The Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project
What Happened During Your Weekend?
The Greensboro filmmakers share stories from their wild weekend of filmmaking. (Blogging ended shortly after the filmmaking weekend.)
The Peanut Gallery
Just wanted to drop a line and say congrats to everyone who competed this year! I enjoyed Saturday's screenings very much. All of the competitors hardwork paid off with a great show!
Cheers,
Josh
- Joshua Strayhorn, Peanut Gallery Productions
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Snapshot
I am really impressed with all the films this year. I think this city and the triad is filled with so much talent. Viewing the films also made me think about the variety of creativity also, that so many great minds and hard work paid off for each of us in a unique way.
Our team, which is pretty much my sister, mom and dad, and I, and my friend Steven drew horror and thought it'd be an easy genre. Around 11:55 Friday we thought of the story. Around 5 am we finished a rough script. After two hours sleep I woke up and contacted Dad. He had made some minor but important additions to the script and we were ready to shoot. Saturday was nonstop. We wrapped at about 3am Sunday morning. We had a rough edit done by 9am Sunday. Then it was just creating music in garageband and cutting it down to seven minutes.
Luckily no real hangups. Even so we got the dvd downtown with ten minutes to spare.
We are much more satisfied with our story this year and think we'll only improve, as will all the other teams' movies i expect. Thanks to the 48 hr film project producers and volunteers!
Lucas Butchart
two rats
"snapshot"
- Lucas Butchart, Two Rats Productions
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Comments from a PA
Our team got a lot of things right this year. In fact, when we were mulling over what to write on the wrap form, I personally had a difficult time thinking of anything I'd do differently in terms of the overall process.
Later we realized there was one thing we might've done differently: Quadruple-check the required dialog (Doh!).
Despite the sting of DQ, I am very proud of my teammates and the film we put together. I can't wait to see "Derailed" and the rest of the Greensboro films on the big screen.
Big thanks to Mindy, Suzan and Wilky. Producing the Greensboro 48HFP is truly a service to the Triad film community and to the rest of us hangers-on who enjoy being involved. Thank you!
See you on Saturday. Jill
- Jill Cox, 10 lb. Hammer
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Admini$trative Costs . . .
Magnum Opus Productions kicked off the competition by drawing drama as our genre and when we got the call from our producer, we all agreed that we could manage this one, afterall, drama seemed simple enough for a cast and crew of mixed experience and talents! After debating until almost midnight about the direction we should take for the script, we realized, it wasn’t going to be as clear cut as we had originally imagined. We finally decided on a storyline and sent two head writers with writing teams in two separate directions to write. One would write the beginning scenes and the other, the ending scenes. It was a risk and one that didn’t pan out so well last year under the cape of the Super Hero genre, but the team decided, for time’s sake, that the risk was warranted. While the writer’s began to write, the remainder of the team performed sound and equipment checks, filled in the director on what we had decided and began confirming locations for Saturday’s shoots. Our talent took off to catch some rest and was directed to appear for a call time of 8:00 a.m. Everything seemed to line up by early Saturday morning around 5:00 a.m. and we were sure the rest of Saturday would run flawlessly. Our script written by two writing teams, lined up amazingly and all systems seemed a go.
Saturday’s shoot delivered alternate plans. Our lead actress set an alarm that never went off and didn’t arrive on location until after 10:30 a.m. It was cool though because we needed the time to fine tune some thoughts prior to getting started! We began shooting around 11:00. Shooting continued at our first location through mid afternoon. A frantic scene, which we shot more than a dozen times, brought on intense stares from the management and visitors of our first location as loud crashes created a scene that sounded like a bar fight. In hindsight, we probably should have hung a sign explaining the noise! We wrapped shooting at our second location around 7:00 p.m. or so, just before the heavy rain came.
We had hoped to have a rough cut to our composer by 9:00 p.m., but ran into technical issues pulling footage from the camera (so much for those equipment checks), such issues that didn’t get resolved until early the next morning. With little to no sleep, the editing process began early Sunday morning and continued until we had to switch locations after hotel check out. We headed to our composers place and worked tirelessly, with our composer looming for a piece to marry music to. Around 4:30 p.m. or so the editing team was able to deliver something to our composer, who in a little more than two hours had married an awesome score and fixed some of our sound issues. About 6:45 p.m. we began rendering our final product, only to discover we couldn’t get the footage back to tape. We tried every quick fix between a Mac and a PC that we could think of and a little after 7:00 p.m. we fell to our backup plan—a QuickTime version on Data DVD. As soon as the second DVD finished burning half the crew bounded out of the house, ran through calf deep puddles, torrential rain and occasional hail to head to make it to the car and head to the drop off point! We were pretty much driving blindly the whole way there and at crazy speeds for the weather. We reached the drop off point, jumped out of the moving vehicle in the middle of the street and ran anxiously up three flights of stairs to check in before deadline. We checked in at 7:19 p.m., with eleven minutes to spare!
Our entire crew was amazing and we couldn’t have asked for more stellar team collaboration! We are all looking forward to working together again soon and hope that you will enjoy Admini$trative Costs that will air on Saturday in Screening Group C—we hope you all enjoy it!
- E. Hasselmann, Magnum Opus Productions
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Love Reading Your Comments
Mindy and I were able to visit some of the shooting crews on Saturday, to live vicariously through them.
Everyone was having fun. The weather was great, Saturday anyway, and seeing the different shooting styles just made it that much more interesting and fun to watch the finished films.
And we loved seeing all the teams at the drop off.
Yes, we had some teams not make it on time, and that was heartbreaking.
We have competed before in the 48 and know what it feels like to be DQ'ed. I had to make the calls to all the team members to let them know and I can tell you it was the worst!
See you all at the screeings and don't forget the wrap party on Sunday at the Greene St. Club.
- Suzan Magee, City of Greensboro
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Cadence (Writer Perspective)
I truly had a great experience working with DARKHAWK Productions. I was one of the writers for Cadence and was allowed to participate in most areas of production. Everyone got along seamlessly, as if we had all been working together for years even though most of us had just met. I think everyone's voice was heard on the project adn that everyone is truly proud of what we have created. Thank you to everyone, with special thanks to Bruce. He had the most difficul task as the composer of a musical and the shortest amount of time. I wish the best of luck to everyone!
- Blaise Hartman, DARKHAWK Production
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First 48 shot* in 3d! *delivery not included
After last year's win, we decided to bite off more than we could chew for this year's 48 - not that this isn't already a very difficult exercise on it's own - We decided that we should do something seemingly impossible and a couple of weeks ago my friend Jim Ricker and I began to scour the internet for instructions and theories regarding 3d cinematography. We decided on a game plan regarding shooting and post and set out to shoot the first 3d flick ever shot in 48 hours. I was under the assumption early on that we could just get a lens for the camera and go for broke. Little did we know as we started the process that there is no "easy way" to do this, no adaptors or lenses - it would involve 2 cameras, a homemade camera rig, terms like inter-ocular distance and convergence, twice the footage and a hill to climb in post production that - as a result of the electrical storm - would prove insurmountable.
Production went well - shooting in anaglyph 3d dictates everything - you cannot rack focus, close ups are problematic, and you cannot effectivly dolly forward without consequence, the list goes on... - Luckily, the system Jim and I developed to determine convergence worked like a charm and we were finished shooting by 1 am on Saturday night. We had a rough by Sunday morning and we began to add the bells and whistles. I was doing the effects and opening title sequence with some graphic elements provided by Donnie Heath. Chris Avedon was working sound, and Dave Harrison was working the edit. This left Ricker to pace back and forth wondering when he could start the tedious task of aligning the shots for 3D.
We were racing towards the common goal when lightning struck during a crucial render and shut down and ruined both the title and film exports. We scrambled to restore one of the two video channels in order to deliver the film. (you have a separate edit for the left and right eyes that are later overlayed to create the 3d effect- so we went back into the left eye edit and exported that singular video track) I whipped up a quick/simpler replacement version of the title cards in After Effects and we inserted them as soon as the render was over. We laid a 2D version to tape and delivered the film with moments to spare. Certainly not the outcome we wanted but at least we finished and delivered a film.
Once back to the studio, the 3d version was rendered, the title sequence was completed and placed and we debated pulling from the competition and delivering the 3d just so we could project the version we intended the audience to see. In the end, we decided to let the 2d version stand with the understanding that we may have the chance to show the 3d version at the awards event for anyone interested. In all, it was a crazy experience as expected. I really wish the 3d version was in competition as it totally worked - but alas, mother nature had other plans for us...
So, I guess we are the first to shoot in 3d - but the title of the first team to deliver in 3d is still up for grabs... That may be a crown we leave for anyone else crazy enough to go down that road in the future.
Here's to being clothes-lined by the bar while trying to raise it. :P See you guys Saturday night.
Matt McNeil
- Matt McNeil, The Keen Collaboration
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congrats to all
i just wanted to say that after seeing everyone's film, you should all be very proud.
it's tuff to make a film, much less to do it in 48 hours and it really says something about the film makers in this area.
good luck to all on saturday and congrats!
wilky
- Wilky , the city of greensboro 48
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Cadence
Congratulations to all the teams who completed their films! And a further kudos to all those who did it in 48 hours! As someone who has failed at that before (2006), I assure you: It is no easy task. Good luck to everyone!
This was our second year with the genre of "Musical or Western" (which earned us 1st Runner Up last year). We opted to do a story with a very different mood this year, and we hope everyone enjoys our film, Cadence.
We certainly had our wild adventures, just like everyone else. Most of our locations were secured about one hour before we moved to shoot in them. (We had 3 locations total.) And unfortunately, the directions to our second location, found in the middle of nowhere (id est, Julian, NC), were faulty, and we spent way too much time driving around looking for it on Saturday afternoon.
However, the location was well worth the journey, providing a fantastic backdrop to our story. Hooray for The Barn Dance! Let's all go boot-scootin boogie there one night!
The cast was fantastic, consisting primarily of children under the age of 12. They really did an awesome job, working as hard as any adult actors I've put through the duress of a film shoot. Thanks to my talented cast, and especially their supportive parents!
It's worth noting that some of our talent may not be allowed to see the entire film, due to the nature of the project.
We edited half the film on Adobe Premiere on a PC, and half the film on Final Cut on a Mac, so figure that one out if you can... But our editors made it work, and we were able to paste the scenes together with a nice, even flow.
Except one problem: We were over the 7-minute time limit by 36 seconds! My Key Editor and I sat and pored over the film, cutting 1-4 seconds periodically as we could find spots to trim. It was an intense focusing of the story for dramatic effect. (Though, we will probably go back and extend some of those sequences for subsequent cuts.)
Sadly, our Composer, who had written such a magical score for the film from the beginning, only had 2 and a half hours to mix the score, and he did beautiful work. The score is a truly haunting piece that stand easily on its own, without the film.
Perhaps the most exhilarating moments of the weekend came during the drive through the monsoon at ridiculous speeds to deliver our final DVD at 7:28 (by my clock), or rather, 7:22 (by their clock). Sheesh, I could've strolled!
But the exercise is good for me, and we are proud to have delivered our dark musical in time for consideration.
We look forward to seeing all of the films on Saturday, and we wish everyone all the best! We hope you enjoy Cadence.
Peace--
DARK
- Dan A. R. Kelly, DARKHAWK Productions
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Everything Falls into Place
This is the fourth year that Contagious Media has participated in the 48 hour film project and this is arguably our best film yet (though I'm very fond of last year's entry, The Knight Shift).
Thursday, while preparing for the project, we were unable to locate our shotgun mic or its boom poll, leaving us frantically speeding to AV equipment to rent one the next morning. Unfortunately, they had no polls or muffs or blimps, just the mic and a mic clip. That left our Prop Master building a makeshift boom poll and blimp out of wooded dowels, panty house, and plastic strips. It worked like a charm.
We drew "Film de Femme" at the kick-off, but, because we had drawn that two years previous when it was a wild card, we chose to press our luck and go wild again. We drew "Fictional Bio-pic" and rejoiced as that was our producer, Mike's favorite new category.
The most important step to having a successful film, in my experience, is division of labor. During our first attempt at the 48 we were too egalitarian and lost any semblance of focus. From then on we've streamlined our production, letting everyone know before Friday ever rolled around what their job would be and, more importantly, what their job would not be.
This year was no exception. The writers and myself (Director) locked ourselves in a room occasionally visited by our producer to determine if our ideas were going to mesh with the time, talent, and resources of our props and costume departments. (lucky for us, we work with some of the most resourceful and talented people i've ever met). Writing was, by far, the hardest part of this years project. The four of us could agree on little, people's feelings were getting hurt and our producer was becoming more and more agitated with us. Finally we reached an agreement; the film would be about a real historical figure (because one of our actors looked so much like him) with a completely fictional biography framed by an inept student writing a poorly researched term paper. We actually spontaneously jumped to our feet and initiated a group hug when we realized that we were on to something that we could all agree with. I only wish someone had walked in on that moment. This was at about 12:30 or 1:00 am. Unfortunately, after about an hour we had made no real progress on the actual script itself and I was beginning to become frantic. At one point, at 3:00 am, i actually convinced our head writer, Maggie, to consider scrapping it all and starting over even after our costumes were nearly completed and props were accounted for. Thankfully i was talked out of that idea and decided to let the writers press on while i took myself out of the equation to focus on locations and tomorrow's shoot. After pulling one of our lead actors in for input on his character, we were left with a short script serving as more of a framework for improvisation than a sacred document with every movement and line accounted for. With the sort of story we were going for and the very talented actors at our disposal, this seemed like that best way to make up for all the time we'd lost arguing.
We got some sleep. Amazing.
The next morning, as we ate breakfast and prepared our equipment, our heads were cleared of last night's unpleasantness. We left for our location in Summerfield prepared to seize the day and, though we didn't start shooting until 11:00, everything fell into place. By 2:00 we had sent the first tape back to Base Camp (on Elm street near the railroad tracks.) and by 6:30 we had wrapped. We even had time to take some cigarette breaks, eat a leisurely lunch, and wait out a small rain shower without worry. I even swung by my parent's house to drop off a late Father's Day present while Maggie (writer and kick ass AD) went with the crew back to Base Camp.
By the time I returned, the credits and the minimal graphics work were nearly completed by Chad, our amazing motion graphics man; our editor, KC, and Mike, the producer, had already begun capturing tape number two and syncing the good clips to the corresponding audio. Things could not be running smoother. I worked with our other lead, Katie, as she recorded her lengthy narration in the sound booth before taking my turn at the editing station to clarify some shot choices and tighten any lingering cuts. This is a comedy, so the shot timing had to be perfect. I was amazed that we had the time to spend on the tiny tweaking of shots, sounds, and edits.
Only 3 or 4 hours of sleep that night, and Sunday got off to a slow start. Our music person had arrived and began to work diligently with our field audio person while I recorded any missing foley with our Costume and Prop Man (now that shooting was finished, he seemed perfect for the job.)
Admittedly, Sunday should have started earlier. We were handed the music at 6:00, got it integrated and leveled by 6:45 and ran into disaster. The film would not print to tape. With every camera we tried, there was a dropped frame in the same scene. Eventually we turned off all warnings in FCP and let it capture through the dropped frame. Running out into the pouring rain to me and our lead, Scott, as we waited in the car below, Mike quickly turned on the camera to verify that it had captured. We saw Scott and heard some audio that seemed to correspond, so we took off. Luckily the drop point was only a block away so we made it with 10 minutes to spare, too close for comfort, but all the more satisfying.
We never even watched the whole tape so i can only hope that the capture was successful. We repeated our steps exactly when we got home and were delighted to see no noticeable problems. Then we ate pizza. And i slept.
Viva La 48!
R. Cory Livengood
Director
Contagious Media Productions
- R. Cory Livengood, Contagious Media Productions
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Greenpax presents "Dues of the Heart"
My film team, Greenpax, was pleased to pull the genre "Historical Fiction" out of the bag. After watching my screenwriter, Tommy Trull, hash things out with my Director, Jesse Knight, I could tell that some ideas had taken root.
We have a great dinner laid out for our return, and we eat extravagantly while pondering details. We opt to take a macabre story from the 1870s that Tommy had been thinking about, and then reinvent that story against the backdrop of the Red Scare of the 30s. We get our script by Midnight, and begin the process.
Saturday goes as well as can be expected. Our cast showed up bright and early, and all were ready to do good work. We spend the day filming in one location, with several different setups, and wrap primary shooting by 7:30. We feel confident (overly so, as I later clarify) and feast on a wonderful Creativity Stew, offered by our resourceful Craft Services crew. Things were awesome.
I actually sleep that night, and feel confident heading into Sunday. And I stay that way until about 2 pm when we realize that the audio file had corrupted at a critical and most-egregious spot. We Did NOT have the required line of dialogue. So, we freak out, arrange a hasty pick up shot, and proceed to pull hairs. After those details are administrated, we hand the footage to our editor, and he commences with the editing of the band-aid footage.
About 6:30 pm, Jennie (my Co-Producer) go to certify our film. We await rendering, and deliver our film by 7:11 pm. We made it.
I want to thank my cast and crew for their wonderful attitudes and determination to do good work. As we all noted throughout the weekend, there was absolutely "No Drama" amongst our team, except for the actual Drama we depicted on-screen. That was incredibly rewarding, and we celebrated in style at The Green Burro.
We eagerly await next weekend's screening, and hope that the audience and judges like our foray into Historical Fiction. We are proud of it, and want to thank the event's organizers for giving us this fun weekend yet again.
See everyone on Saturday!!!
J. Evan Wade
Executive Producer, Mad Ones Films
(part of the Greenpax project team)
- J. Evan Wade, Greenpax
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