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watch "Road Kill" - 48 Hour Film Project Entry

Will Vincent

Will Vincent

Here's a link to the HD version of the film myself and a team of 7 others made for the 2008 Minneapolis 48 hour film project...

Required Elements:
Character -- Mr. Perkinson (Substitute Teacher)
Line of Dialog -- "You look very familiar"
Prop -- A fish

Team genre: Road Movie

Shot with a naked canon HV20.

http://vimeo.com/1186238

2637561739_8401bc2156_m.jpg
 
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Hehe. Great use of sound effects and lighting to make up for lack of available resources. Speaking of resources, what do you use as a resource for sound effects?

It still amazes me at what can get accomplished in 48 hours when I am still struggling to put something together after several months. I'll get there eventually.
 
Most of the effects were from some Sound Ideas libraries.. Though several sounds were already recorded along with the dialog, car doors, etc..
 
Great job, Will. I loved the lighting. Give my compliments to the actors and writers, also. They did a great job. The story and dialog were entertaining and the acting was top notch.

You also did a great job with the sound.

Thanks for sharing that.
 
Nice work, Will.

I worked on on last weekend. Got called at the last second to
shoot it. Our biggest mistake was allowing actors who weren’t
good at improv to improvise. And not using actors really hurt us
too.

Good acting made this one really stand out.

Did your team write the script and lock it before shooting?

I’m thinking of creating a team for the next one here in L.A. - we
had such a good time and I loved the challenge and restrictions
we faced.
 
Doug -- Thanks, this was the first time I've ever really been fully in charge of lighting. ;) (I was wearing a lot of hats on this project)

Rik -- Friday night the five of us on the crew brainstormed the story, and then hammered out the rough script, then the director/writer sat up for several more hours that night doing a rewrite and putting in the dialog he had been writing while we sat around and talked the story out.

Basically, one writer wrote the general framework, the other wrote the dialog, and then when he put the dialog in he tightened up the story a bunch.

We did allow the actors to improv a little bit, but in that regard, Sasha (the passenger in the car) is hands down the best actor I've worked with in town... and Tim (the driver) is the guy I work with when I'm DJing, he's been an MC for many many years, and improv is a big part of his job. Ultimately though, the majority of the story -- including dialog -- was already written.

If you're interested... Here's the script we used on the shoot. Surprisingly enough, the entire 8 and a half pages fit within the 7 minute time limit. :)
 
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VPTurner said:
Thanks for posting the script. I was interested. Now I'd love to see diagrams of your lighting setup.
Click to expand...

Well I didn't make any for the shoot, but I'll see if I can sketch something up a little later. Just about to head out for the premiere.

EDIT: Here's a couple production stills that will give you some idea...





150w halogen's on either side of the car, for a little fill, a 500w halogen on the corner of the desk behind Carol (not visible in the photo) fluorescent shop lights on either side of the car, 3 500w halogen's on the right (hidden behind the pallet rack in this photo), another 250w visible on the right in front of the pallet rack. a 250 and a 500w on a short light stand for the "headlights", hooked to a dimmer pack, and 2 120watt red flood lights, along with a 500watt halogen behind a piece of red gel for the "tail lights" (visible in the second photo)

additionally there is a 60w compact fluorescent scoop light between the two front seats of the car for car interior light. The flashlight that appears in the two shots by the tire was a practical light -- small LED flashlight.

There was also a very large overhead lamp off to the right that couldn't be shut off -- so I used it as the motivation for the light set up, playing it as the "moon" and adding the rest of the lights to bump the exposure level up, and fill in some of the shadows. That's basically it, the lights didn't get moved much, the fluorescents on either side were moved closer or further as needed for different shots, but otherwise everything stayed put.

I think there were some extra overhead lights on in the photos...

I shot 24p, with a shutter speed of 1/48. Every shot was somewhere between f2.8 and f4... we honestly could have used a lot more light, it would have been nice to have a 2k for the key, and maybe a 1k for a hair light, but we didn't have the lights, or the gear for rigging them where they should have ideally been placed.

Hope that helps some. ;)
 
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Interesting that you were able to mix halogen and flourescent. My last attempt to do so had unfavorable results because I was white balanced to the halogens and the flourescents had a green cast. Did you gel the flourescents?

I am at work, so it may be my monitor, but is that black felt? It actually looks purple. I have a full roll of black felt for this very purpose (and other flagging/cutting tasks - I am going to glue some black felt to one side of some white foam core so it can play double-duty).

I like your DIY dolly. That is also on my project list. How much weight do you think it can hold with the plastic PVC rails?
 
VPTurner said:
Interesting that you were able to mix halogen and flourescent. My last attempt to do so had unfavorable results because I was white balanced to the halogens and the flourescents had a green cast. Did you gel the flourescents?

I am at work, so it may be my monitor, but is that black felt? It actually looks purple. I have a full roll of black felt for this very purpose (and other flagging/cutting tasks - I am going to glue some black felt to one side of some white foam core so it can play double-duty).

I like your DIY dolly. That is also on my project list. How much weight do you think it can hold with the plastic PVC rails?
Click to expand...

I didn't gel the fluorescents, no.. I used "Cool White" bulbs, which are fairly close in color temperature to the halogens, and then just let the camera auto white balance.. to be honest, I didn't even think about the white balance at all while shooting -- really it doesn't matter because it can always be color corrected anyway.

It's not felt, it's actually like a polar fleece type of material.. It is in fact black, though the still camera picked it up as a purplish brown -- the lower piece more so than the upper. I didn't bother to adjust to colors and levels on the stills, but I think that coloring is due to the overhead metal halide bulbs..

As for the dolly.. I've not tested it, but I would guess it can EASILY hold several hundred pounds. With a tripod, crane, camera, counter balance and camera op on board that's definitely in the 200+ lbs range, and it still glides effortlessly on the track. It can literally be moved with one finger. Knightly has some video of that around here somewhere, though since that video was made I've beefed up the dolly some too, we were having issues initially with the deck bowing, so I added some 2x4 reinforcements, and it's rock solid now. :)
 
Will Vincent said:
Well I didn't make any for the shoot, but I'll see if I can sketch something up a little later. Just about to head out for the premiere.

EDIT: Here's a couple production stills that will give you some idea...





150w halogen's on either side of the car, for a little fill, a 500w halogen on the corner of the desk behind Carol (not visible in the photo) fluorescent shop lights on either side of the car, 3 500w halogen's on the right (hidden behind the pallet rack in this photo), another 250w visible on the right in front of the pallet rack. a 250 and a 500w on a short light stand for the "headlights", hooked to a dimmer pack, and 2 120watt red flood lights, along with a 500watt halogen behind a piece of red gel for the "tail lights" (visible in the second photo)

additionally there is a 60w compact fluorescent scoop light between the two front seats of the car for car interior light. The flashlight that appears in the two shots by the tire was a practical light -- small LED flashlight.

There was also a very large overhead lamp off to the right that couldn't be shut off -- so I used it as the motivation for the light set up, playing it as the "moon" and adding the rest of the lights to bump the exposure level up, and fill in some of the shadows. That's basically it, the lights didn't get moved much, the fluorescents on either side were moved closer or further as needed for different shots, but otherwise everything stayed put.

I think there were some extra overhead lights on in the photos...

I shot 24p, with a shutter speed of 1/48. Every shot was somewhere between f2.8 and f4... we honestly could have used a lot more light, it would have been nice to have a 2k for the key, and maybe a 1k for a hair light, but we didn't have the lights, or the gear for rigging them where they should have ideally been placed.

Hope that helps some. ;)
Click to expand...

Those pictures are freaking awesome.

I would have been happy as hell to be around all that film stuff going on.
 
oh yeah, we built that dolly for the 48 last year. The guy holding the rope in the background is sasha from will's 48 this year. The thing we're shooting here is "9th Life".
 
Great work, Will!

I'm going to download how to make that dolly! And yes! Good lighting!

Maybe a few of us from IT should get together next year and do a 48hr Challenge!


-- spinner :cool:
 
Incidentally... Road Kill earned it's first set of laurels today. I received a call from one of the smaller festivals I submit to, and it's an official selection. :)
 
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