It was made by students Jon Chow, Dan Reich and Brittany Davies. They’re not tax professionals (they’re students) but their movie made me laugh. So, I caught up with them and asked them a few questions. Enjoy!
1. Where are you now?
Brittany: 49o 16’01.16″ N, 123o 14’50.65″ W
Jonathan: What she said.
Daniel: Touring Nabraska with my heavy metal band called Guns, Knives and other weapons?
2. What’s your official title and what does it mean?
J: the official title is Vanier What the Film. It is a program we are organizing for our residence area at the University.
B: RA – Residence Advisor.
D: FP –Fun Police
3. What books are on your night stand?
J: Fluid Mechanics, Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Rocks and Minerals, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals, Into The Wild
B: Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
D: First Year Textbooks, some star wars novels, Harry Potter, and my diary. Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Shoots and Scores (hockey edition) and What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles as well.
4. What is your dream job?
B: The triple ‘P’ threat – Publisher/Photographer/Poet
J: A professional food taster. That might just be because I’m hungry.
D: For the sake of also “P”ing I would say professional procrastinator. Maybe a politician.
5. What’s the last movie that you saw (DVD or in the theatre)?
J: Most of Die Hard 2. I think I have like 40min left.
B: A Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down
D: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
6. How did you get involved in movie making?
J: Procrastination.
B: I think it started with a spontaneous Spice Girls dance routine in the third grade, but I could be wrong.
D: Divine intervention?
7. What’s the best tax or financial advice that anyone ever gave you?
B: Money can’t buy happiness.
J: Unless it’s in the form of candy.
D: but it can be exchanged for goods and services!
8. Coffee or tea?
J: Definitely Tea, Peppermint, Chamomile, Jasmine, Honey and Lemon.
B: Honey Lemon Ginseng Green, or Chai
D: Coffee?
9. Name five artists on your iPod (or mp3 player).
J: Semisonic, Stabilo, Boston, The Fray, Crash Test Dummies
B: The Aggrolites, The Barenaked Ladies, Dave Matthews Band, Modest Mouse, The Slackers
D: Sonata Arctica, Weezer, Gypsy Kings, Nobuo Uematsuo, Will Smith
10. What would I be surprised to know about you?
B: I can solve a rubiks cube.
J: I can’t. But I can tell you about rocks.
D: That I am actually a really nice guy. Sometimes people get the idea that because I wear a box that says taxes on it, I’m bad, but really without me we wouldn’t have many of the public services and goods that we take for granted.
11. What college do or did you attend (in what subject)?
J: University of British Columbia – Geological Enginerring.
B: University of British Columbia – English Major
D: UBC (Computer Engineering)
12. Who would you count as your inspirations in the media field?
B: Tim Burton, Kenneth Branagh
J: Cookie Monster, Swedish Chef and Snuffleupagus
D: Don Cherry, Simon Cowell, Charles Barkley, Chris Berman, Leonidus
13. What’s the best thing on TV right now?
J: The Food Network. Discovery Channel – How it’s made and Mythbusters
B: Not the writer’s strike (The Office)
D: Televised Hockey, and bosom buddies circa 1980 starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari
14. What inspired “How To Evade Taxes”?
J: We thought that “tax evasion” should be against the rules for making the movies for the contest, so we were bored that weekend and figured we would make a movie breaking our own rule.
B: Dan and Jon, pure silliness, the equivalent of cabin fever for students in residence
D: It seemed like the right thing to do at the time I guess… maybe it was supposed to be a social critique saying how as a society we try to fight taxes, however inevitably taxes continue to chase us. No matter what we do, however many times we manage to “kick” “taxes” “in the groin”, taxes always manage to “get back up” and the chase continues. Overall, the movie tries to increase awareness in a new lifestyle available to our society, one which chooses to co-exist with taxes. Rather than continually battle against one another, we should seek peace and harmony with our taxes.
15. I know that you’re Canadian but if Uncle Sam handed you a huge refund check right now, what would you do with it?
J: Invest.
B: Pay my tuition, buy new heating for my res building
D: Smile and say thank you, Uncle Sam, then promptly give it to my parents because honestly what would I do with money?
16. What are your plans for the future… More movies? Your own studio?
J: Finish school. Get a job. Make movies for fun. I don’t think we deserve a studio. But it would be fun.
B: Publishing another set of books with my company OrangeShirt Publications, going to Spain and doing some photography work.
D: That would be awesome. I don’t make plans because I rarely follow through.
17. And, other than taxgirl, what’s your favorite web site?
J: Craigslist.
D: There are other websites besides taxgirl? http://www.chichi.vze.com/
Thanks for playing along, guys, and good luck!