Just did the Boston 48hr

M1chae1

M1chae1

Hey. I always write a book...I know, I'm sorry.

Finished up our short for the Boston 48hr Film Festival yesterday. Oh man, what a hardcore few days and nights. I worked with Bakerstreet Productions (team name Steaming Tenders). They are a tight company that has recently put out their first feature 'SUNSHINE AWAY' and just wrapped principle on their second feature '3RD SHIFT.' Great company, very cool guys and gals.

Not sure how many of you are familiar with how the 48hr festivals work, so I'll give a brief run-down. Each team is given a character name & title, a prop, and a line of dialog. Each team then selects randomly a genre...once they've drawn their genre, they head back to begin script writing. Genres are given out 7pm on Friday, and the finished short is to be turned in at 7:30 on Sunday. This is a hugely popular festival, many of the 50 states host. When you move up the ranks (Best Film, or whatver), you move up to the National Competitions...it's a great situation.

The character: Mary or Marty Quinzetti (I can't remember the exact last name) and their title is 'Second in Command).

The prop: A magnet

The line of dialog: "Yes! I mean I hope so."

Our genre pick: Sci-Fi


So, we tossed our genre over to our two writers, these two fabulous girls that work for a marketing company...friends of the production team, and they got to work. Early Saturday morning they send us the script, and it was awesome. We got to work.

Long story short...the film turned out beautiful. Amazing quality, very high production value, great cast, super great original music...all fantastic...

One problem...we were running late so we transferred an early copy to tape (pre sound design, music, and credits) and sent them off to turn in the film just in case (you can replace media if it's still before the deadline).

Well, it turns out that our second copy--the final polished version--was 15 minutes late...so we decided to take ourself out of the competition (no candidate for awards), and enter our polished version as a late entry (which can only win audience choice). I'm totally cool with that. We are still screened in the normal fashion, we just cant win Best Film, Best Editing, etc...

Our film is called BLINK. It's a very cool story about a man who from time to time will blink, and time travel randomly to specific events. This ability turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing. When the Youtube version comes out, I'll post a thread.

What did we learn? We learned that Adobe Premiere (CS4) sucks...it crashed on us all the time. We need to get a MAC and Final Cut. It's a wonderfully laid out program, very powerful...but it's buggy as hell. It crashed at least once an hour...sometimes more.

Did anyone else work the 48hr this weekend?

Thanks everyone.
 
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Too bad you didn't meet the deadline. But doing that
compitition is fun, isn't it?

I worked on my very first one last June. On the Thursday
before the start I got a call from a woman whose DP
dropped out. I jumped on it and had a blast! We got sci-fi,
too. We were rolling tape by 11PM on Friday.

I'm going to do it in L.A. again this year.

BTW - great story. If I got that as a pitch I'd read the script.
 
We're gearing up for the MPLS, MN 48 hr now (June 12-14). It's going to be an exciting year for us! Can't wait to see yours :)
 
Yah, be sure to post the videos when you're able to.

Good luck to everyone doing them. :cool:

Any ideas why CS4 was so buggy, btw? CS3 never crashed on me, though Premiere did get slow as molasses when jumping back & forth from AEFX.
 
It's really too bad you guys didn't make it in on time, but atleast you can stil win audience favorite!!


We also did the Boston 48. Genere: Tragedy

I have yet to see how it all came out, but we did it all in one shot! And not just the boring follow someone around for 5-mins one shot - we have flash backs.

The camera would be following two people and then pan to another area of the room where the flash back was taking place and a group of people who weren't there before would be sitting at a table or whatever along with one of the characters you just saw in the previous shot- in a different costume. We literally had seconds to run to a new location while changing costumes on the way and get ready for the next scene. The main character had 7 costume changes throughout the 6 min shot. It was crazy! Awesome, but crazy!

And you would think that doing it in would shot, would cut down on post right? Wrong - sound was a big issue, since we couldn't use wireless mics because of the costume changes and you could hear people running around the house to get into the next location, so that needed a lot of attention, but we did get it in on time - barely! They were literally counting down 5,4,3,2,1 - and we got it in on the '1'.

I just hope that it came out and looks as awesome as I think it does.



We screen Thursday at 7pm if anyone wants to come.
 
Sarah, I'm so excited to see your short on Thursday. That is a very cool, challenging thing to do for a 48hr (or any hour) festival. And knowing the director, I'm confident he will have pulled off a quality execution.
 
There's nothing wrong with CS4, crashing indicates computer issues... usually bad memory or poor video drivers.


But, on the more important topic... I think you made the right decision turning in the final product as a late entry. I think you're much better off presenting a better final product than rushing to get something sub-par turned in before the time deadline.
 
Will Vincent said:
There's nothing wrong with CS4, crashing indicates computer issues... usually bad memory or poor video drivers.


But, on the more important topic... I think you made the right decision turning in the final product as a late entry. I think you're much better off presenting a better final product than rushing to get something sub-par turned in before the time deadline.
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It's not driver issues or memory. Their computer was setup properly by a wiz. If you read ANY Adobe forum you'll see that tons of people have issues with crashing. Tons. Problems all over the place. It's not even funny how many complaints there are for Adobe Premiere (any version) on all kinds of different hardware configs.

All of our drivers were up-to-date, and our harddrives were all defragged and fresh.

Final Cut is just a much more stable program (as is the Mac OS).

We had a super long discussion about this...trust me. They are most likely going to sell their two super-computer PC's and get one powerful Mac and Final Cut (which I think is smart).

And thanks for the support. Yes, I agree. We put too much blood, sweat and tears into this to allow a sub-par film to show. We want to be proud of what we did...the final product is so well done, there's no way we could allow a rough cut be entered. It's just so crazy that 15 minutes halted us from proper entry.
 
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M1chae1 said:
It's just so crazy that 15 minutes halted us from proper entry.
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While I feel your pain, it is a timed competition, so any lateness of submission removing you from the competition portion is to be expected. But, to be honest, you're really not missing out on much. The best thing about the 48hr challenge besides forcing you to work outside your comfort zone to make a film you otherwise probably wouldn't make, and to do so quickly, is that it provides you with a captive audience to show the film to. ;)

As far as prizes and such go, you're really not missing much. The awards, unless you win the national competition -- which requires doing a couple more films (and paying the entry fees for those competitions) -- are not very impressive.

But, that said, it's still a worthwhile thing to do. If nothing else it's a great exercise in filmmaking, and a good way to spend a weekend.

I guess I must be one of the lucky ones I don't have any issues with cs4. My custom built machine runs flawlessly (and fast) and it's not crashed on me at all. But, I maintain that it's still a configuration issue, because I really don't have that great of luck. :lol:
 
To me the only reason to do this contest is to make a movie in the
allotted time. I can make a short film with no compromises
anytime I want. No need to pay the entry fee for the 48 hour
contest.

This year I’m going to make an original musical.

Now I could do that starting today, take as much time as needed
and do it right. But I want to challenge myself to see what I can
do in the time limit.

Sarah, your concept sound amazing! I look forward to seeing it.
 
directorik said:
To me the only reason to do this contest is to make a movie in the
allotted time. I can make a short film with no compromises
anytime I want. No need to pay the entry fee for the 48 hour
contest.

Sarah, your concept sound amazing! I look forward to seeing it.
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I do too!

And I agree with your reasonings behind making the films since, let's face it, the prizes aren't fantastic, even if you win best of your city - it's more about your own personal sense of accomplishment for getting it done and then the recognition from those in your area who saw it, especially if yours was good- since in all honestly the vast majority of them are "back-yard" films (atleast from what I've seen in the Boston and Prov ones) and there are really only a handful that look and sound professional and have good acting and story-lines and are a "real" movie or even worth the 7 mins it takes to watch it. But, in a way, it's nice that there's a mix since then everyone can see the different levels of filmmaking and what seperates those levels and so on...
 
Ya, last nights films were pretty dreadful. I don't mean to bash anyone, but I was disappointed in the 11 films I saw last night. Only 3 of the 11 were even worth watching. And all bias aside, our film BLINK was on an entirely different level than all the other films. I was really expecting more of a level playing field, from at least a few of them. But even the better ones didn't compare to our production value and professionalism.

Most of them really did look 'backyard'...I was hoping to be blown away by at least one of them...I mean this is Boston and there are 90 different teams, which means the city is crawling with film makers...but nope...natta one was original or high quality.

Everyone got a pink slip, and you chose three of your favorite films (ranking will not count). I wonder if we will receive 'Audience Choice'...I mean clearly ours was the best film...but I wonder if people (ie. other teams) purposefully didn't choose ours, so they could sway the Audience Choice Award. I know I didn't...I chose the ones that deserved it...but me thinks other teams won't be as fair.

If we do win 'Audience Choice'...our movie will screen at the final 'Best Of' night...which would be cool.

I don't mean to sound egotistical at all...I just couldn't believe that not a one out of the eleven were on the level...I was hoping for some kickass shorts...but all we got for the most part were overexposed handhelds, all of which used comedy as a crutch. Which is another thing...our film BLINK was the only film that was dead on serious...EVERY other team (even tragedy) used a bunch of cheap comic elements to try and cover up their short comings. I hate that aspect of this festival...stop using comedy as a crutch!
 
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M1chae1 said:
.EVERY other team (even tragedy) used a bunch of cheap comic elements to try and cover up their short comings. I hate that aspect of this festival...stop using comedy as a crutch!
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I agree with this statement...this is what appeared in 90% of the films last year in Detroit. We thought we'd probably be the only serious entry, and we thought this would win us awards. But if ever there was a competition that was rigged, it is this one (at least in Detroit.) It seems that in-jokes, boob shots (which I thought were prohibited), winks at the judges and crummy local humor was what won out in the end while serious stories and darker themes were sort of uncomfortably dismissed. And the audience award? It's an award for how well you can stack the audience.

And I'm about to enter again, because I LOVE the screenings...for me that's not the worst part, it's the best! I love seeing all the films, even the backyard, unbalanced white, shakey camcorder skateboard films with ninjas and bad wigs. The passion that comes out of the strangest places that weekend is what this competition is about. There are a zillion serious film festivals where all the entries are of the highest level, and those are great, too. But this is different...it's the Pigsknuckle, Arkansas Amateur Golf Open vs. The Masters.
 
directorik said:
In a way you two are pretty fortunate. You should see the Los Angeles entries....
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Fortunate in what way? That we get screened next to crap? I don't consider that fortunate at all. I would rather screen along-side professional work...

BLINK can hold it's own against any professional short...and that's what I wanted to see at the festival. We don't care about awards...we wanted to see some awesome stuff, by talented film makers. We don't care about winning...that's why we chose to submit late with a superior version.

I would LOVE to see the LA entries. And I would LOVE to compete in them.

Cheers.
 
M1chae1 said:
Fortunate in what way?
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Fortunate that you aren't competing with studio professionals
using hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment, studio
stages and backlots and name actors.

Just like you and Uranium City find it difficult to compete with in
jokes, cheap comic elements and winks at the judges, I found it
difficult to compete with movies using recognizable stars, the
Warner Bros. back lot and the set of "CSI". There is nothing wrong
with challenging competition. I'm sorry you misunderstood my point.

Though I was pleased that the "Audience Favorite" last year here
in L.A. was one of the "backyard" productions. Poor production
value, spotty audio, very rushed, but clever and inventive.
 
No I didn't misunderstand your point...I think I was right on it.

IMHO, I don't think big budget production companies should be allowed to enter. They should have their own 'competition.' I know I know...that's lame of me to say. But there has to be a way to make the playing fields at least some-what level.

Maybe a budget restriction?

Perhaps it's just not possible to create rules and disallow teams based on production commodities at hand and budget.

Hell what am I saying...I think a clever and resourceful team can produce a short just as well as a big budget firm...they just might not have a name in it, or impressive FX shots...but whatever...screening with the big boys is kinda fun that way.
 
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