Chumps & Gertie: A Streetcar Romance from Brink on Vimeo.

The whole Modern Streetcar thing seems to be working out better than nearly anyone (other than Steve Farley, perhaps) expected and part of that seems to be the fact that our city has embraced the vehicle's ability to make the corridor that it travels seems like one cohesive place. When you don't have to get in and out of your car, find a space to park, etc. etc., Main Gate Square and the Mercado basically seem adjacent to each other.

In that spirit, the super clever folks at Brink put together a short film featuring the slice of Tucson along the Streetcar route, themed around a Harold Lloyd-style silent film romance. It's as charming as it sounds.

Brink's website has a recap of how they put the video together:

When we first were approached to pitch a concept for a video about the Tucson Streetcar, we were just one month away from opening day (which was slated for July 25th).

On June 26th, we met with the Friends of the Streetcar and collectively decided we couldn’t just do a slideshow. Whatever we did had to have “big city sizzle.” So what was originally just a gig that required collecting unique images had now become a huge project.

We hashed out some ideas, hit some roadblocks with the approval process and then finally on July 14th we got the green light for a proposed film (a slapstick comedy, following a smitten boy’s mad dash along the streetcar route). Now the big work would really begin. Our team was tasked with permitting, casting, scripting, filming and editing a film that highlighted each of the Sun Link stops, captured the character of the city and showcased the streetcar experience, to be viewed on projectors at the launch parties.

The result of our efforts would be a 10 minute film that used storytelling and humor to introduce the streetcar to the public. It had the charm only a local firm based in the city could capture and we executed it at a pace few could match.