PRODUCTION NOTES

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT $TACK$

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. Diahnna Nicole Baxter won the first Emmy Award ever given out for broadband content (web) as a producer on the series SATACRACY-88.
  1. $TACK$ 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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!

Download the $TACK$ Press Kit here:

PRESS KIT – $TACK$ Movie – (stacksmovie.com)