48 Hrs Part 2

48 Hr Project Part Deux Current mood: artistic Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
The 48 hr diary.

It might seem strange that I am writing the 48 HR film contest diary nearly a week after we started the event, but the reality is, I didn't have time during the contest and this is the first day after the contest that I am not completely useless.

My background has been as an actor, picture car coordinator, grip, dolly grip and PA on quite a few big budget films. I guess I was a bit used to having a grip truck, electric truck, camera truck, etc. Also a trailer to hang out in between set-ups that each took several hours.

In this setting, I was directing, acting, camera op, gaffer, key grip (if I had had any grip equipment), and producer. As a producer I was woefully under funded and under equipped. As a director, I had very harsh feelings toward the producer….. You get the picture!

Linda, my wife, producing partner, and savior kept the whole thing from falling apart. One of our actors, who was to do some of the makeup, had surgery on her hand before the shoot and arrived in a splint. Our other make-up person wasn't set to arrive until 1:30 p. So Linda handled makeup, set design, and her producing duties all at the same time. Our FX make-up man, Thad Engeling, pitched in with products not in the regular kit, since early shooting required some strangeness.

To our credit, we also had Hans Wax, the best technical engineer and trouble shooter I have ever known. He was 1st camera, (which changed from Camera A to Camera 1 and back a few times if you view the notes) and he kept the whole show running. He was also invaluable during the editing process, putting his unique German spin on the whole process!

The rest of the weekend is a wonderful blur. Everyone arrived ready to work. We had no prima-donnas. When we needed someone to be dead, they were dead, despite the heat and flies. When we had an actor in a splint, it was dressed as a weird poppet and we moved on. When an actor was asked to lie face down in a puddle, he did, blood was poured on and it worked. Camera lens fogged, actors and crew got wet, and we kept going!

When I suggested that we chain an actor to a piece of furniture and everyone set off in search of dog collars, Hans thought it might be too much. Later he told me he expected everyone to say "Whoa" at that point. But trooper that she was, the actor was chained to the dresser, she withdrew into the space between the dresser and the wall, and it turned into a very powerful scene.

Editing in a short time frame had many issues of its own. Late in the game "Sound-forge" rendered a 12 gig piece of file with NO VIDEO. That was NOT COOL!
As a result the final film we turned in had some sound effects for 1 scene, and had music over the end titles. That was it. On a film where we were counting on the brilliant backing soundtrack provided by "Chant", we were left with almost nothing. Damn, and Praise you SONY!!!!! (loved , Vegas, Sound-forge screwed us).

The video you see on the website, is the soundtrack included. If you want to see the version without the soundtrack, good luck, that ended with the last screening 2 days ago.

XTIAN