I did the Toronto one in June. It was an amazing experience. Check out our film at
www.superguncinema.com
It's in the "Films" section, called "Orange Crush". There's also a thread here, I believe. But I like making traffic.
Advice:
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-Get location forms BEFORE the competition. Find a variety of places (ie, restaurant, cafe, bookstore, bar, gym, laundrymat). The rules for us didn't say you couldn't do some pre-planning, so I got 3 locations to sign papers the week before and set up times. That way, we just figured out how to work the scenes into the locations and then arrived easy squeezy.
-Make a rough production schedule and post it on the wall in the "base camp". Allocate times to shoot at locations, outdoor night, outdoor day, pick-up shots, extra time, editing, BREAKS, etc. Figure it out before and it'll be a breeze.
-If you can, edit as you go. We would break into two teams, and while I would be shooting with Kirill and cast, Geoff would begin editing the previous sequence into order (or capturing it!). Beforehand, we decided the best way to extend the time would be a fancy opening sequence, so as soon as we got our challange pack, while myself and a few others sat down to write the script, another team went out to get some generic enviroment shots based on our challange pack. When they got back, Geoff began to assemble the opening sequence. By the time we shot the last scene, all he had to do was drop it in the timeline and start the final cut. That made it easier on the sound guy, who had to synch and mix as we went as well. With all the time we saved, Kirill drove back to his house and picked up his instruments, and we crafted an original score!
-surge protection for your computers. Can't stress it enough. Back up EVERYTHING.
-Get a good grip kit. Make sure you have an adaptor for lightbulbs. You know, the kind where you can screw in an adaptor and plug a plug into it. We had to shoot in a park with NO POWER, btu I managed to run a few extension cords and steal some power from a local porch light. It was very James Bond meets Bill nye the science guy. I love it.
-Make a sheet with 49 counting down and cross them off. IT's a good mental helper.
-Get as much stuff as you can before. Anything- swords, wigs, clown costumes, ponchos... the odder the better. If your challange pack allows you to use them, it'll make it seem all the better. If you don't- oh well, at least you'll FEEL prepared.
-Don't rush. Pacing is everything.
-If everyone is going to be in the same base camp the entire weekend, get AC. We had like 8 fans for 5 computers and 9 people in my tiny little 1-bedroom. Ouch. On the hottest weekend in June too!
-Get your pack at the pick up point and RUN. I was the first to grab my pack (looking like Johhny Depp in Leaving Las Vegas) and Geoff, Matt and I just RAN to the subway home. We got our intro sequence within the first two hours. the script was finished by midnight. We started shooting that night. All in all, Kevin, Geoff and I didn't sleep one hour. When talking to other teams though, I found that most of them went out the first night, got drunk, wrote thier "first draft", went home and slept, and then met the following morning. Only like 8 teams made the actual deadline so the organizers extended it. This made me mad because we didn't make the top ten (we were top twenty) and we WERE ON TIME. Oh well.
I can't think of anything else right now. Just have fun, keep it real, don't sleep, have fun, and be creative.
That's me story.
-Logan-