San Diego 48hr Film Project 2017

Alpha Soup Productions

San Diego 48hr Film Project 2017

This past weekend marks my 6th 48hr Film Project since moving to San Diego. I've been on teams for the LA, Orange County, and San Diego competitions over five years. This was the first time I was part of the leadership team and it was amazing. Every time I do this there is heightening anticipation that builds to kickoff and an amazing rush when the film arrives at the drop off location. This year was no different, except to be even more so.

For those of you who have never heard of this crazy film competition, allow me to enlighten you. The 48hr Film Project occurs in cities world wide. All entries that meet the deadline compete for the honor of representing their city at the championship, better known as Filmapalooza in Los Angeles. The winner of 'Best Film' will then go on to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Cannes is one of the most prestigious festivals to screen at and attracts all kinds of industry bigwigs from around the world. What all of this means is that new, young, independent talent has an opportunity to show what s/he can do for people who just might pay them to do what they love in film.

The 48hr Film Project is a competition to write, produce, and finish a film in only 48 hours, hence the name. Filmmakers of all ages, from pros to beginners participate. At kickoff we draw our genres, the required elements are announced and the teams scatter to beat the clock. The clock is the toughest judge because even a second late means late and your film is no longer eligible for the 'Best of' awards, including 'Best Film' for your city. Required elements include a prop, a character who must appear on screen, and a line of dialogue.

My team is Alpha Soup Productions and most of us had worked together before on other projects and other teams in the past. Our leadership team broke away from a much larger team so that people could take on new roles and try new things. We met a few times before the competition and everyone on our team put a little money in the pot to cover the entrance fee and craft services (for the uninitiated, that means food, drinks, and snacks). I love post and I was the editor for our team, a role I usually fill in at least some capacity. Chris, who has been DP (Director of Photography) in the past, became our Director while his amazing wife, Andrea headed up Craft Services. Our writer, Mike also filled the Line Producer role and then Cj completed our team as the Producer and official team leader, a must have for managing the mountain of paperwork.

We drew 'Dark Comedy' and 'Biography' as our genres this year. We ultimately chose 'Dark Comedy' and had a concept pulled together within a few hours after kick off. Mike took over then and busted out a 6 page script by early Saturday morning. Crew and talent arrived on location in Vista, CA by 8am. We got a much later start than we had expected and didn't start shooting until 11am. The ticking clock was looming large in our minds as we raced it and the daylight to get all of the shots in. Even with using two cameras we came up short as darkness fell on Saturday. I was already working with the footage from scene 1 and knew I had a long night ahead. It was clear as the rough cut came together that we had missed an important element and pickups would be needed on Sunday. Yikes! that reduces post time fast.

Ultimately, it was determined that most of the third scene would need to be reshot. This was not great news, but unlike past projects I had lots of b-roll that we could use and it would help us to complete the film. Chris also brought Jamil, a professional editor (he gets paid to play), in as his Assistant Director who helped us polish the cut. We were able to lock picture on the first two scenes by 1pm Sunday and hand those over to my friend Randall who is our composer and mixer. He was composing an original score based on the script and my rough most of the evening Saturday. Earlier that afternoon he had been running on set audio, but suffered heat exhaustion which forced him to hand that task over to our PA/assistant MakeUp Artist, Julianne, and our Craft Services Lead, Andrea. I was worried he wouldn't be able to continue, but with guidance from our onset nurse and actress, Rita, he recovered.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Sunday morning all of our actors were back in costume and makeup for the reshoot of scene 3. With some fast rewrites our genre was saved, but it could have easily gone horror or suspense before. There is nothing like the rush of adrenaline that hits midday Sunday, but mine was just gone. Fortunately, Jamil stepped in so that I could eat the sandwich that Andrea literally put in my hand. He tightened up the first two scenes and together we found the right b-roll to drop into the timeline. The cut was greatly improved by his fresh eyes. We locked the first two scenes and practically threw the flash drive to Randall.

Making blood for SFX makeup

We dumped the scene 3 footage which I organized and synched as fast as possible while Randall mixed the first two scenes. While I worked on that last scene, Chris took two cast members, our DP and AD to pick up one last shot that they wanted to include in the credits. At last we only needed to lock scene 3 to hand it over for mix, but it was nearly 4:30pm, only 3hrs to deadline with a 40 minute drive to the drop off! We locked it down, much thanks to Jamil for his expertise catching the points that just were too slow and a line that needed to move. By the end it felt like Jamil and I were in synch swapping in and out of the seat as easily as longtime friends. The last time a cut felt like that was when I worked with Jess three years ago, another story. 

Once the files were handed to Randall for the mix, I ran for a shower. It had been very warm all weekend and despite the coolness of the house I knew I wasn't smelling all that nice. Rita, who had been assisting Cj with cleanup of our host's property created a barrier of chairs holding a sign requesting quiet on pain of death so that Randall could work in relative peace. We were waiting with baited breath when Cj asked if there was anything she could do. Sadly, nothing but granting us a miracle of additional time would help at that point.

Chris, Mark, and Jamil took their leave, trusting in Randall and myself to complete the film. Every minute that slipped away cut into the cushion we had originally planned on. Certain points in the audio had to work just right or our audience would be laughing for the wrong reason. We gave up any ideas of color correction too. As the deadline creeped ever closer, all but one of our actors chose to head down to the drop off location and wait for us. We would learn later that Rita, Destiney, and Gino had a plan to get our packet on the table as soon as we arrived.

Back on set I'm sweating bullets when Randall tossed me the mix. After a brief scuffle with my rig I got the audio in place only for the first export to fail. No! Checked all of the settings and exported again only this time my 4 minute export was hanging and wasn't completing! Argh! My backup export was running, but it was already 7pm and the drive time was looming large in my mind. At 7:07pm the export completed and worked from the flash drive. I grabbed it and ran for our host's car. Mike had offered to drive Cj and myself to the drop off location and he was just so calm. I wanted to cry because as I checked my GPS I saw the drive time was just the same and I couldn't imagine that we'd make it. I just knew we'd miss it by minutes.

The all important packet to turn in.

Mike, our driver (not to be confused with our Writer) took us in his very nice, with leather interior, white Mercedes on a crazy ride. He drove like a Nascar driver maneuvering in and out of spots at speeds I would never attempt. I was in the back seat and kept my eyes closed most of the ride. At one point Mike told Cj to look at his speedometer, I wish she had snapped a picture of that for proof that he was moving at speeds around 120-130mph. Surprisingly, no cops caught on otherwise, Mike assured me later, we'd have pulled in with an escort. Not that our arrival didn't generate a lot of excitement, did I mention there was a plan?

Throughout the ride Cj and I were communicating via Facebook and text with our team about where we were enroute. I got a FB message saying we had three minutes left. We were stuck at a light as Mike asked Cj for the next turn. I finally recognized where we were and said next light is the entrance to the lot. Meanwhile Destiney, Rita, and a couple of unarmed filmmakers were standing as lookouts at different corners watching for the car that Cj had described. They spotted us making the one move they hadn't anticipated.

Celebrating with my amazing team!

We pulled into the lot for the brewery for the drop off and I leapt out of the car, packet in hand, and ran for the patio area. Destiny was running to meet me and we did a relay race hand off. She dropped her purse, which I then picked up, and we both ran around the outside of the fencing. Destiny threw the packet to Gino who slapped it onto the table with seconds to spare. Destiny and Rita grabbed me into a hug as we screamed our joy! Circling us were a couple of documentary filmmakers recording the moment.

All of the filmmakers who had already dropped of their packets were hanging out on the patio. They cheered us on as we became the 51st team to meet the deadline this year. Every year it is a race against the clock and many teams stick around for a drink and to congratulate or console those that follow them. There was a team that came in about a minute behind us, but if they had run the packet in they just might have made the deadline. A heartbreaking moment when he realized that the official clock was just a touch slower than the clock on his cell.

Watch the Farm 2 Table trailer!

Many of us are still riding the high from last night and retelling the mad dash to the finish line to anyone who will listen. Now we are looking forward to the premiere on June 5th and hoping that not only did we make the deadline, but that our hard work also created an award winning film. We did the absolute best job in the time we had, I know this because we poured our hearts into the project. I know we are all extremely proud of what we accomplished too, mostly because my teammates have said so.

I hope for the uninitiated that you will support your local 48hr Film Projects by being an amazing host, like Mike, attending the screenings in your city, or even joining us on this amazing journey. We tell some crazy stories and we're always open to helping the newbies navigate their way to the finish line. Even kids build teams and compete with the adults. This year saw two of the youngest team leaders ever in our city; Rising Stars was lead by two 11year old kids! It is a wild ride!

Watch our film!