Movie Makin’ Time

Why hello, there. Nice to meet you. My name is Courtnee and I blog sometimes. Like, once a month apparently. Have we met? Because I’m sure you don’t remember me….

Yeah, I know. We’ve been neglecting the blog like Betty Draper neglects her kids. (I’m tellin’ ya, Sally Draper her gonna kill Betty in her sleep one of these days.) But it’s just hard to think of stuff to blog about. Do you really care that I ate Jimmy John’s twice this week? Or that e1 got schooled in a family game of craps? Or that my summer squash plant finally (FINALLY!) started producing? No. Probably not. Would you like to follow along with a bunch of tired, slap happy thirty-somethings as they attempt to make a movie in 48 hours? I’m not sure about that either. But I’m blogging it anyways.

For those that need a refresher, during 48 Hour Film Project weekend, our team of A/V nerds cool kids will be assigned a film genre, a character, a line of dialogue and a prop. In the next 48 hours we will write, cast, location scout, shoot, edit and score a seven minute short film. All 52 teams participating will use the same character, line and prop but will draw a different genre. Our film is due Sunday at 7:00 pm.

Last year we made a ZOMBIE MOVIE  and wound up first runner-up for best in city out of 48 teams. We also took home best writing, best makeup and best actress. That was the second year in a row we got second place. Will this be our year? We hope so. A lot. But, per usual, or main goals are have fun, drink beer, make a movie. In that order.

This year’s cast of characters:

Crew

• Greasy Chad McCool – writer, Red Bull addict and super greasy dude
• Michael, co-worker, utility man and all-around spazz
• Jeremy, high school pal of Chad’s and brutally honest cinematographer who treks down from Brainerd to lug a camera around all weekend for free
• Carol – our girl Heather is unavailable this weekend (THE NERVE!) so Producer Carol has joined the team this year. She’s already doing a bang up job coordinating talent and tracking down some crazy rad locations.
• Tommykins – our outta town audio wizard and smart guy from the future

Actors

• The lovely and undead Kathy L, 48 Hour Des Moines’ two time best actress
• Adam P. – willing to bury you in a dirt basement
• Adam C. – willing to defile inanimate objects
• Amanda B. – while recently discussing ‘what our actors would be willing to do’ the answer for Amanda was ANYTHING. Also has a lovely karaoke voice
• Matt Moore – our perfectly smarmy cameo guy
• Amy Wright – pop and lock zombie and all around cool lady

I have no doubt somebody as been left off that list…sorry to you.

So, like last year, I’ll be posting often throughout the weekend. Rather than create a new post each time, I will create one post for each day and just add on to each as I have time. So when you log on, scroll down for new info.

The kickoff even goes down in about 3 hours. I’ll check back in a little later and let you know what our genre is. For a recap of the madness that went down last year, CLICK HERE! and scroll about three-quarters of the way down.

Be back soon!

10:43 pm

Well, we drew comedy again this year. We generally like to steer clear of the broader genres, because they’re a little harder. When you’ve only got seven minutes to work with, sometimes more specific parameters help. After I drew, Carol and I  furiously texted our other team members, and everyone decided to go with it. Also, we won a six pack of Monster Energy Drink. Which is good, I guess?

The kickoff even itself was pretty interesting. Lots of a/v geeks. And I had a conversation with a high school aged filmmaker who informed me that the only good mockumentary ever made is District 9. Um, yeah. Satire and mockumentary are not the same. Also, he had never heard of Christopher Guest. Like you know, Spinal Tap, Best In Show & Waiting for Guffman mockumentary perfection. I’m not saying everyone should know about Mr. Guest and his movies, but if you’re gonna be all filmmaker-y and make a statement like that, maybe know what you’re talking about. Do I sound cranky? Because I’m not. Just the level of pretension that comes out of some people at this event is a little eye roll-y.

So anyways, we hit up my office for some brainstorming and settled on two ideas pretty quickly, and not long after that, one of those ideas started to form into something interesting. (Sorry I don’t have pictures this time around, but you’ve probably seen pictures of people sitting around a table drinking beer.) We decided how it would end, and then went back through to figure out how to get there. We fleshed out the characters and talked with the actors about wardrobe, character motivation, etc. I won’t say too much, but the characters consist of a brain surgeon looking to blow off some steam, a ‘roided up athlete, someone called “The Plumber,” some kids and groupie or two. Also, my list of props to bring from home are: sweat band, wrist bands, tube socks, bowling shirt, bowling bag, ankle wrap, mesh hat, whistle. Think you know where we’re going with this? I guess you’ll see!

Also, our location is freaking awesome. A great place to spend the day. For now I, and the rest of the crew are off to bed while Chad writes and Jeremy plays Playstation Golf into this stormy night. Meet you for a venti hazelnut latte tomorrow at 8:30?

c.

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