archived-videos "Missing You" - San Jose 48 Hour Film Project

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Just realized I haven't posted any films in a while - I think we've got a backlog of 7-8 films from the past year that are finished except for one or two little things. This one didn't need much, so I just got it posted today - it was our entry in the San Jose 48 Hour Film Project from this past July. Our assigned genre was "Suspense/Thriller" and a barbecue utensil was the required prop. Best watched alone, in a darkened room, full screen with the sound turned up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9ZtE-NM_oM

We picked up Best Acting in a Female Role, Best Acting in a Male Role, and Best Direction; we were also nominated for Best Picture.

Here's the thing though - we had a slight conflict. They changed the dates on us, and half my team (basically the technical half) was signed up for an all-day cinematography workshop on Sunday. Since we were already signed up for the competition too we decided to give it a shot anyway and see what we could do in 24 hours instead of 48.

So we set out to essentially eliminate as much of the post process as possible... and by the time we were finished we'd spent just 18 hours on the entire project, from concept to completion. As we were putting the story together and trying to simplify it as much as possible we literally hit a point where we just said f*ck it - let's just screw with the audience. And yet somehow at the screening the audience loved it. We've put a lot more work into other films that didn't go over nearly as well as this one did - I guess the lesson is you just never know exactly what might resonate with an audience.

As usual any feedback is greatly appreciated - positive or negative.

 

[Cracker Funk]

That was great, I really liked it! The actress really is terrific.

I love the way that you simplified the 48HFP process by making the whole darn thing with just two shots!

The only negative that struck me was that I couldn't figure out why the dude wouldn't just call 9-11, himself. But then again, horror movies are rife with people behaving stupidly, so I guess it fits the genre.

Nice work!

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

Great job! Very suspenseful, strange, and creepy. I want to see more!

The one thing that bothered me (besides the 9-1-1 thing that Cracker mentioned) was the pacing. It felt too long. Not that I don't like slow pacing in it, but I could see certain people getting bored and giving up on the film.

Anyway, awesome job!

 

[IndiePaul]

Great concept. Great execution.

One of the best shorts I have seen here on IT.

The final audience-shock at 6.32 or so was great - would have shook up the theater. Great job.

What could have been improved?

Others have said the 911 aspect, I agree.

Also when she initially went to check outside, her boyfriend kinda laughed a bit when he told her not to go. That wasn't realistic.

I also think he should have escalated things faster, been more concerned faster, changed his voice tone, raised his voice etc faster.

And the double intruder bit - I didn't buy that, thought it was a bit too much of a cheesy plot ploy. It was a great story with the single intruder - two weakened it for me.

But overall, great job. Stunning that you managed to do it all in under 24 hours.

 

[ItDonnedOnMe]

Thanks for the feedback, glad you guys enjoyed it.

I love the way that you simplified the 48HFP process by making the whole darn thing with just two shots!

Yeah, that was my primary goal - generally the second day of these is entirely post for us, so I just figured if we could eliminate the entire editing process it would streamline things quite a bit. It also meant we only had a single set-up - well, technically two, but both were running at the same time in different rooms of the house so it felt like one. We actually had skype set up and running between the two rooms so that they could play off of each other more naturally.

Of course normally doing a long take would require a lot of choreography and planning, so this seemed like the easiest way to keep it super simple. I think we ended up running about six full takes, as well as a couple partial ones, and I'm pretty sure we used the final one.

The only negative that struck me was that I couldn't figure out why the dude wouldn't just call 9-11, himself. But then again, horror movies are rife with people behaving stupidly, so I guess it fits the genre.

Well he's out of state, so calling 911 would get him local emergency services, and not necessarily help her if she was in real trouble... right?

Ok, that's a bit of retcon... we just wanted to keep it simple, and him calling 911 would have complicated things. We decided just what you said - people do stupid things in horror films, and we figured he might still be slightly uncertain about whether she was still messing with him or not.

It felt too long. Not that I don't like slow pacing in it, but I could see certain people getting bored and giving up on the film.

That's a definite concern, and I think this one really works best in a theater where the audience can't click away. I honestly wasn't even sure if that would fly at first, but the audience reacted really well to it. Considering we actually tried to piss off the audience by leaving so much unresolved I have to say it was surprising they liked it so much. I think part of it might be that it's rare to see the suspense/thriller genre done subtly in a 48 hour project, so most of the time they aren't actually all that suspenseful and tend towards more over the top horror. We played with that a bit with the part where she's faking it, having her deliberately over play it at the level that would normally be common in a 48 hour horror film.

I also think he should have escalated things faster, been more concerned faster, changed his voice tone, raised his voice etc faster.

It's interesting, in the first couple runs through that's exactly what he did, and I actually had him scale it back a bit so it built longer. The problem was that once he hit a certain level there wasn't anywhere to go without it starting to become too over the top and comical. Which was related to...

And the double intruder bit - I didn't buy that, thought it was a bit too much of a cheesy plot ploy. It was a great story with the single intruder - two weakened it for me.

We added that in once we decided to go in a slightly more supernatural direction, rather than it being just an intruder. It also gave us an out - if we'd kept him on screen much longer it really would have been hard to explain why he wasn't able to call the police or do anything effective. We wanted to leave the ending completely unresolved, but I just wasn't sure how to do it and keep him around.

It would be interesting to revisit this one again sometime, go back and take some time to try and see what we could do with more time to write and think through the story. Probably won't happen though - too busy, too many other projects to tackle. Part of the appeal of the 48 for me is that once the weekend is over, so is the film.

 

[Jack Lynt]

Great job. And congratulations on the awards.