Two-Bit Pictures is Looking Forward: PART 4 - The Filming

The shoot was to start around noon but really we started around 2. We read through the script, gathered costumes, and set up cameras and lights. Sometime during the writing process it was decided that I would play the main character, Valerie Hart, an unhappy teenage psychic. I can’t say that I’ve never been in a film because my friends and I would make them all the time in high school but this was the first time that people other than my friends (and the kids in my high school English and History classes) would see a film I worked on. This was the first time that there were real cameras and lights and a script. This was my first experience being in a film that was going to be shown on “the big screen”.

I was super nervous and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I’ve been on stages dancing, singing, and acting (where you only get the one chance a night to get it right) and I’ve never been nervous before; but being in front of a camera was rather unsettling. There was a lot of fumbling around trying to get good shots of me saying my lines but once we settled in things got better and we started to have a lot of fun. Most of the fumbling was me trying to remember my lines, not look at the camera, and then not laughing when other people got silly. There was a certain amount of fiddling with cameras, lights, and mics that slowed us down a bit, too, but it was a really good learning experience for everyone. It was the first time any of us used the camera so all the settings were explored to try to get the best cinematography. Some things worked, some things didn’t, and some things worked until we put the footage on the computer and realized that it didn’t.

Filming wrapped up at exactly midnight on Saturday. It was a whirlwind of fun, frustration, cleaning, memorizing, trying not to fall asleep, and getting utensils stuck in appliances. We moved from apartment to apartment in pajamas in the dark, ate leftover pizza, and sent people on adventures to find wife beaters and allergy medicine.

As we gathered our things and filled out our paperwork the only thing on our minds was sleep. However, sleep was not on the docket for some of us because although we had the filming complete there was still the elephant in the room: editing.

Two-Bit Pictures is Looking Forward: PART 3 - The Writing

Once we had our requirements my mind started to race. I quickly found that I was coming up with ideas for every genre except Film de Femme. I didn’t want to make a film about a stereotype (female in the workforce, female killing for revenge, female fighting for her rights in a man’s world, etc.) which meant that I didn’t have any viable ideas for a strong female character. I started to think of quirky female characters that could go on adventures of self discovery in 4-7 minutes but I was getting nowhere fast. Luckily we had a group of people to brainstorm and write.

Groups can get tricky in creative situations when there is little time to brainstorm. Everyone has their own opinions and when brainstorming everyone should be heard. But what happens when there are seven tired people in a room at night with the clock ticking away towards your sun-up deadline for a finished script? You have to shoot down a lot of ideas, possibly hurt feelings, and try your darndest to come up with the best plot you can. We had a lot of ideas thrown out, some lively debate that would have gone better if we weren’t so tired and under the gun, some people stuck on how to include the requirements, and others who were worrying about set, costumes, etc. It got chaotic at times and I’m not sure what the neighbors thought but despite some awkward moments and inadvertent scathing remarks it was very helpful to have seven points of view in one room throwing out ideas. In the end we came up with an idea and we all learned a little something about brainstorming on a time budget.

Originally, all seven of us were going to write. I was worried about the number of people that would be writing and the events of the brainstorming session didn’t help so I will admit that I was relieved when plans changed. I didn’t worry about who was writing; we all have experience writing scripts of one sort or another, but too many cooks in the kitchen, no matter if they are gourmet or food truck, will make for one terrible stew. Our group shrunk from seven people to four for the basic script/plot and then to three brave souls who wrote the full script. (We really weren’t that brave. All three of us have previous experience with brainstorming, writing scripts, and performing live within a 24 hour time frame. It’s never easy but at least we knew what we were up against.) We worked through the dialogue and plot in bits and pieces and by 5:30am we had the script 99% done. I bailed to drive back to my house to sleep and gather supplies for the shoot which would start in only a few short hours. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Two-Bit Pictures is Looking Forward: PART 2 - The Requirements

Friday May 6th was an agonizingly long day. I came to work for 8am like usual, sat through meetings as usual, and did other project management and engineering things... as usual. Work wasn’t what made that particular Friday so unbearable; knowing that I would be learning about our movie’s genre and the required character, line, and prop at 7pm is what really got under my skin. I was doing my best not to think about it but, of course, that only made me think about it more.

“Requirements?” you ask? Yes, there are requirements for the 48 Hour Film Project. Some of the blanket requirements are that all work, concepts, music, etc. must be done/occur within the 48 hour time frame. This means that no filming, writing, etc. should be done before the weekend of the local contest. (There are some exceptions to every rule and if you’d like to learn them, check out the 48 Hour Film Project website linked in Part 1.) To control the time frame of work as well as to make it more challenging (and a slightly more level playing field) each team has to choose a genre out of a hat. The website lists the genres for the current year’s tour so in theory you could plan out an idea for every genre beforehand (but that’s not very fun, is it?). Also, you get a mulligan and can re-choose if you don’t like your original pick, but you have to pick out of a different set of genres that may be much harder (like a western or a musical).

Each team blindly picks a genre so you can end up with 10 teams working on comedies, 15 working on dramas, and etc. etc. But there are three things that all of the teams have to include in their films: a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue. The character has to be on screen and clearly shown to be the character, the prop has to be incorporated into the story somehow, and the line of dialogue has to be said verbatim (or it doesn’t count). There are judging criteria and prizes for best use of the three as well as best use of genre. This year Boston’s requirements were:

Character: Uncle Hank OR Aunt Henrietta
Prop: a chess piece
Line: “I didn’t see that coming.”

Our fearless leader made his pick shortly before 7pm. “Film de femme” was written on the sheet of paper. What is “film de femme”? It is a genre created by the folks at the 48 Hour Film Project as a way to showcase female talent and strong female characters. He emailed us our requirements and we met at 9pm to craft a plot and write our script.

Check back for Part 3! (I bet it's already written!)

Two-Bit Pictures is Looking Forward: PART 1 - The Beginning

Two-Bit Pictures (Facebook, @2bitPX) is a small indie film-making group created by the guys over at The D-Pad (dpadup.com, @downrightdpad, Facebook). Their first short was produced recently and I had the privilege of being brought into the fold to work on it. It wasn’t your ordinary film making experience because the entire 6 minute short was conceptualized, written, produced, shot, and edited within 48 hours. That’s right, we are insane.

How and why did Two-Bit Pictures come up with this crazy idea to make an entire short in a 48-hour time frame? Luckily, we had help from the super awesome people at the 48 Hour Film Project (48hourfilm.com). For 10 years people from all over the world have been participating in festivals in several cities (and this year they are expanding quite a bit). Some seek glory, some seek redemption, and others seek the chance to have their ugly mugs seen on the big screen. Some teams have years of experience while others, like Two-Bit Pictures, have team members with a wide range of experiences (from zero to hero). One thing that you will be sure to find is people passionate about film and film-making and a lot of support and encouragement. You’ll also be sure to find some mind-blowingly great shorts and some huge duds, too.

My experience with the 48 Hour Film Project started a month of so ago (probably farther back now that I think about it) when a friend threw up a status on Facebook asking if anyone was interested in working on a short for 48 hours. Because I have little social life and the challenge sounded amazing, I offered up myself as a sacrifice to the film gods. I didn’t hear anything for a while so I was actually getting quite nervous. The weekend was coming up fast and I wasn’t sure if my sacrifice was accepted or not. I was somewhat afraid to ask because there have been two instances within the last 2 years where I offered to help out on something, got really really excited for the chance, was told “Great! Can’t wait to work with you! We need to make this happen! I’ll get back to you with more details when I get them.”, heard nothing for a while, asked for more info, was ignored, and then found out after-the-fact that I was ignored on purpose because almost everyone else in the group voted me out without my knowledge. Let me tell you, finding that out kind of sucks.

So what was I to do? I sat back, tried not to get psyched, and just waited. Luckily work and a sick kitty took up a lot of my time (and they still do) so I was never bored enough to wonder much about the 48 Hour Film Project. Then one day... *POOF!* The info started to roll in, this thing we call Two-Bit Pictures started to grow, and plans were solidified for our first foray into 48-hour film-making.

Check back "next time" for Part 2!

New Post, New Design, New Plan, New Fun

With this post comes a new blog design and purpose. I've been struggling with ideas and motivation for my webcomic and have been wanting to write reviews on TV shows that I watch ('cause I watch a lot of 'em) as well as update my tiny world on other things that are going on in my tiny world. So, in a moment of "Well, whatever." I decided to change the design and tagline of this blog and expand its content in hopes that I will do more and do it frequently.

So what's this all about now? Well, I'm not ruling out webcomics or other silly nonsense. In fact, I'm going to embrace anything and everything that spills out of my brain. I've got a lot of fun things coming up in the next few months and you'll be hearing about it all. There'll be links, pictures, videos, recipes, bento fun, reviews, tips, tricks, shoutouts... and whatever else I can think of (or whatever is easiest at the time).

Any feedback about the design is appreciated. Is it too silly, too hard to read, too weird, just right? Leave a comment and let me know.