a quick summary

Several items of interest:

a. Tonight we head to the Belcourt for the awards ceremony for the 48 hour film project.  We don’t really expect to win anything, but we rejoice in the fact that our movie wasn’t the worst one.  i will point no fingers.

b. Leslie started her new job today.  Just paperwork, but it’s still a new era in our lives.

c. Currently listening to the band Mew.  Their name is almost like a cat sounds, but their music sounds nothing like what cats sound like when they make music.  This is my first time listening to Mew, and i’m enjoying it.

d. i’m going to see Fiona Apple at the Ryman tomorrow night, and i’m very happy about this.  It’s ok to be jealous, just don’t covet my seat because that’s wrong.

e. is my favorite letter in the alphabet.

f. i have a bobcat in the backseat of my vehicle.  This bobcat has scared my wife on numerous occasions.  As a matter of fact, it frightened her 4 times in one day, and it’s not even alive.

g. i don’t think i would put ranch dressing on a handful of raisins, but somehow ranch dressing on a salad with raisins in it is ok.  It’s fascinating to me what conversations my mouth and brain must have.

h. Taledega Nights comes out this weekend.  My excitement can hardly be contained.

i. love lamp.

More 48 hour info

As i patiently wait for the Rockstar Table Tennis demo to download on my xbox360, i decided to post some more information concerning the 48 hour film project that we were so priviledged to be a part of this past weekend.

First of all, and thanks to aaron, here is a youtube link to the movie.

For those who want the full experience, you can see the movie, along with many of the others, at the Belcourt this upcoming week.  Here are the days and times.  We are in group B. Super Fun Gunslingin’ Club.

i think my download is almost complete, so i will now enjoy some digital table tennis.

the 48 hour film project

44 teams entered the Nashville 48 Hour Film Project this year. This year, there are more than 1000 filmmaking teams around the world competing to make the best short film in just 48 hours, and we decided to join the madness. Since i put our team together, i assumed the role of producer, which was an amazing experience.

Here is a somewhat brief summary of the filmmaking process for our team: Super Fun Gunslingin’ Club.

Friday, 7pm: All the film makers assemble at JJ’s Market in Nashville to get their theme, a character they had to use, a prop that had to be in the film, and a line of dialog. We drew “Silent Film” as our genre, but opted for the Wild Card, which ended up being “Historical Fiction/Period Piece”. The character was Fred or Fay Maloney, the prop was a wagon, and our line of dialog was “Go ahead, walk all over me.” With that information in hand, i contacted the part of our crew who was helping write the screenplay and gave them the information, while i carefully drove to meet them at Andy’s flat. Aaron, the director/editor and Kelley, the production manager, were both with Andy as we started brainstorming ideas with me on the phone.

Friday, 8pm: As we come up with ideas, Morgan and Marion join us, helping us do research on time periods. We quickly decided to go for the 1980’s and started coming up with ideas inside of that era.

Friday, late: We write the script. Everyone finally leaves until only Andy and i remain, frantically trying to finish the script. After a few read throughs, we realize that the script is a touch long, but will be easy to edit down, and i leave his flat around 2:45am.

Saturday, 7am: The crew arrives at the Mad Platter, an amazing restaurant in Germantown, near downtown Nashville. Our sound crew consists of Evan, Chris, and Bryan, and Aaron, our director, is also behind the camera. We’ve cast our actors: Andy, Marion, Ashley, Morgan, and myself each settle into roles, and we start donning our 80’s garb and going over the script after a few edits are made.

Saturday, up to 3pm: We film the movie, 97% there at the Mad Platter. We promptly try to put the restaurant back together at 2:30 so they can prepare to open the restaurant at 5pm.

Saturday, 4pm: We head to Chris and Evan’s apartment, which was absolutely perfect for this event. The apartment is 3 floors, the bottom floor being a sound studio and where all the technical people set up. The middle floor had the kitchen, some computers, and a few couches, and the top floor had 2 bedrooms for tired actors/crew people to crash in. We eat a delicious meal, prepared by Kelley, and the tech people get to work.

Saturday, 5pm-?: This is where it starts getting fuzzy, as far as times are concerned. We listen to an 80’s style song that Evan and the guys wrote the night before, and we write and record another. Aaron pulls all the video down from the camera and starts to edit. We realize around 8 or 9pm that we used the name “Mahoney” rather than “Maloney”, which is not good. There were 9 places where the name was mentioned, so we planned to punch the names in later that night. i decided to try to get a little sleep, as people did all throughout the evening.

Sunday, 3am: i’m awoken to prepare to do some voice-overs. A few hours later, we realize that the sound is very inconsistent, and the voice overs are working. The decision has been made by the sound team to do 80% of the audio over. Keep in mind that our movie is almost all dialog. i redo every line, as does almost everyone in the cast. We were able to keep a scene or two, luckily.

Sunday, 10amish: Kelley makes a delicious breakfast for us. The sound guys start mixing down the audio while Aaron is trying to render video and get the credits to render as well. Technical difficulties start to surface, yet everyone is calm and continues on.

Sunday, 1pm: We are finishing overdubs and recording Foley (sound effects).

Sunday, 3pm: We write a song for the end credits, record it, and have it ready for Aaron to enter into the movie, along with the other sound. We’re starting to cut it close, but everyone is still incredibly calm and collected.

Sunday, 6pm: Crunch time. Still having a few technical difficulties, yet Aaron is completely calm, or at least is looking calm. i’m a little edgy, but trying to not stress anyone out. Two copies of the movie have to be at JJ’s Market no later than 7:30pm, and we’re 15 minutes from there. Aaron finishes, and we start transferring the video from Aaron’s computer to the camera, where the miniDV tape is hanging out, awaiting our movie.

Sunday, 7:10pm: Andy and i sprint to the car with all of the paperwork in hand, and 1 copy of the movie. Marion is 15 minutes behind us with the other tape.

Sunday, 7:25pm: Andy and i arrive with 5 minutes to spare, but we hang in the back, waiting for Marion to deliver the 2nd tape. A sigh of relief.

Notes: Our team was amazing. Everyone gave everything they had, filling roles and doing things to make sure that everything got done. i can’t say how proud i am of our group, and how amazing the weekend was. Every problem that came up, we found a way around it, and there was very little complaining. Thanks everyone.