Another 48 Hrs.

7/22/09

Leonard contacted me about the 48Hour film fest. It’s Part film festival Part Amazing race. The goal of the contest was to create a film from scratch over 48 hours. Friday night you would receive props and keywords you would have to incorporate into your script. Then you would spend the next two days, shooting, editing, and scoring your production. It sounded difficult as hell, and a whole lot of fun. This also wasn’t the first time we had a desire to enter, Back then we never even got into the planning stages. Hindered by the same old problem.

“Are they providing a camera” I asked. I knew the answer was no already. I just wondered if Leonard had any specific ideas on where we would get one.

“No we’re going to have to provide that” he said. I had recently gotten back in touch with Serge via facebook. And he seemed anxious for a new project. I told Leonard that he had all the equipment we needed and now would be the time for collaboration. Since we couldn’t prepare in advance, except for gathering the crew. We would all be in the same boat and have the same level of investment in the project. It seemed perfect. Leonard had few go to guys when it came to scoring the music. So it was beginning to click into place.

The film’s genre was also to be decided on Friday night. It was to be a 4-7 minute project. I was confident I could write it and write it fast enough. Even If I had to turn in my own version of Laser Cats. We both knew that with 4-7 minutes the only way to win the contest, was to have a real flashy movie.

“Dude, what if we pull a romance movie?” Leonard asked.

“That’s where my scripts shine the most” I assured him. “Don’t you remember all that girly-ass dialogue in Last Call.”
“Yeah but how do we make THAT flashy?” He had a good point and I began to get concerned.

I decided to contact Serge and see if he was down before we went any further. He got back to me in with all his usual excitement and fervor.

“HELL MOTHER FUCKING YEAH IM READY DUDE! COME UP TO CORAL SPRINGS AND HAVE DINNER WITH ME UP HERE, I HAVE MY STUDIO SET IN MY CRIB WITH ALL THE SHIT WE NEED, I JUST TOOK A 3 WEEK VACATION TO START NEXT WEEK SO IM GOOD!”

7/23/09

I began to request actors on craigslist. The idea was to create a list of actors who were available that weekend, and sort them by genres that they felt comfortable with. So when the time came we’d have a contact list at our disposal. We had a meeting setup with Serge on Sunday and I asked Leonard to come along so we could all familiarize ourselves with each other. I had also invited Eric on to the project. That way we both could take a turn at script writing. There was way too many restrictions, and I didn’t want to choke when all the pressure was riding on me. A backup writer made complete and perfect sense.

7/26/09

We patiently awaited Serge’s call for our meeting later that evening. I felt stupid now because the only contact info I had for him was email and facebook. We didn’t have a choice. There was no contingency plan. So we wait around all day like a girl that got stood up for high school prom.

“Maybe he’ll call later” I said.
“Yeah he did say he wanted to meet up for dinner” said Leonard.
Fuck you serge. *cries* I’m sitting up here with my corsage on. And you didn’t even call.

7/27/09

“Any Luck?”

“No he never called” I said. “It’s strange cause he’s been after me to collaborate on something everyday. I really wish this could happen. Just so we could prove we could do something”

“Don’t we all. Oh well there’s always next year”

“No. No there isn’t. Not this time. Not again” I just refused to give up. I was going to try something. Anything.

“Don’t know anyone with the equipment. The guy I know from work. Says his group is full”

The truth was that there was no limit to how many people can be in your group. There was no point in telling Leonard that. Since his co-worker didn’t want us on the team anyways.

“What kind of camera you got?”

“Leonard you seen my camera. It’s not even HD. But if you want to just go for it and shoot and not have it look entirely professional. I’m down with that.” No one said we had to win. Just get it done.

“No, I was hoping it was HD at least. it will look like ass otherwise.”

7/28/09

We used the powers of the internet to try and find ourselves a new crew. There was a yahoo group trying to match up crews together. No one was looking for two losers with no equipment, though. I posted a craigslist ad, looking for people with equipment ready to join the crew. The 48 Hour film fest also had a website setup for crew members looking to volunteer their time. But all the contacts we’re people needing grips to lug equipment around. No one was needing writing or directing talent.

“The guy at work said the groups were like 6 or 7 people”

“I didn’t see any size limits,” At this point I told Leonard I was willing to get like 30 guys together to pitch in like ten bucks a pieces so we can rent a camera and gear. It was going to be like a PYRAMID scheme for filmmakers.

8/4/09

I was beginning to get a few contacts from Craigslist.

“Hello. I read your post in craigs list and I'm very interested in joining your crew. I have a Sony FX-1000 HDV camera and Sony Vegas Pro 9 Editing program. My girlfriend is a professional make-up artist and would be interested in working too. Let me know if you're interested. Best regards Raul”

“Hi There I would like to help you with your project, I have a workstation setup for sound production, but sometimes I use it for video editing, also I have a couple microphones. I'm not interested in money, I just want to learn film production and meet people. Let me know if you think I can help you. Sincerely Gio”

“I was about to volunteer but then realized that I would be in Hartford on those days. But please let me know if you're doing any other projects. I took part in the 48Hour contest a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't much equipment to speak of (Panasonic DVC60, some Home Depot lights, etc..) but will be getting a XHA1S at some point in the next couple months. I have A couple vids on YouTube - search for Notarized and HydroBLADES team vid... All the best, Kwan”

“Hi! I am an actor and did a 48 hour film project last year and it was a lot of fun. My husband and I would both be interested. Sing”

So now we had leads on a cameraman. Editing software. Sound studio, makeup artist and a couple of actors. Our first step was to invite the camera man to the 48 Hour film fest kick-off event that coming Thursday at a Star Bucks. There would also be a good opportunity to meet up with actors.

8/7/09

We had not heard back from Raul the new camera guy. Yet we still weren’t worried. The goal of the 48 hour film festival is to put together something at the last minute without any sort of preparation. If it works then great, but if it all falls apart then we’d have lost nothing but time. Maybe we could get a few reels, some bloopers or some bad reality TV behind the scenes drama to hoist up on YouTube.

“I just really want to make sure we have some sort of equipment”, Leonard said. “Everything else we can just deal with. I really want to do SOMETHING. It’s all i got left” He definitely seemed desperate, for him to leave himself open like that.

“Dude we can make something. Even it its just for laughs, Or YouTube. Why are we always so hampered?”

“Seems like shit always gets in the way. Now I feel like I’m just doing time. And I’m not even behind bars.”

“Yeah but it’s more than that. Filmmakers live and breathe movies. They’re always kicking around ideas and writing down scripts”

I couldn’t even remember the last time we sat together and discussed a script. Or the last time we had seen a movie together. And fresh ideas were things that neither of us had talked about in a long ass time. All our old scripts predated the birth of all of our children. Family had taken just about every ounce of extra and energy and thought we had.

“I was watching Entourage the other day and watched As Eric went through all these scripts, faceless unknown writers had sent into to studios, and I thought to Myself. Why? Why haven’t I sent in one original idea. Just to see what would stick. So it’s not just you, it’s me too, sitting around dawdling”

“I did send yours in…”

What the fuck!? He sent my script in without telling me? I hadn’t even copyrighted it yet.

“To who?”

“Fox and CBS. I got the standard rejection letter.”

“That’s because the opening of ‘Last Call’ sucked” I could admit that now. I always knew it was slow. But I had hopes it would work out in the editing room. The movie itself would have been golden.

“I even had query letters. Those are a 2 page synopsis with which audience types it would be aiming for. Just to see if anyone would pick up the script. Or if and Agent would like it and shop it around.”

“Doesn’t matter. It would have worked as a movie. tightly edited I would have turned it into American Graffiti.”

“Well on premise alone, everyone told us to fuck off.”

Leonard had seen my script for “Last Call” as his version of the Breakfast Club. It’s not a vision that I didn’t share. But at the time teen movies were complete and utter failures. I explained this to him and we talked about new trends in Hollywood. Judd Apatow had becomes successful by cornering the male romantic comedy. Film’s like 40 Year Old Virgin and Forgetting Sarah Marshall were just at their core romantic comedies. And that's what ‘Last Call’ was also.

“Sure I could see it” Leonard said. “What i couldn’t do is make OTHERS see it”

“Not at that time.”

“SO what do you think is the next curve? Seems like everything is remake city nowadays. All I know is that I’m just waiting to die”

“ I feel your pain Leonard. But you’ve forgotten how to enjoy yourself. You seemed to have accepted your fate. We got to change our mindset. We stopped being filmmakers long ago, because we stopped talking about making films.”

“That’s, true. I know. So what’s the Plan? Are we going for it?”

“What the fuck, am I going use My Cock and Balls to shoot the Movie? But If the guy contacts me. Then yeah. We’re going for it. Even if it sucks. Even if its just Eric and Josh acting.”

“Sigh. So we are just hanging on equipment then?”

“Yeah. I can’t afford to rent it. it’s not just camera, but lights, microphone, and we need to able to edit.” The 48 Hour film fest sounded like a blast. But realistically we needed to be looking further down the road. Shooting something on our own time.

“Feels like I’m suffocating under the weight of continuing to do the same shit” said Leonard. “Any word from that dude yet?”

The 48 Hour film Project came and went, and we filed it away under E. For EPIC Fail.