48 hours into Hell.
On Friday 7pm I scrambled $300 and begged 10 people to spend their entire weekend with me to make a short film for a 48 hour film challenge that goes into a film festival that has awards and prizes.
My friend John and I went to kick off where you are given your pack that contains your rules and mandatory prop. Our prop was a old video tape of the moon landing, I thought no problem that could fit into any genre. When we arrived I looked at the genre wheel, they always make it a challenge, here were the categories.
-Dance film
-Reality
-Wedding/Prom
-Biography
-Lifetime movie
-Post Apocalypse
-Roadtrip
-Foriegn
I kept thinking to myself I hope I get Roadtrip or Post Apocalypse because I already had ideas for them. What did I roll LIFETIME MOVIE!
My reaction to Lifetime.
So me and John (the guy on the cell in the picture) drove back to my group and we began to brianstorm. Now everybody in the group wanted me to be the writer and director of the film since this would be 12th short film. Now my "friend" (I don't know after this weekend) became up with this idea for a lifetime movie. A girl comes home to find her boyfriend gone and the house trashed with all her valuables gone. She finds a note saying he's been kidnapped, she goes to find him and finds out he faked his own kidnapping just because he's an asshole and wanted to get away.
Nobody liked the idea but he turned down everybody else's outta spite. I wanted to make sure we all argee on the idea even if we hated making a lifetime movie. Well we spent nearly 3 hours fighting with him and at the same time coming up with a story.
Finally I came up with one that everyone liked, despite it being considered a bit too dark. An alcoholic mother and wife hides her vice from her family. It eventually takes over her life and in one fateful evening she accidently kills her daughter by leaving her in the bathtub as it overflows and shoots her husband in a murder/suicide attempt. Too dark? That's how I roll.
It was nearly 1am Saturday when the script was done. We shot our first scene at a small bar downtown, the bartender was cool enough to let us shoot and gave us all a free round. Everything went smooth, everyone was doing there jobs and were actually having fun.
From 2AM-4AM we shot some scenes at my friends house (the black sheep in the group), big mistake, because he started getting a big ego and control freak telling people how to light scenes, where to direct the camera (my job) and changing the dialogue. We got done, tired and pissed off.
8AM we started up again and the bullshit got worse and worse he started talking to us like were his kids. (He is a father, and he played the father in the movie too) 3 of my friends quit, they apologized to me in private and said they couldnt deal with his shit. So now there was 7 of us. I told him why they left and he just shrugged it off like they werent needed anyways. Into the afternoon we shot a scene in Detroit, it went okay despite the fact that some hood rats kept harassing us to be in the movie and asking 100 questions. Im pretty sure they wanted to steal our equipment too. Heres some pictures from that.
Tyler (Our prop, production guy, he kept us on track despite cocksucker's demands. He's a cool guy, has awesome tattoos)
(Me in costume)
Eventually we got shooting at 9pm. We get back to the house and suddenly my "friend" demands we shoot new scenes that we didnt have time for and were not revelant to the story. Now I didn't snap at him but I was getting there. So I shot, we really he shot the scenes because he was over my shoulder the whole saying he didn't how I was doing it. Shooting wrapped up at 11pm. We have less than 24 hours to edit, make music, and ship the final copy back.
Now I didn't edit, I left it to my friend John, he's a natural, I went home and got some sleep. I come back at 8am the next day and he's editing away while the dick was standing over his shoulder telling how to do his job (John ignored him). Dickhead went on to make the poster, graphics and other things for the film as I did the music with my friend Mike.
We finally finished and had the thing on DVD at 6:30 and we had to rush it back to Detroit. John and Butthead went to deliver. It was due at 7pm. 7:30 I get a call from John saying we were 2 minutes late! All that work and were not accepted by 2 fucking minutes~!
Now a friend of mine who works for the film challenge was collecting the entrees. I drive down there myself and ask him to accept it, he too for some reason becomes a total cunt and just shrugs his shoulders. I spend nearly 2 hours with him and the other employees on why they couldnt take it, I mean it was 2 minutes, at the end of the conversation I said "Is it because you can't take my film because someone will know you did it or you won't" And without a beat he told me "won't".
I left without saying a word. I go home, call up everyone on the team and tell them, everybody immediatley blames my "friend" I called him up and ask why he was such a dick throughout the entire thing and was trying to control everything, he said he didn't believe in my ability to make a coherent story. 9 people believe in me and 1 didn't. I haven't spoken to him since and I may not ever again.
Imagine you're best friend telling you, you're not good enough, they don't trust, they don't respect your decisions, and there's at least 9 of your other friends that do. On top of all that my ribs as I mentioned before were broken the whole time.
----------------------So here we are, I told my team I was proud of them and that I truly appericate there help and love. I am editing the film myself next week (without any pressure) release it on youtube and place it into other film festivals. I'm not satisfied with the current cut but once it's done I will post it here, the title is "In Sorrow".
Just like my life at the moment.
On Friday 7pm I scrambled $300 and begged 10 people to spend their entire weekend with me to make a short film for a 48 hour film challenge that goes into a film festival that has awards and prizes.
My friend John and I went to kick off where you are given your pack that contains your rules and mandatory prop. Our prop was a old video tape of the moon landing, I thought no problem that could fit into any genre. When we arrived I looked at the genre wheel, they always make it a challenge, here were the categories.
-Dance film
-Reality
-Wedding/Prom
-Biography
-Lifetime movie
-Post Apocalypse
-Roadtrip
-Foriegn
I kept thinking to myself I hope I get Roadtrip or Post Apocalypse because I already had ideas for them. What did I roll LIFETIME MOVIE!
My reaction to Lifetime.
So me and John (the guy on the cell in the picture) drove back to my group and we began to brianstorm. Now everybody in the group wanted me to be the writer and director of the film since this would be 12th short film. Now my "friend" (I don't know after this weekend) became up with this idea for a lifetime movie. A girl comes home to find her boyfriend gone and the house trashed with all her valuables gone. She finds a note saying he's been kidnapped, she goes to find him and finds out he faked his own kidnapping just because he's an asshole and wanted to get away.
Nobody liked the idea but he turned down everybody else's outta spite. I wanted to make sure we all argee on the idea even if we hated making a lifetime movie. Well we spent nearly 3 hours fighting with him and at the same time coming up with a story.
Finally I came up with one that everyone liked, despite it being considered a bit too dark. An alcoholic mother and wife hides her vice from her family. It eventually takes over her life and in one fateful evening she accidently kills her daughter by leaving her in the bathtub as it overflows and shoots her husband in a murder/suicide attempt. Too dark? That's how I roll.
It was nearly 1am Saturday when the script was done. We shot our first scene at a small bar downtown, the bartender was cool enough to let us shoot and gave us all a free round. Everything went smooth, everyone was doing there jobs and were actually having fun.
From 2AM-4AM we shot some scenes at my friends house (the black sheep in the group), big mistake, because he started getting a big ego and control freak telling people how to light scenes, where to direct the camera (my job) and changing the dialogue. We got done, tired and pissed off.
8AM we started up again and the bullshit got worse and worse he started talking to us like were his kids. (He is a father, and he played the father in the movie too) 3 of my friends quit, they apologized to me in private and said they couldnt deal with his shit. So now there was 7 of us. I told him why they left and he just shrugged it off like they werent needed anyways. Into the afternoon we shot a scene in Detroit, it went okay despite the fact that some hood rats kept harassing us to be in the movie and asking 100 questions. Im pretty sure they wanted to steal our equipment too. Heres some pictures from that.
Tyler (Our prop, production guy, he kept us on track despite cocksucker's demands. He's a cool guy, has awesome tattoos)
(Me in costume)
Eventually we got shooting at 9pm. We get back to the house and suddenly my "friend" demands we shoot new scenes that we didnt have time for and were not revelant to the story. Now I didn't snap at him but I was getting there. So I shot, we really he shot the scenes because he was over my shoulder the whole saying he didn't how I was doing it. Shooting wrapped up at 11pm. We have less than 24 hours to edit, make music, and ship the final copy back.
Now I didn't edit, I left it to my friend John, he's a natural, I went home and got some sleep. I come back at 8am the next day and he's editing away while the dick was standing over his shoulder telling how to do his job (John ignored him). Dickhead went on to make the poster, graphics and other things for the film as I did the music with my friend Mike.
We finally finished and had the thing on DVD at 6:30 and we had to rush it back to Detroit. John and Butthead went to deliver. It was due at 7pm. 7:30 I get a call from John saying we were 2 minutes late! All that work and were not accepted by 2 fucking minutes~!
Now a friend of mine who works for the film challenge was collecting the entrees. I drive down there myself and ask him to accept it, he too for some reason becomes a total cunt and just shrugs his shoulders. I spend nearly 2 hours with him and the other employees on why they couldnt take it, I mean it was 2 minutes, at the end of the conversation I said "Is it because you can't take my film because someone will know you did it or you won't" And without a beat he told me "won't".
I left without saying a word. I go home, call up everyone on the team and tell them, everybody immediatley blames my "friend" I called him up and ask why he was such a dick throughout the entire thing and was trying to control everything, he said he didn't believe in my ability to make a coherent story. 9 people believe in me and 1 didn't. I haven't spoken to him since and I may not ever again.
Imagine you're best friend telling you, you're not good enough, they don't trust, they don't respect your decisions, and there's at least 9 of your other friends that do. On top of all that my ribs as I mentioned before were broken the whole time.
----------------------So here we are, I told my team I was proud of them and that I truly appericate there help and love. I am editing the film myself next week (without any pressure) release it on youtube and place it into other film festivals. I'm not satisfied with the current cut but once it's done I will post it here, the title is "In Sorrow".
Just like my life at the moment.