The St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project
What Happened During Your Weekend?
The St. Louis filmmakers share stories from their wild weekend of filmmaking. (Blogging ended shortly after the filmmaking weekend.)
48HFP 2008
Wow, lots of great films this year; we're continuously proud to be on the same screen with so many talented filmmakers. Tried to do something different this year, and succeeded, just not enough to push through to the top 15. Eyes toward next year!
- Stephen Province, Bug-Juice Productions
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“R” rated language
We shot “The Big Field” Friday night impromptu in a field outside Sainte Genevieve. The cast and crew, except for the Holiday Girl and Sheriff were made up from members of the band Summit. I guess things got a little out of hand. Sorry for all the “F” words. In retrospect, seems like we used most of the elements 48 HFP doesn’t like - guns, language, violence, and stunts. I still really like the car scene where Nick breaks out the windows. Nobody was in the car except the camera and me (in the back seat). Next year we will try to clean things up a bit, and actually think of a story that makes some kind of point. I still really like the car scene!
- Roland Comfort, NetWide Productions
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Top Fifteen
I don't envy the judges this year. Lots of really good films in this year's top fifteen. Good luck to all involved and see you Tuesday.
- Richard Taylor, Brain Freeze Productions
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Keep the magents away from the computer!
We had a great experience this year, our best by far. We split the team up a little more and that made production smoother, gave people time to rest so that when it came down to the wire, we were not completely fried and ready to cut the required line (almost happened one year). Great work by all our cast and crew, we couldn't be more pleased with what people did for us.
Viva Los Hermanos! and Happy Magnet Day!
- Dave Lang, Los Hermanos Politicos
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Through the meatgrinder
This year was a record for us - a 23 hour shoot! Our previous record, Vous M'Amiez, with it's 'cast of thousands' and 'epic scope' took us a paltry 20 hours.
Also this time out, none of our crew members were held up at gunpoint. All in all, a successful year!
A big thanks to everyone involved, and I hope you all enjoy
"Through a Dark Lens"
Thanks, Chris
- Chris Grega, 88mm productions
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SmoothSailing.com
I can't imagine things having gone smoother. At the time I turned it in I was totally satisfied with what we had done. Of course now a few days later and after watching it 150 times there are a number of things I wish I could change, but I'm still happy with what we have done. I can't wait to see how this team of rookies stacks up against the veterans...especially the other teams from the Southeast of Missouri.
Jason of doctordeuce.com
- Jason Gibson, Doctor Deuce
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It's official, I hate Macs.
Well, I just got word that our film, "Driven", is not eligible for any awards because for some reason during our output, the movie cuts off, and we're missing a key element, the line of dialogue. If we had 5 more seconds of movie, we'd have been fine.
So now, our movie is a late entry, and is still eligible for the audience choice award, but that sucks, because we worked hard, and the crew had harsh traveling to do.
Oh well. I guess there's next year.
- Louie Benson, Victory's Muddy List
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Face Down On the Carpet
It was our first time (except for one actress) and with basically no experience on the team, we floundered a bit at first.
Luckily we had a pretty tight team of smart and motivated cast/crew. We met all of our goals: had a great time, learned a ton, and produced something on time.
In my normal work, I manage technical projects regularly. I can honestly say I've never been involved in a more challenging project! Unquestionably one of the most enriching experiences of my life.
I can't get it out of my head, I've having trouble sleeping at night, I've got 48 hour film fever!!!
Scott Crawford
YouthGain : Changing The Face of Humanity
- Scott Crawford, Face Down In The Muck
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A Breeze or two
A huge thanks to my team which consisted for the most part of many people who had never met until the day of the shoot. Everyone bonded and worked together like a dream. They made it all a breeze. Speaking of breezes, all of our locations were actually indoors this year. No heat stroke this time. Everything went so well that it was almost scary. I guess to make up for it - the Avid crashed twice on Sunday. But only twice! And we're talking Avid! Thanks again to my crew - and actors! The best.
Lee
100th Monkey Productions
- Lee Mueller, 100th Monkey Productions
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The 46 hour film project
Ours might as well have been called the 46 hour film project because we shot the whole thing in Cape Girardeau and lost 2 hours in the driving time to get the project back. I guess we over compensated because our St. Louis people got to the drop off at 5:00 and waited for an hour before the officials got there.
This was our first year doing this and it was everything I dreamed and more. Definatly more! My main goal was just for everyone to get along and have fun and for us to have a completed project that we could all be proud of. My goals were made ten times over.
Monday morning we were already talking about next year. I can't wait!!
Look for our majority female crew, majority male cast and Cape G locations in Group 1 "Walt"
- Kristen Beaver, The Truffle Shuffles
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On time with 8 seconds to spare
This was our second year, and we were a lot more ambitious with the addition of lighting, sound, and story boarding. However, everyone was awesome and it went much more smoothly than last time. Props to the whole cast and crew.
So anyways, we were the last group to turn our film in on time. Google maps said it was a 31 minute drive; we made it in 18. Before getting on the highway we had to stop to close my trunk. I compiled the film and made the tape en route. The estimated file size was larger than my hard drive space so I deleted half my itunes library. As I ran into the drop-off place, I scraped my foot and also couldn't get the camera to eject the tape at first. The tape popped out just as I was considering turning in the whole camera and saying "it's in there." It was awesome and exhilarating, but I'm hoping next year we have more time to spare (maybe enough to watch the whole thing before submission).
- Jeremy Hellwig, Teddyvision
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The Human Experience
What's interesting about these types of festivals are not just the hilarious antics and physically exhausting trials that crews must endure, but the number of times a crew must look itself straight in the eyes and remember that everyone's on the same team. Mental anguish brought on by feverish creativity leaves a resonating fervor in everyone's eyes. I love this festival because it's more a challenge of the human experience: of creatures gathering together to express their hopes, hatreds, desires, dreams, loves and histories in a singular piece of creative art: cinema. To watch a rag-tag group of visionaries pull their thoughts into paper molds and pop out a cohesive story is thrilling.
Each year is a new trial. Just like life, you fix one set of problems only to produce another. But that's the rush! There will always be a set of problems (so long as Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut Pro do what they did to us; I think they need a mediator). Keep everyone happy, keep everyone refreshed. Embrace the failures, rejoice in success, and don't fight the current.
We were minutes late carrying a DVD plagued with problems. We all know this frustration. So, back we went, remastering and rethinking and re-remastering, and out we came before the second deadline. Our team took an ambitious step: We worked the full 48 hours, seldom resting more than a few hours at a time, and never more than one or two members at a given moment. The style proved valuable until we hit our first set of walls in post-production. Nonetheless, we turned out a film that we're fully proud of. We look forward to your responses.
Cheers!
"Identity Theft" : A spy loses face.
- Jon Michael Ryan, Tangent Mind LLC
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All I can say is.......
This weekend was insane! I'm still in shock that the only thing that was injured/damaged was a ripped pair of jeans. From takedowns to body checks, it was a physical and funny shoot that I won't forget.
Congratulations to every one that participated this year. As a team that is doing this for the 2nd year, it was a blast!
- Mike Hinson, 15th Tee Films
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An awesome weekend had by all!
This was an absolutely KickAss weekend! Right from the get go, this has been a complete blast. And after the last two years of letdowns and utter failures at the 48, turing this one in with time to spare was all the sweeter.
Making our film "Asockalypse Now" was without a doubt, chock full of some of the most surreal filmmaking experiences I have ever had. Both in front of the camera, and behind, there was some bizarre stuff going on. I hope everyone will come out Wednesday night at 7 to check it out.
Big thanks to the other guys who worked with me on this film. You all did awesome jobs, and though we were small in numbers, we were absolutely KickAss in spirit!
Now if I could just shake these damn jitters and withdrawal headaches from coming off two straight days of chugging Monster, I will be well on the road to recovery from the weekend. BTW, does anyone know of a 12-step program for energy drink addiction?
Best of luck everyone, and see you all at the Tiv!
- Seth Treptow, Captain KickAss Productions
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First timers!!
So this year was our first year taking part in this event, and it was by far the best weekend of my life. My friends and I have been running a production company since we were 15 years old, and were all 19 now, and are still learning a lot about film making. We pushed it to the wire Sunday evening. While waiting for our back-up copy to be put onto a tape, we decided that with such a short time left, and a half an hour drive to the drop off point, to ditch the backup and burn the dvd in the car. WE took two cars on the way out there, with limited directions. Unfortunately the car without the papers and film showed up first, and waited until 7:23 pm when the other car finally showed up. The problem was when we burned the DVD, the audio for some reason had been stripped from our file. A basic technical difficulty that was completely unexpected, seeing as how we have used the software plenty of times before without flaws. We decided as a group to print off a new DVD that included the audio and turn it in late. The reason being is that this is only our second film festival that we have ever accomplished and we would all be damned if we didn't have anything to show for it. Regardless of the desire for awards, we looked at why we have worked so hard to begin with. While other teenagers and college students are out on the weekends partying and having a good time, we dedicate Saturdays completely filming purposes. We see these kinds of opportunities has a fun time that involves staying out of trouble in our small isolated town. We got into this for the fun of film making and pushing ourselves to maximum capacity, and that is exactly what we did. We filmed until 6am Sunday morning, making sure what we did have was the best we could have made. When it came down to Sunday night, we were rushing to get out to the drop off point so hard that our camera-man, and score writer started to go into a panic attack from all of the stress, heat, and major sleep deprivation. He was ok the entire time, and gained control of his status rather quickly, it wasn't a major health issue at all. Even after we turned in the final DVD, the few of us that took the trip to St, Louis to turn in the DVD gathered into a small huddle with smiles on our faces, and no shame in turning in our good copy an hour later than expected. We set out to make a film that was completely random, and we achieved that goal. And because of our hard work, dedication and team work, we have something to show people to prove that some small town boys can accomplish something if they stick their heads together and work for it.
We had an amazing time doing this contest, and we can\\\'t wait for next year. But all i have to say is look out for us in the upcoming years. We have something to prove and nothing will get in our way.
Good luck to all of those who got your films in on time, I can't wait to view the creative genius this great city has to offer.
p.s. although our film is not eligible for the judging, i would love to hear some feedback from the other contestants, and those who view our film.
we are group 1, Sedition Entertainment and our title is "Dubya-Tee-Eff"
- T.J. Wolf, Sedition Entertainment
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Congratulations!
Congratulations to all of the St Louis filmmakers who completed films this weekend, on time or not! I look forward to seeing you all again at the Tivoli this week.
- Doug Whyte, St Louis 48HFP Producer
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Thanks
I want to thank everyone on my team for doing such great job and putting up with the heat. One of these days we'll have to get a genre where air conditioning was actually invented.
- Jonathan Berger, United Brothers Productions
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Great Fun
What a great experience! Last year, we had worked on a different team and got bogged down trying to do too much. This year, we kept it simple and had a lot of fun.
We have a couple of scenes where we require some odd things to be yelled quite loud in public. Luckily, I have cool neighbors.
I can't wait to see everyone's films.
- Warren Arnold, Blossom's Friend Six
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A great little film
Add one twisted tale, 2 HD cameras, 3 grisly deaths, 4 great actors, and subtract 5 minutes, and what do you get?
come see The Moebius Effect during group 4's screening on Wednesday night at 9:15 to find out.
- Bart Elfrink, no title productions
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Pancake-Style
Pancake Productions had a few new members this year, as well as plenty of repeat champion members, and made the best of both by rocking super-hard, having super-fun, and making a super movie in locations far and near. Kevin Stroup is unstoppable once again. Don't miss him Tuesday night at 7PM! Good job everyone!
Also, congratulations to all teams that participated in and finished up with the big BONANZA this year. See y'all this week.
*RØB*
- RØB Severson, Pancake Productions
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Thanks
Thanks to the terrific team of actors and crew that made this year's shoot a fun and relaxing experience. Whit Reichert and Judi Mann outdid themselves, turning in terrific performances in the two lead roles. I actually stopped several times during the editing process, just to watch their work a second or third time.
I hope all the oldtimers and the first-timers had a great time this year - we sure did.
- Richard Taylor, Brain Freeze Productions
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