Watch a ‘Local’ Fan Film Based on Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly’s Graphic Novel [Video]
Serialized between 2005 and 2008 and available now as an uncommonly handsome hardcover collection from Oni Press, Local was one of the early definitive works of writer Brian Wood and artist Ryan Kelly. The 12-part series demonstrated Wood's devotion to the self-contained single-issue format, telling a new quirky and personal story in a distinctly different city with mostly fresh players in every issue. For Kelly, Local showed off his talents for creating remarkably detailed yet stylized environments and realistic female characters. Because of that structure and those aesthetic values, it's easy to read Local and imagine a black and white indie short film or two, and that's exactly what somebody has made out of one of the book's most memorable episodes, "Polaroid Boyfriend."In Wood and Kelly's story, Local's sometimes protagonist Megan finds herself involved with a young man in a most peculiar way. When Megan's not home, the guy lets himself in with a key she keeps on top of her doorframe and leaves a Polaroid picture of himself with a note written on the back. She leaves Polaroids and notes in return, and the process repeats. This constitutes the totality of their communication, at least until Megan confesses all of this to a concerned co-worker.
Directed by A.J. Meadows, the short "Polaroid Boyfriend" film is virtually a shot-for-shot recreation of Wood and Kelly's comic, and does a pretty good job of expressing the paradoxical creepy/cute nature of the affair. Check it out.