: Everyone got to do something. I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal. Three guys from work, that’s it. But the more people who heard about it, the more they wanted to get involved.
WTN: And the video’s gotten good feedback?
TM: Two weeks ago, we got first place in the contest. We got a $200 gift certificate and we’re supposed to get a lot of real rare VHS movies. And they’ll show our “swede” before the movie “Be Kind Rewind” screenings at the theater.
WTN: How’d you guys come up with the expanding mask scene and other key scenes? 
TM: We were just trying to figure out what the cool parts of the movie were out of the entire movie, and that scene was the only thing I remembered. That and the mutants and the chick with the exploding head. I said why don’t we just draw the face and cut the strips? It was cool because as you go you start figuring out, “Oh wait, we can do this, we can do that.” For that scene where the face was coming off like the *** bouncing around,
its two grapefruits and they’re in a pantyhose knotted up. We put it over a scarf, so each end has a grapefruit on each end and swings independently by itself.
Everybody had a part in it. Everybody came out with stuff. When we went to get the wife’s costume, I was pretty much my friend on: You should get this, it looks ridiculous.
He was the trooper about the whole thing because I did not have to wear European underwear shorts. Even the hair, it’s a pom pom and a braid.
WTN: And putting it all together?
MT: We filmed it all on that night and then the next day we just edited it real quick.
WTN: Did you guys work off a script?
MT: Nope, Chuck (The guy playing the stomach mutant) has a God given gift. He knew every single quote, every single one liner, even the song.
WTN: What was the look you guys were going for?
MT: We researched like other people’s “Swedes.” We didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what it was until I got the newsletter. Many did Lord of the Rings. Some did movies that were super elaborate. All in all we got the feeling you should just have fun with it and that’s the core of the whole thing. Don’t make it fancy unless it adds to the fun-ness.
WTN: How’d you coordinate the fight scenes?
MT: For the fight scenes, it was pretty much rag tag. We just tried to figure out what runs best. We would look at the movie, like the scene beforehand and we just tried to recreate it as best we could with little flourishes in the middle, like the double punch or the blood
with the judo chop.
WTN: Where’d the blood come from?
MT: It was like some gift wrapping, crumbly paper. Chuck just saw it at the craft’s store and said it would be awesome blood.
WTN: So what’d you think about your experience?
MT: It was one of the funnest things I’ve done in a while that did not involve alcohol.
DAN SCAPUSIO joined the Sun Sentinel's online team in 2008. A self described Internet enthusiast, he says the World Wide Web brings him joy, sadness, excitement, joy and a deep sense of terror all at once. For him, it's a crossroads where college humor and the most valuable scholarly information can be found and, in some cases, even melded.
