The Wizard of Speed and Time (film)

The Wizard of Speed and Time is a 1989 low-budget feature film written, directed, and starring animator Mike Jittlov. It presents a heavily-fictionalized and very satirical version of how the original Wizard of Speed and Time short was made. It incorporates a remake of the short, as well as portions of some of his other short films (such as Time Tripper and Animato).

Straeker: There are your film cans, but you can't move them.
Jittlov: Why? Are they stuck to the floor?
Straeker: No, to the system!

The tricks of movie magic are exposed; but so are the tribulations of the independent moviemaker working around the heavily-unionized Hollywood film industry.

The film tells the story of Mike, an independent filmmaker and animator looking to get a break in Hollywood and failing because of what sometimes seems like a conspiracy of unions and studios to lock out anyone who isn't already a part of the film industry. After failing yet again, he gets what seems like his lucky break: Lucky Straeker (Steve Brodie), the director of an upcoming television special about special effects, is impressed with some of Mike's demo footage and offers him a segment on the special.

However, as Mike heads off to start work, the show's producer, Harvey Bookman (Richard Kaye), doubts that he can complete a major effects assignment. Lucky leaps to Mike's defense, and the two make a bet over whether Jittlov can actually deliver.

Despite being hampered by the system, Lucky gives Mike as much help and advice he can. However, Bookman does everything in his power to sabotage Mike's project, from making it impossible for him to get money up front to pay for his expenses to hiring thugs to waylay Mike and keep him from working. However, with the help of his friends and the power of the creative spirit, Mike thwarts Bookman and gets his film to the network before the deadline. The night of the broadcast, though, a sudden Presidential address to the nation pre-empts the special...

The film was filmed in 1983 but remained on the shelf until it was released to a very small number of theaters in 1989. It was later released on VHS and laserdisc. Although there is no official DVD release yet, Jittlov's fans have (with Jittlov's knowledge and at least tacit approval) created a DVD image file, and made it available for free on peer-to-peer networks until such time as an official release is realized.

The feature film is also filled with subliminal messages, many hidden in single frames during the "Wizard Run" sequence (which was remade and expanded from the original short film), or hidden in electrical sparks generated by various happenings in the film.

Tropes used in The Wizard of Speed and Time (film) include:

In addition to those tropes from the short film which apply to its counterpart here, this film also includes:

Adaptation Distillation: The final film which Mike gets on the air is only the "Speed" segment of the original short. The "Time" segment is seen earlier in the film as a kind of demo for Harvey and Lucky, and despite their comments and the fact that Brian and Mike (and later Cindy) are putting a huge amount of time into its creation, it's never seen anywhere again, let alone as part of the "finished" project.
Adaptation Expansion: Twice:
- First, the expansion of the original short into this film.
- Secondly, the "Speed" segment of the short, which originally ran about a minute and thirty seconds, has been reworked into a five-minute minifilm of its own.
Acting for Two: Jittlov is not only the Wizard in the "Speed" segment, but the judge who gave the Wizard a score of 9.7.
- He's also the torch-carrier.
- In the stunt driving shots from the car-chase scene, Pluto, the police dog in the back seat, was played by Jittlov wearing a coat over his head.
Banana Peel: Inexplicably left in the middle of a country road, miles from anywhere.
Bridal Carry: How the Wizard transports his hitchhiker.
Car Chase: And when it starts, a subtitle appears to identify it as "The Chase Scene".
Character as Himself: Mike Jittlov is credited as being played by "The Wizard". The Wizard, subsequently, is listed as portraying himself.
Cool Bike: Mike's bike, with its (powerful!) anitheft system and just-as-powerful but pretty much invisible motor.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Bookman, to a T.
Cult Classic: The film itself became one, with its own following that keeps circulating the tapes.
Everything's Better with Sparkles: The remake of the "Speed" segment is far more liberally sprinkled with sparkles than the original, culiminating in a literal explosion of them in the final seconds.
Executive Meddling: In-universe example when Harvey tries every underhanded tactic he can come up with to sink Mike's production.
Expy: The Dr. Magic show at which Mike tries to get a job is a reference to the less-than-stellar 1978 Dr. Strange TV movie.
Film Within a Film: Footage from many of Jittlov's short films can be seen at one point or another, and of course, there is the title film itself.
- The television special for which Mike makes his film.
- Mudwrestlers From Mars and the other Grade-Z films which Bookman produced.
Homage: The "acceleration" montage right before the Banana Peel has been reproduced by a couple of big-budget films.
"I Am" Song: A different one is used in the remake of the short, probably because of rights issues.
Incredibly Lame Pun: From the trailer: at the end a list of the features of the film (including dancing and romancing) with appropriate clips comes "fencing" -- as we see footage of Mike climbing a chain-link security gate.
Magic Realism: Film Magic Realism, even.
Meaningful Name: Two characters are given names related to cigarettes: Lucky Straeker, Bookman's director, and Dora Belair, an assistant to a competing show's producer. According to Mike Jittlov, "Everyone in Hollywood gets burned."
- And then there are the cops and their police dog: Mickey Polanko, Minnie Smith, and Pluto.
Memetic Outfit: Mike Jittlov is dressed throughout the film in his trademark green jacket and sneakers.
Montage: After the Wizard bypasses the mob of girls looking for a lift and before he hits the Banana Peel, there is a rapid sequence of still photos of landscapes into which the camera zooms, one after another. Each frame of this montage is loaded with subliminal messages.
- The completion of the "Time" segment with Cindy's help is shown in a Creation Sequence.
Pixilation
Robe and Wizard Hood
The Runt At the End: The smallest marching tripod in the movie studio. Also the birdlike clapboard.
Security Cling: The Wizard's passenger during her ride.
Self-Deprecation: Jittlov as the judge who gives the Wizard the 9.7 score -- and then gets beaten about the head and shoulder by the other judges.
Shout-Out: The film set into which the Wizard falls is inside the castle in the Magic Kingdom -- a tip of the hat to the show on which the film originally appeared.
Show Their Work
Special Effects Failure: Seen throughout as examples of the work of pretty much anyone other than Jittlov. Especially the films of Harvey Bookman.
- Oddly both expressed and averted by the entire film itself. According to Jittlov, the film as released was an incomplete work print, with several effects sequencess still under refinement. Also, some scenes are noticeably of a lower image quality than others, and may be interpolations of footage from dailies where final footage did not exist.
Stop Motion: Explored -- the Creation Sequences we see reveal just how much work really goes into the kind of films Mike makes.
Take That: In-universe: Among the discarded film cans Mike and Brian have to "steal" are several with the names of Harvey Bookman films on them.
Truth in Television: Richard Kaye did not only play a producer in the film, he was the producer of the film, and when it was complete, he fled the country with every dollar he could extract from the production, and every physical object of value that wasn't nailed down. The contract Jittlov had with him turned out to leave him with practically nothing.