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The Great Re-Cap...

Okay, so a solid 36 hours has passes since my first cinematic trail by fire, aka, the 48 Hour Film Project. Yea, I've directed a couple of movies before, but this one is different. Up until last weekend, the films I shot were with a small (very small) group of close friends with little pressure. That isn't to say I'm not proud of my previous work. I very much am, as Cthulhu Pet screened at the 2006 HP Lovecraft Film Festival and was considered the only (intentialy) funny short of the festival... This time out was different. The 48 Hour Film Project places extreme pressure on everyone involved. While my core group of filming friends were staying in place, this was the first time when jobs were well-defined and a full cast and crew were coming on board...

What follows is the closest I can come to an unfiltered stream of thought from Friday, August 10 till Sunday, August 12, 2007...

08/10/07 – 5:30pm – Hey Jayesunn, feel free to play with the camera and prep all the settings for potential nights shot... Yes, we are going to try and avoid a late night Friday shoot. We're limited on night shooting ability and I've been on crews that are dead on their feet before they shoot frame one. That will not be the case on this team... I hope... 10 minutes pass and he calls back, “Hey Aaron, did you pack the mics”?

Crap, no... Wait, Scott has them... Oh well, he's going to be there in a few minutes anyway. Just wait.

6:05pm – Standing in line waiting to check in my team: Geeks in the City (yea, points for team originality there, bucko). I see my buddy Jarius. It is his first time out running a team in this festival as well. We joke about falling on our asses, but at least we have hot chicks on our teams! (Once a “dude”, always a “dude”). We wish each other luck. Sure, we both might technically be “competitors”, we're also both worried about screwing up and letting our teams and genuinely wish each other good luck...and hope we pull Superhero. (Cause we're both massive Nerds)!

6:40pm – Damn, I hate hipsters... Movie hipsters are worse than music ones... I feel like a freak in my Shazam! hat, wait... No I don't, this hat RAWKS!

7:05pm – Jarius pulled Superhero... Sweet, good on him!

7:16pm – You kidding me?! We pulled Superhero! Hells yes! A team made-up of people who know every Justice League line-up since 1964... W00t! Jarius and I joke we should screw these “rules” and write a Marvel vs. DC Crossover movie... Our heroes and teams will meet and then take out other film teams... Thankfully, both our partners (mine being Aaron Barnard and his being said hot chick) pull us apart and remind us that we actually have to follow the rules... We shrug and say “next time dude, totally”... We wish each other luck and go our ways...

7:20pm – Aaron Barnard puts out the mass text... SUPERHERO!!!!

7:45pm – I sit my butt down and start writing... All the log lines we tossed around a few weeks ago fly right out the window... Something hits me while standing in line... Something that will fit Superhero perfectly, I hope...

8:15pm – My team just proved how friggen awesome they are... All needed cast and crew are contacted. Costumes and props begin to arrive. Locations get locked. Craft Services preps. Equipment is prepped. No one says a word to me as I bang away on the keyboard...

9:15pm – Bam! The script is finished. Pretty proud of the little sucker. I know the cast can make it magic... Also, no night shots. I can send folks home to rest for the Saturday of filming hell! Damn, all we need is some equipment testing and the core crew can get some rest as well... Not a bad way to start...

9:25pm – Crap! Our mics don't work with the camera... We have 2 choices... on-board mic (which is ass) or we sync with an external boom mic, 35 mm style... Damn, neither are fun... I spend the next 3 hours ranting about not pulling my head out and testing this crap DAYS ago... Hard lesson to get reminded about...

11:55pm – Driving home annoyed... Gonna' have to sync... Damn, it takes so long to get the sound synced correctly... This sucks!

12:25am – Can't get any sleep... Need to sleep... Early ass call time...

08/11/07 – 6:30am – Up and early... Crew won't arrive till 7:30, nice to enjoy the quiet before the chaos...

7:45am – Cast and crew arrive. Craft Services do a stunning job of getting everyone caffeinated and fed. Seriously, I know “professional” caters that can't pull off food presentations this well...

9:15am – Prepping the set, aka, my apartment... First scene of the day... Brett, the Deathecutioner (under the guise of Roy Schwarz, Quality Control Expert) as the dude who does all kinds of killing... As said better by Fatboy Roberts, this is indeed like pulling off that first band-aid...

11:20am – Good Lord... We're just now starting to shoot the first frame... Damn, if the rest of the day goes like this, we are totally hosed! Couple hours pass... I'm stressed as hell... So many people on the set... Too much chaos. Gonna' lose it... Then... Then... It is over and we are shooting stuff in the hall...

1:15pm – The hall stuff is easy. Music instead of dialog. No need to sync this section... Thank god, syncing will be hell...

2:15pm – Shooting outside... God bless my neighbors. Sure, they got in the way... constantly and often... But, they didn't call the cops on us as my two female leads sang their lines (one of whom is an opera singer) and the rest of us were filming a violent shooting were grandkids enter... Holy hell if it didn't work though... F'ing A!

3:00pm – 15 minutes for lunch. People make sure I eat, whether I want to or not. Good crew. Fatboy, Brett, and Jenn keeps folks in good spirits...while doing their normal jobs. Damn, great crew!

3:20pm – Dressing Sadie. Wow, seeing this character come to physical life might be one of the greatest experiences of all time...

4:45pm – Getting late, we need to get Sadie into her other costume and shoot her car scenes... The light is going so friggen fast... Still freaked out over the sound, oh good... Lots of wind to fill the mic. What could possibly go wrong...

5:55pm – We wrap outside the Vanished Twin Studios... Time to head for Guardian Games and their great SE industrial locations... Feeling good... Sadie, Joel, and Tucker ride with me... “Dude, Aaron, we are totally kicking ass... We're like hour ahead of schedule. Everyone who isn't us sucks”! Um, Joel, please don't say that until we're done shooting cause anything can... Oh hell...

(Here is where I steal from Fatboy's My Space Blog, as it captures my seething rage better than anything I could write... Plus. Even thinking about it again prevent rational thought)...

Having shots ruined as we lose the light because Portland's small armada of baby bands apparently were ALL playing a show at Rotture on Friday night, and 48 hour film project or no, someone had to set up the drum sets. 12 someones. Setting up 50 Drum Sets. Because there were like 30,000 different vans full of 70,000 dudes in jean jackets and spikes and cigarettes and winces all bumping into each other. It's like Guitar Hero Rocks The 80's got drunk and threw up all over the front of our location.

The solution? Frame those shots as tight as possible. Sometimes it's not stylistic. Sometimes it's not to highlight the intensity of the performance and establish a sense of closeness with the viewer. Sometimes it's because you don't want Lars Umlaut slamming dope into his ass cheek showing up at the far right of the frame.

6:45pm – Damn, all our good light is gone cause of the above asshats... This sucks... now what?!

7:00pm – God bless Angel of Guardian Games... She saved us with a stroke of location genius... The catch? We got about 20 minutes to prep and 20 minutes to shoot the MOST dramatic scene of the film... Also happens to be the linchpin of the plot as well... No pressure!!!

7:45pm – Could I ask for a better crew and cast? Hell no!!! At 7:20pm the set was ready as I worked like a madman to tweak Diana and Sadie lines and interaction... I know they got skill, but in 20 minutes? Hells yes! We only got 2, count them...2...takes before we had to leave... Each take was fantastic and both Diana and Sadie proved they have some serious acting ability. How did I get so lucky?

8:25pm – Couple tight ass evening shots for coverage... Only one HUGE problem... our climatic and very visual ending can't work anymore because of the Wall of Metal Jerks that took 4 hours to get ready... Sit down... Think... Someone shoves an ice cream bar in my face... hhmmm... ice cream fixes all...

9:00pm – Jayesunn, while shooting some basic filler shots pulls me aside and asks about altering the ending this way... (I ain't saying it yet, not till after the screening... Which is Wednesday night at 9:45 (Group B) at the The Hollywood Theatre...Go...and vote for the Geeks in the City... Do it, do it now)!!!

9:45pm – Damn, that idea worked fantastically... At least it will, I know it will... Sadie wraps. Her work is done... 45 minutes later, Diana wraps...Wait... Diana wraps... That means...

10:30pm – Geeks in the City wrap principal photography... It is shot... Holy crap!

11:40pm – I try to sleep again...

08/12/07 – 7am - Aaron, Fatboy, and I hit the Geek in the City Studio and begin the editing.

8:00am – All footage captured... Time to sync... Oh. No... Sound won't sync... F@CK!!! Now what?!?!? The on-camera mic blows ass!!!

8:15am – After much pacing and cursing... Fatboy saves our butt with a suggestion... We save each and every shot we need and sync is as a separate movie file... Not easy... tedious as hell... Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock...

12:10pm – All needed files synced... Dang, it took time... but in a strange way, this created a very rough cut, we know what we wanted... Sweet!

2:45pm – We've trimmed the movie from 6 minutes, 15 seconds... Then, another breath of genius... We take out a (relatively) huge chunk of the movie... The Passing is now a VERY TIGHT and SMOOTH 5 minutes, 8 seconds... Bam! Fatboy runs to compose the music...

5:00pm – Running a little late, Fatboy arrives... I don't get mad, at least I hope I didn't. He created some great work and the movie is already finished... As I was creating the sound effects while Fatboy scored the music...

5:15pm – We lay down the music... Sweet Lord... I am so proud of this movie. So proud of all involved... Great cast. Great crew!

5:30pm – Fatboy heads home to pass out. We render the footage to tape... We check the tape... Movie looks good... We rewind the tape.

WHAT. IS. THAT. SOUND?!?!?!?!?

5:32pm – NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! The camera just jammed and ate our Master Tape!!! WHY?!?!?!? ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE MY LIFE!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

6:10pm – Camera repaired...I hope... Movie re-rendered... Movie watched again... Hitting rewind, again... Slowly...

6:12pm – All is good... Thanks to the lovely Catherine, I have no worry about the paperwork that busts so many a 48 Hour teams... Not us, all prepped and ready to roll... Aaron smiles at me, we shake hands... He follows me past the Jupiter Hotel...

6:18pm – I drop off the film from Geeks in the City... “The Passing”... They offer me free pizza and beer... Still shaking, I thank them but know there is no way in hell I could keep food down... I try not to shake more as I walk away...

6:45pm – I go back to the Geek in the City studios to clean up and pack equipment... Finally able to let my emotions flow from the weekend, I lose it (from pure joy) as I look at my Justice League of America poster... Holy crap! We just told our own Superhero story...

For a Geek like me, I couldn't ask for anything more...

...For now...

We'll be back... Lots of stories to tell... Lots of movies to shoot...