The Curse of Dial-Up

Last weekend I was part of a team working on a film for the 48hr Film Project. The 48hr Film Project is an event that takes place all around the world. Basically it works like this; a director gets a team of volunteers together, and I do mean volunteers (One of the 48HRFP rules is no one can be paid for their services.) At a designated time all the teams that entered get a prop, a character name, a line of dialogue and a type of movie genre. The team then has 48 hours to write, film and edit a five to seven minute movie. All the films that are turned in within the time limit get screened later in the week and then prizes are awarded for several different categories.

Because you have no idea what your film is going to be about, the best thing to do is get a huge crew together and have the talent (actors) on call if you need them. That’s what I was this weekend, one of the actors on call.

Which means I was waiting by the phone from 7PM Friday until Saturday at 2PM when the phone finally rang and I was asked to come to where they were shooting and be in a few scenes. I then spent the next nine hours helping to make 8 minutes of absolutely hilarious footage, which kind of sucks because you know the majority of what you’re shooting will end up on the cutting room floor. Then I was asked to be on call the next day to do one more scene and a bunch of still photos that would be turned into a montage.

Ugh, More sitting by the phone and waiting. Around noon the call came in, we did the shots and finished up around 3:30PM. Scary! That only left them four hours to edit the film and get it to the drop off point. It’s extra scary because this same team last year, which I was not a part of, missed getting their film in on time by two minutes. I feared if the film didn’t get in on time this year the director, who we’ll call Sean because that’s his name, would spontaneously combust.

Well, Sean edited it and turned in on time, but not without some blood. Literally. He was sprinting through the hallway of the hotel that was serving as event headquarters, trying to get to the drop off room. As Sean was running toward the door to the room, that was being held open by another volunteer, he could hear them counting down the final ten seconds. He went into a slide trying to slow down, crashed into the door, tore his pants, got a huge rug burn that started bleeding and still managed to flip the finished film toward another person from our team who had been standing there with all our paperwork. (Release forms and contact info for everyone who worked on the film.) Anyhow, she caught the DVD containing the finished film and slapped it down on the judge’s table along with all of the team’s paperwork just as the countdown hit two.

SHEESH! I wish we could have filmed that.

I have not seen the finished project. The few scenes I was in seem like they will be fantastic, not because of me, but because of the amount of talent around me that I was a small part of. Sean also seems extremely happy with the final cut. He says he had to cut a lot of great stuff, but plans on making an extended version later.

The screening of the films is this Wednesday. I can hardly wait. If you happen to be in Stumptown on Wednesday night stop by the Hollywood Theatre at 9PM and root for our film. It’s a mockumentary titled “Tooth and Nail”. That’s all I’m going to tell you about the film. I have the feeling it will end up on YouTube soon, and believe me I will let you know when it does.

Anyhow, what I really wanted to tell everyone is I had to stay off line all weekend because I was waiting for the phone to ring. (I know, I know it’s the curse of dial-up. What can I say? I’m poor.) Being unplugged all weekend meant I didn’t get a chance to reply to comments or visit any blogs, so I’ll try and catch up this week. I guess I could have spent the last few hours doing those things instead of spending that time on this post, but the story was dying to escape and I couldn’t say no.

Do your stories ever try to escape? Do you want to leave some love today?