Our 48 Hour Film Project team was invited to another public screening of award winning films last night.
It took place at the Monkey's Tale, a bar with a nice outdoor patio area in Indianapolis.
Several other award-winning 48 Hour films also screened revised version of their films, so it was interesting to see the little changes that were made in the last month. It was also interesting to see a couple of films that weren't in our screening group. One of the films, Silent but Deadly, was created completely by novice filmmakers but still managed an audience award because what it lacked in production value it made up for in creativity. I think that's one of the coolest things about the 48 hour film project, a much more level playing field than other contests.
The Monkey's Tale set up a red carpet, a walk of fame with stars, and popcorn and movie candy. The films were projected outside on the building so people could also see them as they walked through Broad Ripple (the bar district).
We also got a chance to talk about our film for a bit and answer some questions.
It was nice to be invited to a screening, and thanks to Jae with Monkey's Tale for putting on this event. I hope it's a regular affair soon.
The screening of our film at the IMA went really well. The theater ended up being sold out and we had a huge group of people there supporting us. When our title slide came up on the screen, I could feel an air of tension among my group members. It was extremely gratifying to be in a crowded theater watching your work on the big screen, hearing people reacting and laughing. I see the appeal. Our film was definitely a stand out among our group, technically and from a story-telling perspective. We had a great time sitting in the IMA's cafe drinking cocktails while we waited for the awards to be decided.
Our film won one award - best musical score. We were so happy to win it because it took a lot of our time, and plus it was our first year participating, so we were glad we were able to snatch up something.
We're going to meet up and go back through the film to make it stronger and submit it to a few other small short comedy festivals and see what happens. Here's the final product as it was at 7 PM on August 1st:
Now I've been obsessing over little details I wish we had caught. It's so easy to let yourself get caught up in your mistakes. Overall, we put together a pretty solid little film for what we had at our disposal within the constraints of the competition. I kept it together pretty well this weekend and now that I'm sitting still, I can feel that my brain is a little tired. Here's a recap of the weekend as best I can remember it.
On Friday night, we met up at Starbucks and headed to the Kickoff. We were told to get there BY 6 PM which was lame since we didn't need to actually be there until 6:45 PM. So we waited and waited until the genre draw at 6:45. When our time came, Aaron stepped up and drew "fantasy" for us. We were so happy that we didn't grab film de femme because none of us can write strong female characters and we were seriously considering going for a wild card.
We rushed back to Starbucks where we camped out outside for the rest of the evening. As soon as we sat down I presented an idea I had and we went with it, scripting and creating a shot list until about midnight.
We met back at IUPUI at 8 am, followed shortly after by our crew. Except for our main character actor. We went to work setting up, getting everyone ready, trying to reach him, but every call went to voicemail and Facebook was quiet. We were more than a little worried at this point, because 10 AM was our targeted time to start shooting. Luckily, Josh managed to dig up a friend of his that was willing to come help us and he ended up being perfect - even more perfect than our original actor that flaked.
Our filming started off slow and sped up throughout the day. Most productions end up like that, which drives me insane. My favorite shot was a long tracking shot with the main character walking through a crowd of people. I got to direct this part and coordinate 10 different actors/extras at the same time, which was fun :D I was so thrilled by all the people that turned out to help us. Josh managed to convince 3 hair/makeup people to come and they were fantastic. A couple of my friends from high school showed up, one to be an extra, and one to be our fabulous still photographer for the morning part of the shoot. She did such an great job. The black and white stills in this blog entry were shot by her. You can see her work at mecampbellphotography.blogspot.com.
My mom and her friend brought us lunch around noon - fruit, chips, and subway platters, which was exactly what we needed. Nobody ever got moody from lack of food while we were shooting, which is a big achievement. We continued to shoot until about 8PM.
Katie and I set up to edit at around 2 and realized that we didn't have the appropriate capture cable. The new MacBook Pros don't have firewire 400 anymore. T____T A few phone calls later, we were on the road allll the way up to Fry's Electronics to purchase a firewire 800 to iLink cable. Luckily it didn't really hurt us at all in post production. It just added a few grey hairs to our heads.
There was a brief period where we thought we didn't have enough footage, which I now have an ulcer from, but we then realized were fine and moved forward, completing the rough cut just before midnight. My husband brought us pizza and wings to keep us going, which was also effing amazing. We basically finished the fine cut by 2 AM before getting kicked off campus by security.
We met again the next morning at noon and got to work on the music since that's the earliest we could meet up with the sound mixer/recordist who was absolutely amazing. He was with us for the entirety of our shoot, and I think he just might win VIP for our group. While the sound was mixed, Katie and I color balanced and graded the edit with Magic Bullet Looks, and rendered the timeline in full.
Once the sound and music was complete, we took the exported sound file and slapped it on my rendered timeline. We had some aspect ratio troubles on Saturday I soon found out, so we ended up with a 720x480 letterboxed file. Whatever, it was done at 6:45 PM. We left and drove to the drop off, and breathed a sigh of relief in completion of our work. There are minor fixes I'm going to make to the master copy of our work (like putting it back into 720p), but really the story is pretty strong and succinct, the color looks good, and it was turned in at 7:14 PM which means it was on time.
In the future, I will strongly advocate having multiple eyes looking at every step of the way. While you all trust each other, at the same time you have to consider the extreme circumstances. It's so much easier if multiple people are putting their collective observation skills in play when no one is operating on all cylinders.
Overall, it was a really good experience for us. I am really happy to have a core group of talented peers that are passionate about the same things I am. We had a lot of fun together, and if we don't win any awards, it's ok with me. Of course it'd be really nice to win something, but the experience, the memories, the photos, and then the screening will have been worth all the stress of putting the film together.
That being said, I'm really glad the next 48 Hour Film Project isn't for a year. HA.
If you're interested in coming to the screening on August 7th, our film will be in Group B at 7PM at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Toby Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online. We would really appreciate all the support of people coming to our screening (and voting for us for the audience award!), and seeing Pants Cannon Media's big-screen debut.
I'll be updating again after the screening with a copy of the finished film embedded and some more production stills. I re-exported in the correct aspect ratio with higher quality and asked if we could swap it out, but alas we cannot. At least we have a high resolution 720p file for ourselves, and to submit in other festivals.
Well, we've done everything we can possibly think to do in order to prepare ourselves for this competition. We're going into this as rookies to the project so we can expect some bumps and unpredictable things to occur. I really don't want to be rushing to the finish, swerving in and out of traffic, running in the doors and throwing the DVD to the judges in slowmo, overdramatic fashion.
In spite of the preparation, I can't help but be really anxious about this project. I'm a planner, and the fact we're going into a production weekend without even a script is KILLING me. I just want to get started right now and get it over with. I know we'll have a lot of fun and learn a lot about ourselves this weekend, and in between all that excitement is a tiny sense of impending doom.
Here's a little more philosophical buddha existentialism than I'm used to posting on this blog. I go to yoga regularly, and I have 5 classes I have to use by next Wednesday or they expire, so I've been to 2 classes this week already. I didn't plan my class usage very well. I'm sitting waiting for class to start right now, slightly dreading ANOTHER class this week. I love yoga, and it feels great especially after class, but sometimes during the class, usually in Warrior II pose, my feet cramp and I'm thinking "AUGH why didn't I go home and nap??" I would love to skip class and eat my raspberry ice cream sitting at home.
However, I'm glad I forced the yoga this week because of the anxiety this competition is causing me. In a yoga practice, you usually set an intention, whether it's mental or physical or whatever. Tonight's intention: let go of the anxiety from all the unknown factors and rely on myself and my teammates because we have the talent to pull out something totally wicked. And if we don't, at least we tried.
But please, don't let us draw "musical" as our genre.
If you want to track our progress during the event, follow me on Twitter. Like I said, I'll also be posting here immediately after the event with our finished film and a recount of the weekend.
(I also have class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week if anyone wants to join me. Monday is a basics class, one is open level, one is open level heated.)
Our team, Pants Cannon Media, is getting really excited for the 48HFP. It's next weekend, and things are really coming together for us. I feel like our team is going into this 48 hours with a good solid plan (as best we can), a ton of talent, and a lot of luck. As of today, we have:
Update: lunch will be catered by my mom and her friend, Debbie Riffe
Secured the location of our shoot and the release form is on the way to me
Confirmed one actor and actress for sure, 2 more guys are likely maybes
Confirmed the assistance of a very talented past professor in the music composition and sound mixing department
Lots of equipment, more than I ever thought I could pull together between a few poor students (3 cameras, lights, recorder, mic, tripods, dollies...all kinds of stuff!)
Donation of labor of hair stylists, make-up artists, and a local costume shop if necessary
Things are falling into place, and we've nearly done everything possible to make this the least scary 48 hour film project we can. We're all good at this stuff, and we have a realistic idea of what to expect out of ourselves in 2 days, so I think if nothing else, we're going to forge some new relationships, get some great experienced, and create something for which we can be really proud.
That being said, we're getting to the stage of planning and purchasing necessities for our cast and crew to get through the shoot. This includes bottled water, ice, and snacks like granola bars and fruit. We're looking to you, great friends, family, and anonymous strangers on the internet who admire us from afar, for any donations you are willing to give us. This would also be used for any other production costs, such as props, last minute fixes, and caffeinated beverages.
If you might be willing to donate to us, you can either give items directly to us this week if you're around, or use the Paypal button below (the one that Aaron is about to eat because he is so hungry) and give a cash donation. Rest assured, it WILL be used for production. Also, in exchange for donations, we will give you an Associate Producer credit for supporting us financially in various ways. AND we'll give you a copy of the finished film on DVD so you can behold it as your first produced film. And of course, everyone is invited to purchase tickets to the screening of all 48HFP films on August 7th at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We'll make sure to let you know at which of the 3 screenings our film will be shown. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the IMA website.
To make a monetary donation, just click on the comically oversized button below. Thanks in advance for your support.
I registered a team for the 48 hour film project in Indianapolis. If you don't know what that is, go to their website and check it out. It's a film racing competition. I've always wanted to participate, but the timing was never right until. I've formed a team with 4 ex-classmates that all graduated with me or shortly after. We have more equipment than I thought we could ever come up with, we work well together, and we're good at what we do, so I think we have a good chance at winning some awards. Regardless, it'll be a lot of fun to rekindle that feeling of "OMG HURRY" we all felt when we were in college together, and great to see our film screened on the big screen in a movie theater in front of a sold out audience! Our team name is Pants Cannon Media. The YouTube has a lot of old stuff
We're trying to get permission to shoot on campus since there is a good variety to the different areas and we can make it look like totally different locations without the travel. Otherwise, we're just wrangling some talent and waiting for July 30th to roll around so we can get going.
I really hope we don't draw musical as our genre.
I'll do a post-mortem after that weekend is over. I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about. In the meantime, here are the bios I sent along with our entry:
Director of Photography - "Jeremiah Nickerson is a recent graduate of Indiana University School of Informatics. Working as a freelance videographer and sound designer in Indianapolis, his background in traditional arts has helped lay the foundation as an artist in the digital realm. His work is often emotionally driven, casting light on personal and social issues that affect us all."
Assistant Director/Grip - "Joshua Kent Fike earned a degree from Indiana University in Media Arts & Science while focusing on audio and video production. Establishing himself in the industry keeps him busy with freelance work, interning at Boost Media Entertainment, and initiating his own video production business. He has always been attracted to the power of music and images and is continuously inspired by artists around the world and strives to inspire others by adding his own flavor into the life and energy of storytelling."
Editor/Production Manager - "Kylee Wall graduated from Indiana University in 2009 with a degree in Media Arts and Science with a focus on video production. After having spent time interning for local companies such as Pathway Productions and NUVO Newsweekly, she now works as a Multimedia Producer for Tangent Point Media. She has been passionate about video post-production since she was young, and continues to take on freelance work and volunteer in the local independent film scene as much as possible." Director - Aaron Whiteford recently completed his degree at Indiana University in Media Arts and Science (video production). Passionate about great storytelling and great pictures, he works as an independent videographer. His diverse background lends itself to bringing each vision to life in a new way, and continues to explore new opportunities in narrative filmmaking."
Editor/Post-production Supervisor - "Katie Toomey recently earned a degree in Media Arts and Science from Indiana University, focusing on video production. Working as an independent videographer and editor, she has interned at NUVO Newsweekly and worked to build a reputation as a local freelancer. She is passionate about narrative filmmaking, volunteering with local independent filmmakers on recent projects. Her passions lie in post-production, where she strives to bring energy into each story she cuts."
