I ended up doing a lot for the movie (as most of us did) but editing is not on my list of dedicated functions. I've done only minor editing with iMovie and some sound recording in the past and our movie required real editing. Luckily we had a few people who edit things on a weekly basis. But just because I wasn't in the room with them didn't mean that I wasn't worried about what was happening.
I wasn't worried how the movie was going to come out. I knew that it would be the best it could under the time constraints and that the people editing knew what they were doing; what was getting to me was whether or not my acting was good enough, how the shots came out, if we were going to be able to use the best shots, and whether or not I would have to rush to Boston to re-shoot or rerecord anything. I was checking Twitter and Facebook even more religiously than usual to catch any updates. It almost felt like I was watching a football game on the NFL website; I was getting some soundless play-by-play updates and I wanted my team to win so badly but I had no real control over it.
Along with editing the shots together our editing team, Rick and John, also had to add news graphics and music. There are some very strict rules that accompany the project (mentioned in Part 2) and some of those includes how pictures, graphics, and music are used. You can't use anything that isn't your own work unless you can somehow get the rights to it. For instance if you wanted to use "Rock Your Body" you better know Justin Timberlake and get him to sign the form saying that you can use the song in your movie or you need to have a lot of money and access to buy the rights to it between Friday at 7pm and Sunday at 7:30pm.
A similar rule exists for pictures, graphics, and other special effects. You can't use stock photos but you can use a picture taken by anyone before or during the filming weekend if you get them to sign a form saying so. You can, however, use stock sound and visual effects if they come bundled in with an editing package. There may be other nuances to the rules that I don't quite understand so check out the rules for yourself if you are interested in working on a 48 Hour Film Project film of your own.
Music was written, shots were edited, graphics were 'shopped. All in all it was a long 17.5 hours filled with computers and caffeine which somehow ended in submitting our movie. The final cut wasn't perfect but for a somewhat rag-tag team of first-time movie makers (well, we all had at least a tiny bit of experience making some kind of movie or movie-like thing but none of us were comfortably sitting in a role that we knew all about) our little film came out pretty well and at the end of the day it was a really great learning experience for everyone.
After the movie was submitted most of the group got together to record our very own episode of The D-Pad: Episode 6 - 2 Days a Screenplay. I've never been on anything that real people listen to (or watch) so knowing that people who I didn't know (even if it was just a friend of a friend of someone else in the room) would be hearing me try to communicate intelligently was both exciting and unnerving. I think that I sound silly when recorded and I always tend to stick my foot in my mouth when the opportunity arises for a recorded opinion (or just a phone message). I didn't disappoint the Stupidity Gods during the podcast as I managed to insult the state of CT and possibly all of Asia. When/if you listen, just remember that I tend to make comments for comedic effect even when I know that they will make me look like a terrible person... and that even though I sound like an ass at points I was still rewarded with pastry.
The D-Pad was super fun and I'd love to be on it again. The content tends to focus on video games, which I am terrible at, so maybe I'm not the best guest... but I know things about stuff that other people may also know about... and stuff. I have a unique taste in bad movies and procedurals which I hope to share both here and on the D-Pad in the future so maybe if you stick with both my blog and The D-Pad you'll get to read/hear about those things.
Let's get back to our irregularly scheduled program. So, we made our movie and submitted it. What's next for us? Well, before Two-Bit Pictures moves on to any other projects we first get to show our movie to other people, right? Well, we did and it was awesome. Thanks to the 48 Hour Film Project every submitted film is shown at a local theatre, big screen and all, to paying customers. Did people like our film? Check back in an undetermined amount of time for my next chapter in the saga that needs to end really soon so that I can talk about a HUGE thing happening in TV next week. In the meantime, check out the trailer for Two-Bit Pictures' first film "Looking Forward" (made for the 2011 Boston 48 Hour Film Project).
