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R.E.L.A.R.P.
Reality-Enhanced Live Action Role-Playing
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RELARP is a short mockumentary I wrote music for, about a LARP club at the University of New Hampshire that takes things to the next level by becoming "reality enhanced" (i.e. allowing actual violence). This was a student film by Cade Harstedt and Nate Lord. (Cade also made Mr. Moosey Meets Snowball).
In RELARP, people who get tired of a "fake" live action roleplaying game with foam swords decide to start punching each other in the face. I think this is a very clever idea for a short film. It has of echoes of professional wrestling and kayfabe. The imagery also feels weirdly prescient; it makes me think of that viking hat-wearing protester in the 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Anyway, this short didn't necessarily need music, but I'm glad they had me write a little for it, because it's my favorite part: the relarp-ers solemnly agree that they are "against the sissy larpers" and raise their "swords" in unison. The music gives the surreal procedure a strange, solemn weight.
Like that movie This Is Spinal Tap, these people and this club aren't real, but they could be.
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