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.

Have a PURRR-fect Day!

I am confused by her sentiments but my boyfriend says that she loves me.

Now with more Frenchmen!

Looky at what I can do with my drawing tablet and a *good* drawing/editing program. It took me about a half an hour to draw, edit, and upload this post. Sweet. Thank you Pixelmator! (Click on the picture to see a larger version...if you dare! Muahahahahahahaaa.....)

EJ Massa's Blog: Joe and the Button Factory

EJ Massa's Blog: Joe and the Button Factory: "Joe and the Button Factory from Edmund Massa on Vimeo. I made this for my introduction to image and sound production class as my final proj..."


Although I haven't been updating this (at all) lately (within the past year, at least) I've still been working on some creative ventures. But EJ is clearly a god and I only helped a little on this one. Love him and his work! Now! Click the link already! If you are still reading this then you haven't clicked the link and you should! (yadda yadda yadda)

Pineapple Pal

Although pineapples are generally considered welcoming fruit, this one disapproves of you...for some reason.

EDIT: Apparently the linked site with the Psych "Make Your Own Pineapple Pal" widget is gone, so use your imagination.