10 posts tagged “48 hour film project”

Here's the Monmouth Film Collective's entry in the 2009 Portland, Oregon 48 Hour Film Project (read more). You can also view it on blip.tv.

past-present

This past weekend I participated in my third 48 Hour Film Project. Got the film done and in on time. Every year there's something that goes haywire. The previous two it was making copies for submission that proved to be inexplicably difficult. This year it was chasing down release forms from cast and crew. We normally head to Portland on Saturday night for editing, but this time we stayed in Monmouth to take advantage of the MacPro and full FCP. I think that was right the choice, but am glad we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the drop-off location.

We drew "drama" as our genre this year. Leaving aside that this seems more like a meta-category than a discrete "genre", it was still more fun and satisfactory to work with in this framework than last year's "historical fiction/period piece", which is, I imagine, very difficult for anyone but people with unique resources. Our creative process involved a lot of improvisation, which was fun, and produced a lot of naturalistic dialogue. I don't think this kind of approach is appropriate for all forms of film, but it's a cool way to work.

More to come, including the film.

With the school year done, I can turn my attention to film projects, starting with my documentary of comic book creators in Portland, Oregon. This also means that this blog will be sparked back to life. I will be posting more of my personal thoughts, frustrations, reflections on the documentary here, leaving the more "official" communications to the doc blog. There will also be other projects to write about as the summer continues.

"The Decision", the Monmouth Film Collective's 48 Hour Film Project short is now online at blip.tv and on YouTube. I've inserted the YouTube version below. blip offers better viewing, including a Quicktime version (best quality for online viewing, but it will take longer to load).

View in Flash on lo-fi cinema at blip.tv.
View in Quicktime on lo-fi cinema at blip.tv.

Last weekend (August 8-10), version two of the Monmouth Film Collective participated in the Portland, Oregon 48 Hour Film Project. We successfully finished our film and got it in on time (the event ran from 7:00 on Friday to 7:30 on Sunday; we got the film delivered by 7:00).

Our genre was historical fiction, and the Portland elements were:

• Character: Jake or Jane Gravenstein, wellness practioner.
• Line of dialogue: “Okay, I think I got it straight.”
• Prop: jumper cables.

This year's experience was immediately different from last year's in that the genre we drew was both more intimidating and more constraining. Fantasy, the genre we drew in 2007, is nothing but artistic license. Historical fiction comes with more limits, and more of a burden in terms of “getting it right.”

We decided on a 1930s, Great Depression story involving a family, three kids and a dad, looking for a place to stay and falling into the web of a maybe crazy, maybe craven “inventor” claiming to have a magical “healing machine”. I jumped on the idea because I immediately envisioned the family walking along a dusty railway. The writers did much more with the idea, obviously. It was also relatively easier to imagine at least roughly being able to approximate the look and feel of the period.

Naturally, the weather did not really cooperate. It rained over night, and was alternately sunny and cloudy all day on Saturday. Getting the “dust bowl” look and feel was not going to happen, but fortunately it being August, there was a lot of gold and brown in the landscape in any event. In other respects, the constantly changing light was a challenge for the photography, but I think we were able to work around it sufficiently to give us a consistent look when we needed it.

I remember being pretty happy with last year's film. I wouldn't say I was unhappy with this year's, which we titled “The Decision”, but it is more uneven, and there are more things I wish I had done a little different, particularly in editing. Our genre and our story was, ultimately, more ambitious this year. So, whereas last year, the low rent approach that is almost necessitated by the strictures of the event really worked, this year it became a source of frustration. On the other hand, the best moments in the new film are better than those from last year's.

This has nothing to do with the fine work of cast and crew. Our team was a mix of old and new faces, and we worked together well. I think that work is well-represented in the final film. I just can't help feeling that the end work is less than the talents and ambitions of the team.

This year's Monmouth Film Collective was, in addition to myself: Maren Bradley Anderson, David Berrier, Tristan Berrier, Rachel Bridgewater, Anne-Marie Deitering, David Doellinger, Ben Grimes, Jordan Hofer, Jason Kirtland, Bill Madden, Jesse Madden, Mark Madland, Orion Metzner, Chris Olsenius, Emily Plec, Charley Waller, and Rosanne Waller.

Watch last year's film, “DreemRz, Inc.”
See photos from this year.
This year's film coming soon. (It's now here).

Yesterday's musings/confessional about awards and recognition and the 48 Hour Film Project got me thinking about why I've moved into making film and video.

The simple answer is that it was fairly organic for me to move from teaching, researching, and writing about film to working with the form. Talking and writing about issues like the space of the frame or the significance of different kinds of edits made made me want to put those discussions into practice if for other reason than I thought it would make me a better teacher, scholar, and critic. What I've found is that I am more comfortable, and derive more pleasure from, working with film and video than I am with traditional academic texts (at least for now; and I'm not meaning to imply that I have given up writing articles, etc., because I haven't. Indeed, the more obviously academic video projects I'm working require supplementation with essays, source lists, etc. Similarly, my presentation at last year's Association of Pacific Coast Geographers meeting in Eugene, Oregon focused on theoretical issues related to the use of moving images in geographic research).

I've also discovered that I very much enjoy working on scripted projects. Such work is harder to fit into my professional identity as a geographer, but the truth is when I teach film, I mostly focus on popular features and not experimental or documentary work. Again, this isn't an either/or choice, but a case of both/and. I get satisfaction and learn from both scripted narrative films and "fully crewed" documentaries and those projects where I just grab my camera and start shooting.

If I had an ideal in my mind for my filmmaking future it would be to cultivate a community of people locally in the mid-Willamette Valley that mirrors, in miniature, what the better part of the Canadian music scene looks like: fluid collectives of creative people working alone and in different combinations. This year's 48 Hour Film Project was a big step in that direction in that the timing compelled me to reach outside of what has become the regular group to get a team together. The project was also encouraging for how many Western Oregon students were on the team, both for what that seems to imply about the future of film studies and Western and what it suggests about the possibilities for an active student culture at the school. Maybe in the future there will be whole teams of WOU students entering events like the 48 Hour Film Project and the International Documentary Challenge. More personally, I would love to work as a photographer or editor (or whatever) on a project being directed and produced by someone else.

In the meantime, I find myself weighing the possibilities of tackling a feature-length narrative. We'll see.

As noted in my previous post, screenings for the entries in the Portland 48 Hour Film Project were held last week. Our film, "DreemRz, Inc," screened on Wednesday, and those who went had very positive reports. People laughed and cheered, and some gave an "awww" to the end.

I can honestly write that awards and external validation do not play a huge role in my initial thinking about these kinds of projects or my attempts at filmmaking more generally (of course I have the luxury of a "day job" that not only enables me to do things like participate in the 48 Hour Film Project, but also lets me benefit from such things professionally). However, a film necessarily implies an audience, and one of the things I like about the 48 Hour Film Project's city-by-city format is that it pretty well guarantees each team that finishes at least one night where their film will be shown on a big screen, in a theater, and in front of an audience made up mostly of strangers.

While I don't go into a project thinking about awards and recognition, as the process comes to a conclusion, it's difficult not to begin thinking about such things, particularly if you're happy with what you've done, or, if the experience was such a good one that it buoys up your estimation of the work you've done beyond what's realistic or reasonable. I am myself not terribly experienced as a filmmaker, and mostly I find myself working with inexperienced crew and cast (where applicable) and with certain limitations of time and technology. These factors make it easy to put aside thoughts of actually working for awards. At the same time, I would hate to think that a time would come when I would do anything but make films that I find personally satisfying.

"DreemRz, Inc." was almost entirely fun to make, and from the kick off on Friday night I felt as if we were doing pretty good work. As these initial feelings were met by good audience reports, I've become more anxious than anticipated about the awards and recognition part of the 48 Hour Film Project. Intellectually, I still think that being among the best of the Portland entries seems unlikely, but that doesn't necessarily temper the emotional and visceral desire to be in that group. I was so buzzed by the first word I got on last week's screening that I slept terribly that night. Yesterday, I learned that our film was not the audience favorite in our screening group. Again, not a surprise, and not just because of the Monmouth Film Collective's amateurism, but, as a practical matter, we simply weren't going to be able to work the ballot like other teams. Tonight we find out about the rest of the  "Best of" selections, all of which will screen this coming Thursday at the Hollywood. I don't rationally expect "DreemRz, Inc" to be among the chosen. I am pretty well certain that, whatever the merits of our film, it likely isn't among the very best of PDX. However, understanding that isn't going to keep me from anxiously checking my e-mail tonight to see if we slip in somehow. Whatever happens, not only was the journey on this project it's own reward, but I remain happy with the final product even as I'm all too conscious of its flaws (some of which I plan to correct or mitigate before releasing it into the wild).

UPDATE: As anticipated, "DreemRz, Inc." was not chosen for the "Best of" screening in Portland's 48 Hour Film Project. To the extent that this is a let down at all, and it isn't much of one for the reasons outlined above, it is because we'll miss out on the second screening at the Hollywood. Having missed the first show, I would have liked to the chance to see it on the big screen with a good audience, and would have liked others on the team to get that experience, too. The upside here is that the future of the film is now firmly in our own hands.

I'm happy to say that the Monmouth Film Collective was one of the teams to successfully finish their film in the Portland 48 Hour Film Project. All teams had the same required elements: a character named Roy or Rachel Schwarz, quality control expert, a line of dialogue, "Do you smell what I smell?", and a balloon for a prop. The genre we drew was "Fantasy." We got the genre and elements thanks to Rachel Bridgewater and Jason Kirtland who attended the kick off at the Jupiter Hotel in Portland while the rest of the team awaited our draw in Monmouth (which, for those of you not from western Oregon, is located about 70 miles to the southwest of Portland).

We came up with a story centered around a quality control expert at a "dream factory," DreemRz, Inc., who is having to fight declining quality in the dreams being put out by the company. We went with Rachel instead of Roy. Rachel was played by Meghan Flickinger, who played "Pam" in 5 Cups of Coffee. Her antagonist was "Richard Upright, VP for quality control" played by David Berrier, a member of Pentacle Theater in Salem. The scenario devised by the writers, headed by Maren Anderson, writer of 5 Cups, and including Shane Hosea and Jason McBane, had Rachel trying to convince Upright that the dreams being put out by DreemRz, Inc. were no longer helping the company's customers effectively work through their personal problems, refresh their mental abilities, and develop as people. Upright's focus is on production and profit. To him a dream is a dream. To Rachel dreams are for individual dreamers. Ultimately, she confronts a horrific dream being sent to a little girl. She decides to stop it no matter what the cost to her job. The writers wrote up the dream making process as being like film making, so she races from department to department before finally catching up to the horrible dream in shipping. We used the balloons as dream delivery devices. In trying to convince Upright that the dreams are no good, she "shows" him a number of dreams, including one involving a fish that made for an organic use of the required line.

One of the initial challenges we had to work out on the set was how to incorporate the dreams into the dialogue between Rachel and Upright. Our production designer, Jordan Hofer, searched around the shooting location, at the Willamette Academy Offices in Salem, thanks to photographer William Bragg, and found a round vase and a green calculator that could sort of disguised if you showed the back instead of the front. We went with the vase because it caught the light well. In editing I used Final Cut's "ripple dissolve" to signify a shift into dreams. In the end, the vase pretty much looks like a vase, but it was, I think the best way to create room for the dream sequences.

The shoot was very extemporaneous and the film's ending was in constant evolution right up to the conclusion of shooting. We had to make a lot of decisions on the fly, due not only to time constraints, but also in response to what was happening as we shot. Sometimes the way we shot one scene seemed to make other scenes superfluous, so we would skip them and move on. Jordan's kid, Anna, was cast in the role of the little girl Rachel is trying to save. As they say, "never work with kids and animals." She was feeling overwhelmed by the production and we had to adjust to her mood (this turned out for the better, I think, as I like our ending).

If there is one thing I wished we had done differently it was in how we shot the dialogue between Rachel and Upright. We had a tighter angle on Rachel than Richard. This posed some challenges in editing and some of the cuts between them are a little too jumpy. Had we shot some tighter footage of Upright, too, that would have made this easier (of course, I am not entirely comfortable with the classic, shot-reverse shot style of shooting and editing dialogue. This style provides the audience with an omniscient point of view, but it feels awkward and unnatural to me. When we talk to people, we generally look at them head-on. When we observe conversations, we see the conversants together, and often in profile or from the back. We do not get to see both sides of the discussion from essentially the same vantage point. This is something I am going to keep turning over in my head for awhile).

The work done by the team was exceptional, particularly given how much we all had to get to know each other while we worked. David was excellent, effectively evoking Bill Lumbergh without engaging in imitation. Meghan was also excellent, playing Rachel with a quiet determination. The other actors, Samantha Berrier, Brett McKay, and Jesse Madden, had to get into character on a moment's notice and helped to give the dream sequences, shot at the  IKE Box in Salem, especially, the sort of low rent surreality that we needed. Others on the crew also pitched in with the acting when needed, and Jordan's wife, Armelle was drafted at the last minute to help Anna with the ending. One advantage of our script was it gave us license to reuse people in different roles. I empathize with the writers on a project like this. Even more than usual some of their best work no doubt got left behind as time pressures demanded a certain amount of ad-libbing and cutting of scenes. Still, the architecture and key ideas are down to Maren, Shane, and Jason. Jennifer Richards produced superb music, especially our main theme, which, combined with Bill Madden's artwork for the credits, starts the film with a real Michel Gondry-vibe. Jordan's work on the dream shipping room was first rate. His choice of black and red for the balloons and reworking of the room to make it unrecognizable as a recycled location were both inspired. Norris Lee was very helpful, willing to do any small job to keep the production moving. Will, already a skilled still photographer, was great to work with as DP. He was ready with advice and willing to experiment with me. Anne-Marie did the essential work of reviewing and downloading footage, a task that pretty much isolated her from the rest of the group. She was also instrumental in giving me feedback during primary editing. Jason and Rachel, in addition to being invaluable for the kick off, helped to make sure we got our film in on time when we ran into trouble printing to video on a MiniDV tape and had to burn data files to DVDs instead. These kinds of events are really about the process and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even the rough patches.

Our film, titled "DreemRz, Inc," screens in a group tonight at the Hollywood Theater in Portland at 7:15. Sadly, I can't make it, but other members of the team are going and I'll be sure to pass on their thoughts and reactions. In the meantime, check out Bill's art for the opening title:

Title-art

The 48 Hour Film Project, Portland, Oregon, begins this coming Friday evening. I gathered the team together for a pre-production meeting this past Sunday. Because of the timing of the competition, I've had to reach out to a lot of new people, that is, folks I haven't worked with on other projects like the International Documentary Challenge (IDC). While this adds a "getting to know everyone" curve to the production, it was clear from Sunday's meeting that this team has a lot of energy and some useful resources and experiences to contribute. I am very interested to experience this kind of a format with a scripted film. Nonetheless, I'm hoping to apply lessons from the IDC to the coming weekend. I'll give a full report on all the whos and whats after the project is over.

Here's a round up of what I've been doing on the film and DV front lately:

• I recently moved my film blogging to Spout. I am not taking refracting kropotkin down, but am putting it on hiatus while I give Spout a try (UPDATE to the update: To address some of the limitations of Spout as a blogging space, I've created a companion blog on LiveJournal: Short-Circuit Signs. This will let me use LJ's tagging capacity and more open platform while cross-posting to Spout).
  
• You can get caught up on what I've had published to PopMatters lately by looking at my "@ PopMatters" list on refracting k.
• I've entered a team in the Portland 48 Hour Film Project. We're at the the early organizational stage. Some of the people are the same as those who have worked on the IDC and on 5 Cups. The membership of the team is still in flux, but should solidify in the next few weeks. I'll be sure to blog this once we're done.
• I will also be working on a submission for the Toronto Urban Film Festival, a first year project of Art for Commuters. I am drawn to this fest not just because Anne-Marie and I are planning on being at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, when the TUFF films will be run in the Toronto subway, but because it dovetails with projects I am already working on.