The Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project

What Happened During Your Weekend?

The Baltimore filmmakers share stories from their wild weekend of filmmaking. (Blogging ended shortly after the filmmaking weekend.)

The thing about suits.

So we had after one actor didn't show up and our backup became horribly ill it was pretty much unanimous that I (the director) would step in. There wasn't particularly even a vote, Bethany and I pretty much just looked at each other and said "well I guess I'm/you're filling in."
I had never directed myself before. I wouldn't choose to do it again because it's hard to pay attention to your performance objectively, and it makes it harder to see the other characters perform when you're blocking takes you to the other side of a closed door.
Oh, and I had to wear a suit. Rather, I made myself wear a suit. And it was hot. Really hot. Luckily it didn't show up on screen.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat, though.

- Bryce, Fat Free Films

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Time Travel? That's Garbage!

Apparently, the Western/Musical genre is the dreaded Whammy that no film team wants to draw. That's what we got. So we turned it in and the DP picked a Wild Card genre and we got Time Travel/Doppleganger film. We were at a loss.

Normally Dean, the man with the plan and the creative force behind Running Storm Productions(www.runingstorm.com) jumps right into a project. If it's a 48 hour festival he's up all night Friday writing, up all night Saturday editing the footage we shot during the day, and spends all of Sunday tweaking the final film. This time the writing part didn't come as easy.

Dean and I were on the phone for quite awhile just bouncing ideas back and forth off each other. Time travel? What could we do with time travel? Should we try and build some sort of time machine? No, we only had 48 hours, we couldn't waste time trying to build some sort of contraption for the film. What about the time periods one could possibly visit? Did we have access to period costumes: bell bottoms, and butterfly collars?

We had 48 hours to put this film together and we needed to find an angle to make time travel accessible to our team. What if time travel just happened by freak occurrence? What if it wasn't some major history altering adventure but a simple hiccup in your daily life? What if a simple household item could transport you ahead in time?

Eventually a treatment was thrown together and involved into a script and by the time we showed up for filming on Saturday 'Time In A Trash Can' was taking shape. We filmed most of the day on Saturday, doing our exterior shots during the hottest hours of the day because we were trying to avoid the rain that was predicted but never came. We left Dean to his editing and crossed our fingers that he would get the film in before the deadline. He did with four minutes to spare and we felt fortunate that no trash can time portals were needed to get the job done.

- Thurston Cobb, Running Storm Productions

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What do you do with 'Silent Film'?

It was the second 48 Hour Film Project for Awkward Trio Productions, but not the second time for any of us making a film. However, I must say that even with the time limit, this year's project went better than most projects that are planned for months. We drew our genre out of the fateful bag and pulled, 'silent film'. Everyone's first reaction was "What do you do with this?",but the more we thought about it, the more we decided the answer was anything...as long as there wasn't sound. This actually worked to our advantage as our equipment wasn't as good as it has been. We came up with some great ideas and worked together with very little hang ups.

The best experience had to be when my editor woke me (the director) up (after 8 hours of sleep) on Sunday morning to tell me she had finished a rough cut...and that the whole pot of coffee we made just before bed was gone. It was terrifying to see her wide awake like that, but awesome to be so far ahead. This year's team was amazing. I can't wait to see the film screen on Tuesday.

- Becky Mezzanotte, Awkward Trio Productions

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Again!?!?

This was my third year participating and how did I figure that when I for the first time decided to be a team leader that I would pick the dreaded "Western or Musical". So far two out of the the three times I've participated the genre pulled was Musical or Western. The first time was 2008 when we won with a Western Musical, we had a full high school cast involved. This time was my own personal team that I had luckily preemptively filled with musical theater majors. I just knew on my first time I'd pick the "dreaded" genre. I used my experiences from the first time to help me out on my own. Because I filled my team with all actors and creative personalities it was up to me to direct, film, record and edit everything. I woke up for work Friday morning at 4am and didn't sleep except for 5 hours until Sunday night at 9. Plus while the rest of my team was sleeping I had to go to work. There were delusional moments, clear moments, but altogether the experience was once again phenomenal. The group clicked, there are of course things I wish I could've fixed in the edit and I had trouble with conversions but I got it in on time and I am thrilled with something that I can call my own, as a film major it was great to for the first time be completely in charge of a 15 person cast and crew.

The sleep deprivation was worth it, and we don't care if we win, we are excited to see our hard work on the big screen and to celebrate!

Can't wait for next year!
-Zachary Hock, Team Mutiny

- Zachary Hock, Team Mutiny

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48 in 48

The first proposed name for our film was 48 (well ok, it was the 2nd, but the 1st was the title of the show that we spoofed, so that wasn't gonna work), everyone agreed it was not the best name... yet 44 hours later, there we were calling it "48" and it seemed like the perfect name (maybe because we were exhausted now). I am still wondering how many other 48HFP movies have been called "48". I'd say it's either very few or a whole bunch...

We had a fantastic team, zero arguments or disagreements, everyone showed up, and until the snake showed up in the car (no, really) we were going along quite smoothly. With the snake disposed of, one cameraman's bitten thumb later, we made our way to film by the water near sundown. Filming was finished right on schedule at 830 Sat night!

Editing 360GB!!!!! of HD footage (not to mention separate audio) turned out to be quite the task. 2 hours of sleep and 23.5 hours of transcoding/transferring/composing/editing later, we drove through the city as the final file was rendering, then walked up to the Wind Up Space as the final file was transferring to our thumb drive and turned in the film with 1 minute to spare!

As hectic, stressful, (esp the last 2 hours), and sleepless as it was, it was worth every bit of it. We had tons of fun, a great cast and crew, and an overall rewarding experience. Thanks for everyone who participated!

-Josh Davidson, Be More Films

- Josh Davidson, Be More Films

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Lying in the street is FUN!!!

I felt soooo discouraged friday nite with "adventure serial" cuz I didn't know what that could be. espec. with stop motion animation dolls! I drifted around a thrift store Frid night after picking up all the stuff, and looked for inspiration. I boughtyet another barbie. i went to Mondawmin and photo'd the gorgeous dramatic sunset. (Didn't use). Went home, talked to a couple of friends...both had same (surprise!) suggestion, which I used...you'll see...and went to bed about 1 a.m., after reading info online about what an "adventure serial" is, and examples. Next morning up at 7, drinking first of 20 coffees, and wrote script in an hour. (I do everything myself, selfishly? childishly?) Then gathered items/dolls and out to the alley behind my house to film. I'm creaky, but the heat radiating off the concrete made it possible to lie down on the concrete, and later to lie down on Mosher street and film. People walked by, which I saw in my viewfinder, and I was amazed (!) at how BIG they were...so used was I to the dolls.
Computer tro8uble, program trouble, downloading trouble, and I found I had only two (2) blank DVDs...about 300 blank CDs...and it was 10 of 7 on Sunday. At 7:15:38 I was in my truck (which I had to go out and look for during an earlier break) and off to Windup. Got behind an 11mph SUV who wandered all over the road. "Should I hit him? Should I just shear off part of his SUV to get there on time?" Finally, he waved me past, and I zoomed, hitting all the lights right, to WIndup, parked two blocks away, ran for the first time in 3 years -- stump, clump-stump...in fast motion -- and made it with about 6 minutes to spare! Wheeee! Loved it, can't wait for next year!

- Linda Franklin, Barkinglips

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WE SURVIVED

This was my first time doing this and I can say that it will not be my last. The entire experience has been amazing and exhausting. Too much dialogue,not enough sleep, too much footage not enough time to edit, crashing computers, bad sound, horrible angles and shaved eyebrows. I'd do it all over again. This experience has prepared me for the next one.
I have to say all involved on my film were amazing and so supportive.
What a great community!

- Tony Ray Hicks, Up in the Mind Productions

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My brain feels melted

Well, we did it and it\\\'s in on time! For the first time ever, I think, we had a 48HFP where almost nothing went wrong. Aside from one actor not showing up and his backup becoming violently ill at 4AM the morning before shooting (our director filled in), we managed to get pretty much every shot we needed. The editing process took far longer than we actually had, which I think is almost always the case, but we got it finished and even managed to add a bit of music. No snazzy visual effects like I wanted to add though. :(

Even with finally getting 8 hours of sleep last night and taking off work today, I still feel like a zombie. But it was worth it! Nothing like a crazy-ass deadline to force you into the creative process. I can\\\'t wait for the screenings!

- Bethany, Fat Free Films

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"N-somnia" lasts 48 hours. Pursuing a dream lasts a lifetime.

It was 48 hours full of hustle, sleep deprivation, sweat, near tears, frustration, excitement, elation, satisfaction and good old fashioned hard work. This project was the blueprint for what I want to do the rest of my life. I worked with a great, fun supportive team who pulled things together when obstacles rose and who fulfilled their roles adequately. I learned a lot about leadership, ingenuity and working together as a team. Here's to an awesome weekend. May there be many more like it.

- Ty Trapps, N-somniacs

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Just Back in Time

Just got back from a trip to Kenya on Friday afternoon - they are 7 hours ahead of us so the jet lag actually helped this weekend... - loved the project - looking forward to the screenings

- Mark McKinney, Actors with Strings

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