The 48 Hour Film Challenge and What Became Of It....
Well, I would've posted earlier, but on Monday I was still tired and refusing to do anything constructive at all. I surfed the net for a short period of time, but that was it. Then there is always work so this is the first opportunity to really make an entry about last weekend.
So, how did the 48 hour film competition go? Well, I'll tell you....
I was very glad to be working on something and getting my hands back on my camera. (I love my camera). And I was also glad to not be directing. I just wanted to relax and kind of shoot my footage and do some editing.
I got to Grand Rapids and unloaded all of my stuff. I would be crashing with a friend so that I wouldn't have to drive back and forth or get a room somewhere. Which was a good thing, but they had a cat. I am VERY allergic to cats. And guess what? The cat decided that it liked me. I hoped my allergies would not be too bad.
The requirements for the competition were:
Genre: Film Noir
FILM NOIR!!!! Oh NO!!! The only thing I know about Film Noir is that I've seen the b&w film 'Sunset Boulevard'. I know Bogart and Cagney did films of that kind. And I was under the understanding that 'Reservoir Dogs' was a modern Film Noir. Other than that, I was at a loss. The director and I both looked at each other kind of lamenting the genre, but that was what we had.
Character Name: Sabrina Matzo
What the hell kind of name is Sabrina Matzo? I got nothing. Nothing.
The line of dialogue: "My blood type is O Positive."
Blink, blink. Blink, blink.
And the kicker....
The Prop: A bowl of oatmeal
The film could be no longer than five minutes from first video or frame to end of end credits.
Okay, my eyes were glazing over. Crazy dialogue, and oatmeal for a prop! Give me a break!!
Well, this is what we have. Let's get going.
My director had a writing group that he met with regularly and we started brainstorming ideas to get the script pulled together. We all were throwing out ideas. I was a little concerned with the fact that it seemed as if the bowl of oatmeal was going to be a recurring theme in the film. I kind of saw it as being only a prop. Like a chair. However, the oatmeal turned out to be more important to the story than I thought it was going to be.
Somewhere around 9:00p on Friday, I got a chance to go to our first location, which was the kitchen of the woman who would be Sabrina Matzo. A very nice person, she was. She also had a cat. I was gonna die from allergies! Anyway, we took pictures of the kitchen from all angles and I began to try to figure out the best ways to shoot the scenes.
When I got back there was a script written and being streamlined into something that would be no longer than five minutes. I started looking at the script and was getting some ideas as to how to edit this once it was shot. When everything began to slow down for the evening, and people began to leave, it was a bit quieter and I looked over the script to see how to edit it into something cool. The script was pretty good and would work for the five minutes required.
I began to get an idea of how it could be edited and wrote out what I thought would help, but about here was when I began to get really tired. So we got some sleep, because we would have to be up by 6:00am.
SATURDAY
We needed to shoot night scenes, but we couldn't wait for nightfall, so our most excellent producer found these boxes that covered the windows almost perfectly. Only the bottom needed to be covered to keep the daylight out.
We needed a gun. Our fearless leader knew people in theater and with some phone calls was able to find not only a gun, but a friend of his who was a theater coach. Pretty cool. So was the fact that we would also find our two 'police officers' through the coach.
Once everyone was there, we started shooting. We had some good shots, but one problem was that there were so many people in the area. Of course, everyone wants to see what is going on. The problem didn't arise until we got to view the actual footage which was on Sunday.
Anyway, we cut holes in the cardboard and put our cameras through the holes, then covered the spaces around the holes and cameras with tin foil. The camera people, myself and another of the crew, were FREEZING! and its bright outside, so it is important that the foil be on tightly and taped. The next thing I learned is that: You can't really pan or tilt your camera very well when its taped and tin foiled. Oh, well, guerilla filmmaking, its fantastic!
It wasn't until after the shoot that I figured out how much I was being effected by the cats. My eyes were smarting and watering a bit, but I thought that it was lack of sleep.
Okay, once these were shot, we went to our second location to shoot the 'interrogation scene'. We got very expressive faces to be in our film. I think we were lucky. And our 'Sabrina Matzo' was a very good sport. Poor baby had alot of chocolate syrup 'blood' in her hair.
After we were done with the shooting, which was around 1:00am or so, I was so tired. I have been experiencing some insomnia over that last few weeks and it didn't help leading up to the competition, but I was willing to help do what we had to do. However, we wrapped for the night.
Go To Next Post
-- spinner
Well, I would've posted earlier, but on Monday I was still tired and refusing to do anything constructive at all. I surfed the net for a short period of time, but that was it. Then there is always work so this is the first opportunity to really make an entry about last weekend.
So, how did the 48 hour film competition go? Well, I'll tell you....
I was very glad to be working on something and getting my hands back on my camera. (I love my camera). And I was also glad to not be directing. I just wanted to relax and kind of shoot my footage and do some editing.
I got to Grand Rapids and unloaded all of my stuff. I would be crashing with a friend so that I wouldn't have to drive back and forth or get a room somewhere. Which was a good thing, but they had a cat. I am VERY allergic to cats. And guess what? The cat decided that it liked me. I hoped my allergies would not be too bad.
The requirements for the competition were:
Genre: Film Noir
FILM NOIR!!!! Oh NO!!! The only thing I know about Film Noir is that I've seen the b&w film 'Sunset Boulevard'. I know Bogart and Cagney did films of that kind. And I was under the understanding that 'Reservoir Dogs' was a modern Film Noir. Other than that, I was at a loss. The director and I both looked at each other kind of lamenting the genre, but that was what we had.
Character Name: Sabrina Matzo
What the hell kind of name is Sabrina Matzo? I got nothing. Nothing.
The line of dialogue: "My blood type is O Positive."
Blink, blink. Blink, blink.
And the kicker....
The Prop: A bowl of oatmeal
The film could be no longer than five minutes from first video or frame to end of end credits.
Okay, my eyes were glazing over. Crazy dialogue, and oatmeal for a prop! Give me a break!!
Well, this is what we have. Let's get going.
My director had a writing group that he met with regularly and we started brainstorming ideas to get the script pulled together. We all were throwing out ideas. I was a little concerned with the fact that it seemed as if the bowl of oatmeal was going to be a recurring theme in the film. I kind of saw it as being only a prop. Like a chair. However, the oatmeal turned out to be more important to the story than I thought it was going to be.
Somewhere around 9:00p on Friday, I got a chance to go to our first location, which was the kitchen of the woman who would be Sabrina Matzo. A very nice person, she was. She also had a cat. I was gonna die from allergies! Anyway, we took pictures of the kitchen from all angles and I began to try to figure out the best ways to shoot the scenes.
When I got back there was a script written and being streamlined into something that would be no longer than five minutes. I started looking at the script and was getting some ideas as to how to edit this once it was shot. When everything began to slow down for the evening, and people began to leave, it was a bit quieter and I looked over the script to see how to edit it into something cool. The script was pretty good and would work for the five minutes required.
I began to get an idea of how it could be edited and wrote out what I thought would help, but about here was when I began to get really tired. So we got some sleep, because we would have to be up by 6:00am.
SATURDAY
We needed to shoot night scenes, but we couldn't wait for nightfall, so our most excellent producer found these boxes that covered the windows almost perfectly. Only the bottom needed to be covered to keep the daylight out.
We needed a gun. Our fearless leader knew people in theater and with some phone calls was able to find not only a gun, but a friend of his who was a theater coach. Pretty cool. So was the fact that we would also find our two 'police officers' through the coach.
Once everyone was there, we started shooting. We had some good shots, but one problem was that there were so many people in the area. Of course, everyone wants to see what is going on. The problem didn't arise until we got to view the actual footage which was on Sunday.
Anyway, we cut holes in the cardboard and put our cameras through the holes, then covered the spaces around the holes and cameras with tin foil. The camera people, myself and another of the crew, were FREEZING! and its bright outside, so it is important that the foil be on tightly and taped. The next thing I learned is that: You can't really pan or tilt your camera very well when its taped and tin foiled. Oh, well, guerilla filmmaking, its fantastic!
It wasn't until after the shoot that I figured out how much I was being effected by the cats. My eyes were smarting and watering a bit, but I thought that it was lack of sleep.
Okay, once these were shot, we went to our second location to shoot the 'interrogation scene'. We got very expressive faces to be in our film. I think we were lucky. And our 'Sabrina Matzo' was a very good sport. Poor baby had alot of chocolate syrup 'blood' in her hair.
After we were done with the shooting, which was around 1:00am or so, I was so tired. I have been experiencing some insomnia over that last few weeks and it didn't help leading up to the competition, but I was willing to help do what we had to do. However, we wrapped for the night.
Go To Next Post
-- spinner