24 Hours of, well...
Well, I survived it. My first 24 hr. film-making marathon is over and not only did I get my film in on time, I actually managed to squeak in about 25 minutes of sleep. My project was, of course, ridiculously ambitious and was, of course, nearly ruined by an unforeseen difficulty. Which is funny, because I foresaw having unforeseen difficulties, but how could I know what they would be? The ones we had were far worse than I anticipated, but we pulled it off anyway. The end result has some glaring flaws and makes me a little uncomfortable when I think about the screening next week, but people are pretty forgiving in these competitions, right? And some things about it are pretty good, I think. There were a few pleasant surprises too.
Because it's been over for almost six hours now and I'm still trying to absorb/recover from everything that happened, my first installment of LDSFF '09 posts will simply be a rundown of how the day went. Draw from it what you will. It will be long. Here goes.
7:15 AM - I'm on the road already in my neighbor's borrowed Dakota. The kickoff meeting is at 10 in Orem and I live in Clinton, about 90-120 minutes away, depending on traffic. I left this early to avoid the worst of rush hour and because, on the way, I'm picking up my sister-in-law, Brienne, from her house in South Jordan. A lot of things can happen between northern Davis and Utah counties. It turns out that traffic is really good, and since I'm going to the west side of the valley first, I can take the new Legacy Parkway, which saves time, gas, and stress. I'm really excited and feeling good.
8:15 AM - I arrive at my in-laws' house where Brienne is not expecting me for another half-hour. She gets dressed hurriedly and we're out the door in a few minutes, not wanting to risk being late. I should say at this point that the members of our five-person-maximum team were finalized less than twelve hours ago and we still only had four. The members are me, Brienne, my sister's husband, E. J., and his brother Aaron. I'm the only one with any professional audio or video/film experience or with formal acting training. My cohorts are all very talented, artistic people, but film has not been their primary emphasis. Brienne, however, has some stop-motion animation experience, and the others have made home movies. With the exception of Aaron (who is somewhat older), we're all in the late twenties to early thirties age range.
9:06 AM (give or take a few) - Brienne and I arrive at the Scera Center for the Arts. We're about an hour early and both hungry, so we get some breakfast from The Sconecutter, and wait.
9:30 AM - We go back over to the theater and wait some more.
10:00 AMish - The kickoff meeting gets under way with Christian Vuissa handing out sign up forms. I see that my buddy Brandon Smith in whose film I once acted and who now works closely with Christian is assisting with the festival again this year. We exchange some pleasant words. We haven't seen each other since this time last year. After everybody has paid their registration fee (45$, for which I had to run to the corner Maverick gas station because I forgot my checkbook and that was the closest ATM, but so did a few other registrants, I noticed) and gotten their group numbers, Christian announces the criteria this year. Our theme is sacrifice, the object to be included is a match, and the required line is "Let me be your...." This shouldn't be too hard.
10:45 AM - The meeting ends and the 24 hours officially begin. Now we can openly work on this film without wondering if we're breaking the rules. I call everyone with the info and Brienne and I start back for my parents' house in Bountiful, which is our rendezvous (thanks, Mom). We have ideas for everything from silent films about Rapunzel, to documentaries, to things magically falling from the sky on demand, to games of Old Maid. We don't want to take a strictly comedic approach, but we're finding that we have to spit out about ten bad ideas for each good one. By the time we get to Bountiful (after turning around a couple of times to get prop and costume items we think of on the way), we've had a few phone conversations and settled on our best idea.
12:30 PM - We meet Aaron at my parents' house. E. J. is still in class, but he's weaseled his way out of staying the whole time, so he'll be there soon. Meanwhile, the three of us are brainstorming plot and script ideas, fleshing out characters and devices, and otherwise exploring the world we're about to create. When E. J. arrives, we fill him in, do some more of the same, then sketch some quick storyboards and decide that we need to round up a few more items and then we're ready to shoot. If we don't get going we'll be in trouble.
2:15 PM - We get going.
3:45 PM - We meet at a lake near the Bountiful dump to start shooting. We get a few strange looks from other recreationists when they see our costumes (we've decided on a fantasy setting) and one guy even offers to chop off somebody's head if we need a good shot of that. Fortunately for the actors, the festival rules prohibit graphic violence. We soon realize that we're not going to have enough light to travel to the other location we had in mind (up against the mountain in Bountiful), but we can work with it because the place where we are is pretty versatile.
4:00 PM - We start shooting. Considering the inexperience of the cast (Aaron and E.J.), the demanding essence of the script, and the ambitious nature of the film it goes pretty quickly. Nevertheless, the sun is setting in our very first shot, and we have less than two usable hours because of the terrain.
6:00 PM - We've split up again after having to abandon a few shots we wanted(Brienne with me, the other two together) after having to abandon a few shots we wanted to get a few other things for the indoor scene we have left to shoot. We're going to re-assemble at my house in Clinton (that's where the workstation we'll be editing on is).
6:40 PM - We've picked up pizza and are starting to settle in at my studio, which is a small building in my backyard that houses my gear and other business accouterments, to capture our footage and reassess/fine tune what's left of the script. We're waiting for the kids to go to bed before we move into the main house to finish shooting.
7:30 PM - We have a problem. It seems that the record head on my camera somehow disengaged the film for some of our shots. The tape kept rolling, but there's nothing on it, not even timecode. Naturally, what little is left happens to be almost entirely made up of our worst takes. Some shots we don't have any takes of. Almost all of the key moments have been lost. We decide to let the camera rest a bit while we work on writing a particular monologue. Then we'll confirm the problem.
9:00 PM - It's confirmed. We're dead in the water.
9:15 PM - We decide that we're not giving up so easy. We fall back on one of our other ideas - to make a documentary about a film that hasn't been made yet as though it had been made and was wildly successful. In this way, the bad takes can be used (because they're bad in a pretty funny way) and we only need to do cast and crew interviews, plus a few other shots. We can do that. We go inside and get started, which means that we tear up my family room and turn it into a makeshift soundstage. My kids are not all asleep yet.
12:00 AM - We've finally finished all the prep work, shooting, and capturing, and we're ready to start post-production in earnest. A few things they do on my laptop while I manage the overall edit. This is largely my job, but the others tough it out and provide critical creative feedback.
7:00 AM - After a number of software issues, digital hassles (we have some pretty awful keying on one shot because of loose hairs that we overlooked), and other setbacks, we finally have a finished film. It's not what we hoped, but it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. I still want to iron out the glitches, but Brienne convinces me to let it be. Aaron left a couple of hours ago, but the others are still there. E. J. goes home to my sister and their daughter, tired but happy. Brienne crashes on the floor of my girls' bedroom (I'm her ride home). I crash on the floor of my family room because I'll never be able to pull myself out of bed in time if I go there. My wife is up feeding the baby, so she promises to wake me, which she does.
8:15 AM - We pack up and head down to Orem.
9:45 AM - We hand in the final film (on two DVDs, just in case) to Brandon, who is manning the desk. Cutoff time is one hour away (I should have kept working on it!) and Brandon says that we're the eighth group to hand in a finished product. We tell him briefly what happened (because he asks how it went) and he shares our overarching sentiment - gladness that we pulled something off in spite of all that happened.
9:50 AM - I take Brienne home.
10:30 AM - I go to work. Oy.
Because it's been over for almost six hours now and I'm still trying to absorb/recover from everything that happened, my first installment of LDSFF '09 posts will simply be a rundown of how the day went. Draw from it what you will. It will be long. Here goes.
7:15 AM - I'm on the road already in my neighbor's borrowed Dakota. The kickoff meeting is at 10 in Orem and I live in Clinton, about 90-120 minutes away, depending on traffic. I left this early to avoid the worst of rush hour and because, on the way, I'm picking up my sister-in-law, Brienne, from her house in South Jordan. A lot of things can happen between northern Davis and Utah counties. It turns out that traffic is really good, and since I'm going to the west side of the valley first, I can take the new Legacy Parkway, which saves time, gas, and stress. I'm really excited and feeling good.
8:15 AM - I arrive at my in-laws' house where Brienne is not expecting me for another half-hour. She gets dressed hurriedly and we're out the door in a few minutes, not wanting to risk being late. I should say at this point that the members of our five-person-maximum team were finalized less than twelve hours ago and we still only had four. The members are me, Brienne, my sister's husband, E. J., and his brother Aaron. I'm the only one with any professional audio or video/film experience or with formal acting training. My cohorts are all very talented, artistic people, but film has not been their primary emphasis. Brienne, however, has some stop-motion animation experience, and the others have made home movies. With the exception of Aaron (who is somewhat older), we're all in the late twenties to early thirties age range.
9:06 AM (give or take a few) - Brienne and I arrive at the Scera Center for the Arts. We're about an hour early and both hungry, so we get some breakfast from The Sconecutter, and wait.
9:30 AM - We go back over to the theater and wait some more.
10:00 AMish - The kickoff meeting gets under way with Christian Vuissa handing out sign up forms. I see that my buddy Brandon Smith in whose film I once acted and who now works closely with Christian is assisting with the festival again this year. We exchange some pleasant words. We haven't seen each other since this time last year. After everybody has paid their registration fee (45$, for which I had to run to the corner Maverick gas station because I forgot my checkbook and that was the closest ATM, but so did a few other registrants, I noticed) and gotten their group numbers, Christian announces the criteria this year. Our theme is sacrifice, the object to be included is a match, and the required line is "Let me be your...." This shouldn't be too hard.
10:45 AM - The meeting ends and the 24 hours officially begin. Now we can openly work on this film without wondering if we're breaking the rules. I call everyone with the info and Brienne and I start back for my parents' house in Bountiful, which is our rendezvous (thanks, Mom). We have ideas for everything from silent films about Rapunzel, to documentaries, to things magically falling from the sky on demand, to games of Old Maid. We don't want to take a strictly comedic approach, but we're finding that we have to spit out about ten bad ideas for each good one. By the time we get to Bountiful (after turning around a couple of times to get prop and costume items we think of on the way), we've had a few phone conversations and settled on our best idea.
12:30 PM - We meet Aaron at my parents' house. E. J. is still in class, but he's weaseled his way out of staying the whole time, so he'll be there soon. Meanwhile, the three of us are brainstorming plot and script ideas, fleshing out characters and devices, and otherwise exploring the world we're about to create. When E. J. arrives, we fill him in, do some more of the same, then sketch some quick storyboards and decide that we need to round up a few more items and then we're ready to shoot. If we don't get going we'll be in trouble.
2:15 PM - We get going.
3:45 PM - We meet at a lake near the Bountiful dump to start shooting. We get a few strange looks from other recreationists when they see our costumes (we've decided on a fantasy setting) and one guy even offers to chop off somebody's head if we need a good shot of that. Fortunately for the actors, the festival rules prohibit graphic violence. We soon realize that we're not going to have enough light to travel to the other location we had in mind (up against the mountain in Bountiful), but we can work with it because the place where we are is pretty versatile.
4:00 PM - We start shooting. Considering the inexperience of the cast (Aaron and E.J.), the demanding essence of the script, and the ambitious nature of the film it goes pretty quickly. Nevertheless, the sun is setting in our very first shot, and we have less than two usable hours because of the terrain.
6:00 PM - We've split up again after having to abandon a few shots we wanted(Brienne with me, the other two together) after having to abandon a few shots we wanted to get a few other things for the indoor scene we have left to shoot. We're going to re-assemble at my house in Clinton (that's where the workstation we'll be editing on is).
6:40 PM - We've picked up pizza and are starting to settle in at my studio, which is a small building in my backyard that houses my gear and other business accouterments, to capture our footage and reassess/fine tune what's left of the script. We're waiting for the kids to go to bed before we move into the main house to finish shooting.
7:30 PM - We have a problem. It seems that the record head on my camera somehow disengaged the film for some of our shots. The tape kept rolling, but there's nothing on it, not even timecode. Naturally, what little is left happens to be almost entirely made up of our worst takes. Some shots we don't have any takes of. Almost all of the key moments have been lost. We decide to let the camera rest a bit while we work on writing a particular monologue. Then we'll confirm the problem.
9:00 PM - It's confirmed. We're dead in the water.
9:15 PM - We decide that we're not giving up so easy. We fall back on one of our other ideas - to make a documentary about a film that hasn't been made yet as though it had been made and was wildly successful. In this way, the bad takes can be used (because they're bad in a pretty funny way) and we only need to do cast and crew interviews, plus a few other shots. We can do that. We go inside and get started, which means that we tear up my family room and turn it into a makeshift soundstage. My kids are not all asleep yet.
12:00 AM - We've finally finished all the prep work, shooting, and capturing, and we're ready to start post-production in earnest. A few things they do on my laptop while I manage the overall edit. This is largely my job, but the others tough it out and provide critical creative feedback.
7:00 AM - After a number of software issues, digital hassles (we have some pretty awful keying on one shot because of loose hairs that we overlooked), and other setbacks, we finally have a finished film. It's not what we hoped, but it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. I still want to iron out the glitches, but Brienne convinces me to let it be. Aaron left a couple of hours ago, but the others are still there. E. J. goes home to my sister and their daughter, tired but happy. Brienne crashes on the floor of my girls' bedroom (I'm her ride home). I crash on the floor of my family room because I'll never be able to pull myself out of bed in time if I go there. My wife is up feeding the baby, so she promises to wake me, which she does.
8:15 AM - We pack up and head down to Orem.
9:45 AM - We hand in the final film (on two DVDs, just in case) to Brandon, who is manning the desk. Cutoff time is one hour away (I should have kept working on it!) and Brandon says that we're the eighth group to hand in a finished product. We tell him briefly what happened (because he asks how it went) and he shares our overarching sentiment - gladness that we pulled something off in spite of all that happened.
9:50 AM - I take Brienne home.
10:30 AM - I go to work. Oy.
Comments
:)
Ambition's a good thing.
And I'm glad they're using the same sort of rules --- I really think they've set the competition up very nicely.
That it was.
Th.,
Thanks. I think it's well set up, too. As I said, I'll post the video after the competition. I'm not sure if I should post it here or on Trevor's blog, though. It might make for a more interesting post there, as I'm sure it would get more attention than my poor little bloggy, and it seems relevant.