Now that the 48 Hour film project is firmly behind us, I have reverted the madned.com menu back to the boring old original version.  For nostalgia's sake though, here is a link to the 48 Hour Film Blog which details our exploits during the 2007 Providence Contest on the weekend of July 27-29th.

I have some good memories from our 48 Hour odyssey, but given all the sleep I
lost that weekend, I thought it would be best to write them down now before
they are gone.  I think some of the brain cells used to store the info may be
the temporary/emergency kind, put into service by the rushing adrenilan and
sleep deprivation.  By next week, those cells will kind of fade away, like a
scab falling off or something.

I think the roughest part for me was Wednesday,Thursday,Friday, worrying
non-stop about what genre we would get, and what we would do when we got that
genre.  As we cruised down to Providence in Aaron's XTerra, we went through a
big list of the genres we could get.  Musical/Western - horrible. We take the
wildcard if we get that.  Romance.  Drama. No experience writing for them, but
we grin and take it if we got either though, because we really don't want to
end up with a wildcard pick.  Some of those make Romance seem like a cake walk.
 Things like "Sports Movie" or "Historical Fiction" or "War Movie". Really
tough stuff.  Our favorites, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, seem like such a very
small percentage of the 12 main genres that we don't even spend a lot of time
discussing them as we fight rush-hour traffic and proceed to get lost in the
maze of one-way downtown Providence streets.

So by the time we got to Cafe Tazza in the arts district, my stomach was
churning.  We were early though and they didn't even let us in yet, so we sent
Aaron and Keith off to get some dinner while John and I waited around.  At 6:45
or so we got in.  The place fills up with a hundred or so as the other 46 teams
file in.  My first reaction was "I'm to old for this." Tons of kids in their
20's.  I'm old enough for virtually any one of them to be my offspring.  John
said "I'm glad you're here", because otherwise he'd be the oldest.

But after we sat down, we met Bill Dyszel.  I actually approached him because I
had seen his web site while checking out our competition. I'd say he was close
to my age, maybe even older.  His thing is that he makes movies all by himself.
 He has a website called 'cinemasolo.com', where he shows some of them.  This
was Bill's 14th 48hour contest, so he was a veteran.  But also somewhat crazy -
he's based in NY and actually took the 3 hour train trip into Providence for
the contest, and would be taking the trip back tonight.  We asked him if Buddy
Film was his worst genre choice.  He said no, it was "Film de Femme" (film with
a female lead char) for obvious reasons.

Bill, John, and I are sitting with this busty blonde who is falling all over
this other guy at our table. John and I realize that we missed the boat for
picking up chicks when we were our 20s with the whole 'I'm in show biz'
schtick.  It was running rampant though at Cafe Tazza on Friday.   To make
matters worse,  a guy from what I will call "Team Glitz" shows up at our table.
Team Glitz consists of a bunch of film students and video guys who, at least
from their website inspection, have just about everything they can think of
recruited for this event. SAG actors, composers, a huge location to use for shooting,
camera people. They had open casting calls, sponsors, etc from what we spied on
their web site.  The Glitz guy comes and flirts with the blonde who he apparently
knows from school or something, and then saunters off to work the rest of the room.  
He's an operator.  John, Aaron, and I later discuss the sweet but
unfortunately remote possibility that somehow Team Glitz will implode this weekend,
either not finishing or turning in some well-polished turd of a movie.  

Anyway eventually, after numerous announcements, they start picking genres.
First team up in our group picks Romance.  Good, one less romance card in the
hat to pick.  Next guy up was Bill.  He picks "Film de Femme".  Sucks to be
him!  We were not sure but we thought we saw him later staying back to select
the wild-card genre instead. (Which turned out to be "Animal Film", which is no
picnic either.)

Then it's our turn.  I reach in and pull out "Comedy".  I'm so happy I don't
even bother to say my selection into the mic.  I go back to the table to a
smiling John, we high-five each other. Keith and Aaron are sitting outside on
the sidewalk table since there is a 2-person team limit in the cafe, but they
heard and are all smiles.  We still have to wait for our prop,character, and
dialog which get picked after all the other teams pick.  But I don't care, I'm
just still so psyched about comedy, we know we can write for that.  I pass the
time by impressing John with the iPhone by sending out an update on our pick to
our distibution list while we wait.

Next come the elements.   Prop: Boots.  Very simple, we dodged a bullet.  Line
of Dialog: "Do you know anything about it?" Also a softball, that should be
very easy to write in.  Character:  "Connor or Constance Sutton, a Publisher".
 A publisher?  OK, I guess we can deal with it.  Although our preferred filming
location was our friend Kevin's garage.  Not sure how we get a publisher in
there.  I began to think about using Gloria's office instead.

Once the elements are known, everybody hits the road.  The entire Cafe clears
in about 25 seconds.  Teams are running down the road in every direction to
their cars or bikes or apartments.  We walk back to the car and blow by Team
Glitz on the sidewalk as we make our rapid exit from Providence in the XTerra.
 We make a very early decision that in spite of the publisher thing, we will
stick with the garage location, and write Constance in as a customer.

Frenzied calling ensues, Kevin is contacted about the garage.  He informs us
that we will have a car at our disposal, and that we can do anything we want to
it.  And I mean anything.  Could we break a window? Sure thing. Kevin suggests
we throw a transmission through the windshield, and also offers to send the car
up the lift with the door open and have the crossbar on the lift tear it off on
the way up.  This stuff seems like cinematic gold to us.  I am laughing out
loud as I talk to him, John Keith and Aaron wondering what's happening.

Aaron misses our exit for 146 and it's iPhone again to the rescue,
google-mapping us in realtime to find the way back on.  John is disgusted.  He
wants one but won't admit it. We begin hashing out the script details and
casting on the way back.   Paul as the mechanic.  Keith's son's friend Kevin
Sell (KSell) as the assistant.  Melissa as the publisher.  We decide that the
only way to get a publisher into a garage is if she's a customer.   And bad
things will happen to her car.  Very bad things.  But how does this tie in
publisher?

Then we get the idea that the publisher leaves the manuscript in the car, it
gets ruined by the assistant and then they have to stall for time, so they keep
breaking the car.  So we need a one-of-a-kind manuscript.  Enter Keith as the
eccentric author who types a manuscript and submits the only copy.  

We stop at Wal*Mart on the way back to pick up mechanics uniforms, and fru-fru
reading glasses for the author.  We picture him in an ascot with hat, kind of a
vamped up Mad Ned look.  Four grown men enter the underwear dept at Wall*Mart,
drawing strange looks from the stocking person in the aisle.  We are looking
for 'A cut undershirts', or 'wife beaters' as Aaron is fond of calling them, to
complete our wardrobe options.  We also hit the sewing dept for material to
make the little shirt nametag labels with the red border you always see on
uniforms, which is where I learn that the red stuff is called 'piping'.  (I
learn this from Aaron, which is really disturbing that he would know that.)
Out of Wal*Mart we run, maniacally.

Back at the house by 9pm, we begin blocking out the plot.   Keith and I
'distress' the uniforms with razor blades, sandpaper, and a quick wash/dry.
Keith eventually has to go home. We get the basics together in a couple of
hours, and I begin script-writing while Aaron and John hash out the ending
scenes.  Around 2AM (saturday) or so Aaron heads home, I finish the script
around 2:30AM and print copies.  Our plan to make nametags falls through
though, and we get Gloria (who is still awake also!) to make up some name tags
out of old Girl-Scout patches and white foam sheets.

At 3:30, we go to bed.  I fall asleep instantly, but for god knows what reason,
I wake up again at 4:30.  Probably just nerves but it could also have to do
with the 0.3 blood/mountain-dew level.  I toss and turn and eventually get
everyone up at 7 for breakfast, ready to start a full day of shooting on one
hour of sleep.  By 8, cars are showing up left and right in our driveway
(mostly from the right actually, since left goes to the woods. or Petrs house.)
 This is where we meet Kevin Sell, aka. "Skip", our bumbling Mechanics
assistant.  Tall, thin, curly hair and just exuding comic timing, I knew
instantly we had found *the* perfect Skip.    Paul and his son arrive, Keith
and retinue (Jason, Katie), Matt, Melissa, and Aaron all descend on the house
like locusts.

We split up the shoot into the publisher/author scenes, which we decided to
shoot at the house, and the garage scenes at Kevin's garage, 15 minutes away.
John takes the whole group except Melissa, Keith, Aaron, and John Betz over to
the garage to begin prep.  The five of us who remain at the house set up for
shooting Keith as Stuart Wagner, author, and Melissa as Constance Sutton, the
publisher.  We decide to shoot Keith in the livingroom in a big armchair with a
pipe, and fireplace going.  Everyone is thrilled about lighting a fire in the
fireplace when it's 90 degrees out, and we have two thousand watts of light
shining down in the room like a minature pair of diffused suns.  

After clearing the cat and dog, and deciding just to film through the racket of
the birds since they never shut up (hey, who's to say Stuart Wagner doesn't
have birds?)  we get a few takes done, but it's already close to 10, we haven't
even started filming Constance, and we said we would be over at the garage
before 11.   Keith delivers a not-to-be-duplicated performance of Stuart
Wagner.  We just finish up his part, and then the RAINS COME DOWN. boom.
thunder, rain, rumbling.  So we are forced to shut down, check the weather
radar for a break. Set up in our office for Constance.  

I call John to check on things during the downtime.  He and the team have been
busy arranging the shop, washing the car, aligning the desks and other stuff,
rehearsing and working out scene changes etc.  Kevin is very accomodating and
they are able to move some major stuff around.  John says they would be busy to
11 or so, so we have a little time.  The rains let up, and we film Constance.
Melissa is very nervous because this is her acting debut, but she nails it and
we finish everything really quickly.  

We pack up to go, but not before a visit from the Princeton Police department.
They are unhappy about Matt's car.  It looks suspicious.  Could be the guy who
is breaking into things.  Plus it's parked in the middle of the road, which
isn't completely safe says the nice officer.  I shoo him off and we head out to
the garage to set up. (Matt eventually goes back and moves the car, FYI)

At the garage I get my first glimpse at the car.  It is a red 6-series BMW from
the mid 80's, faded a bit but intact, perfectly believable as an operating car.
 They have it on the lift and are discussing doing evil things to it.  They
have a transmission out and are discussing how to get it high enough to throw
through the window.  The mirror has been rigged to come off when Skip
accidentally whacks it with a sledge hammer.  Kevin is still obsessed with the
idea of sheering the door off of the car using the lift. Poor Beemer!

The set-up begins for shooting Skip and the Boots, which we have worked in as a
catalyst for the plot advancement.  Skip is going to use the boots as a drink
holder on the dash, and then the drink spills on the manuscript, ruining it.
Everything works in rehearsal but when we actually go to film, the cup will not
fall on cue when the hood is slammed down.
After several failed runs, Kevin and John hatch a plan to push the cup up from
under the dash using a long wire. Kevin whips out his cordless drill and pops a
hole right though the center of the dashboard, and off we go.   Later we need
to actually drop a drink onto KSell's (Skip's)  lap. Kevin decides to add ice
and fill it to the top, which was a nice touch. We definitely got a genuine
reaction as that baby dropped, and went everywhere, it was a one-take perfect
shot.  KSell was a good sport about being soaked through most of the shoot.

Things picked up after that, and we were able to shoot all the major garage
footage without problems.  KSell and Paul are perfect together and their
performances are masterful.  There is a bit of trouble with the smoke machine
and KSell flubs a take by calling 'Uncle Bill' by 'Uncle Ted' instead, which
was funny because we already had done enough smoke scene takes that a haze
lingered around the garage.   

Then it came time for the big shot.  The transmission through the window.  The
shot called for Paul in the foreground delivering what was essentially a
monologue, then the drop in the background. John was completely paranoid
we were going to dropthe transmission through on a bad take and we would
 lose it so we debated signaling, did numerous dry runs, etc.  Aaron also
set up a separate dynamic mic next to the car so we could get a nice mix in post.  
Then Kevin and Keith stood on a big table and threw the thing into the car
windshield on cue.  It flew through the air almost as if in slow motion, and hit
squarely in the center, going 50% through the safety glass before being lodged
in there.  It's amazing how much that stuff will hold back!  It was a good shot
though and we wrapped up.  

Kevin was not satisfied that we had missed an opportunity to cause more
destruction, so he announced he was going to send the car up the lift with the
passenger window hanging out over the edge, even if we were not going to film
it.  I quickly got the camera out just to record the event.  Everyone stood at
the back of the garage, and Kevin sent the car up the lift,  The top of the
passenger door glass (which had no metal frame around it) slowly came in
contact with the massive metal bar.  You could see the springs on the car
compress, then the glass actually started to bend.  Then it fractured and went
cloudy for a split-second before exploding all over the room, showering Kevin
(but not the gallery) with itty bits of glass.  Kevin emerges from the lift
control, hands in the air in victory, with a huge smile on his face.  When you
are Mad Ned, it's good to have a bona fide crazy person on your staff.

After lots of sweeping, packing, cleanup, we go home. Everyone comes back to
the house for the post-game party.  I have to crash for an hour so I put Aaron
in charge of burger grilling.  When I wake up, its an hour later people are
around still but it's mostly clearing out,  Gloria has whipped some stuff
together, and there are burgers still left.  I hork one down and we get to
logging, capture, and editing.   As I expect, the camera is finicky with
logging, losing its place on several occasions trying to find footage.  It
really just requires a little babysitting, but it is probably some problem with
the camera that explains why it was on ebay to begin with.  I live with it
though and we get the footage off, and Aaron helps me motor through editing
while John continues to search for some music for us.

By 11:30, we have a rough cut printed and we watch it through, and it's under
the 7-minute limit.  It's looking pretty good, there are some rough spots, we
need credits, etc. but overall, not bad.  I feel for the first time that we
will be able to complete the movie without having to cut corners.  We opt to go
to bed before midnight and get a full 7 hours of sleep and start the day on
Sunday recharged.  Aaron decides it's not such a great idea to drive back and
forth again, so he stays over with John and I.  

In the AM, after a great breakfast Gloria makes for us, we continue editing and
the search for music.  John tried to use his keyboard and software but it does
not come together, and we realize that it's not going to be practical to give
up significant amounts of time on the Mac for garageband composing use with all
the editing to be done, so we postpone the music part until later in the day.  
I teach Aaron how to use Soundtrack Pro and he sets to working on foley
effects, adding typing noises and phone rings, etc. to the film while I bang
out a credit sequence using Adobe Premiere on the PC.  

Keith comes by to drop off some missing forms (the paperwork for this thing is
nightmarish - liability and talent releases, music and location releases, certification
statements, etc.)   They give you a roster just to make sure you did it all.  
We decided to cut a review edit so that Keith, John, and Aaron could groom it for
 changes while I finished the edits we already knew about.

By the time that was finished, it was 2pm and things were starting to come down
to the wire.    We had to leave for Providence by 5pm, and there were still things
to do.  The music we finally settled on to buyout for the movie cost over $100,
which we did not think was worth it.  Also, the idea of creating our own seemed
so much better, so much more authentic.   We took a garageband track I had
done for a future project and tweaked it so we could at least use it in the credits.  
After that, we tried to come up with a 'Skip and Bill' theme to play for the garage
scenes.  We created a simple bass-line but when we put it in, it really sounded
like something we just slapped together in a few minutes.  

So after going past our safety deadline, we pulled it and decided to complete
it with no music.  We cut some tapes, the first one was bad because we
left some music in one scene.  Since we had to re-render, we made a last-minute
 decision to add a foley effect for Skip slurping.  Aaron ran to get a cup and straw,
and I hastily hooked up a mic.  We recorded the whole thing, transferred, edited it in
and printed a new tape in under 5 minutes!    The next tape was also bad, because
I left Final Cut selecting a scene and not the whole movie.  If we had sent that in,
it would have been a disaster but luckily we caught it.  Our third attempt worked,
and being paranoid, we reviewed both copies of the tape.   They looked good!

In the envelope they went, and off to Providence again we went.  Some minor
adventures (driving rain, getting lost finding Cafe Tazza AGAIN.) But we arrived
with time to spare, turning our movie in at 6:35 against a 7:30 deadline.  This made
us the second team in, although we were told the first dropped off ridiculously
early (like 5 or something)

And that was it.  We stopped for a celebration dinner on the way back, and knocked
back some Margaritas at Chilis.  (Not before I got to put John in another iPhone
commercial though, because we ended up using it to find the number and call Chilis
to get the waiting time while we were in a chinese restaurant with a 20 minute wait.
The iPhone loves that kind of thing, it's only a few clicks on google maps and then
you can dial direct from the search listings)

Then sleep came, at last.

Epilogue

Monday - bring  in video of movie on iPhone.  Show to people at work, torment John.

Wednesday -  John, Melissa,Aaron,Maureen, Keith, Gloria, Matt  and myself attend the screening at the Columbus theater.  In our modest opinion: we rock!  The audience however is filled with RIFC people who all know each other apparently, we don't really win the crowd vibe. No matter, mission accomplished, we finished on time (which is better than 3 teams there) and our work is certainly as good if not better than what was showing there at 7pm at least.   Thanks to all - see you next year!

January Update

Well it's been a while since I blogged, so here is an update on goings on over the past month or so.  So here's what's been happening.

Travel 

Part of the reason nothing has been posted for over a month is because  my pre-christmas trip to Colombia, South America to attend a wedding.  Check out the photos .   After that, everyone got sick at my house so there wasnt a lot I got done over my christmas vacation.  We did film some Adapt*Her prior to the trip, and did some editing of the footage a few weeks ago.  We do have to film several more scenes and go back and redo a few, but it's slowly coming along.

Hello, Dolly!

I found this cool garden cart in the Harbor Freight Tools catalog.  I think it could make a nice small dolly.  We'll see if it ends up in the gear truck, or in the garden.  Im also working on taking a Surveyors Transit I bummed off a surveyor friend and turning it into the next generation of camera crane, that will support the DVX.  It's essentially a nice heavy-duty tripod.

592 Songs for $44?

I found this eBay seller offering this deal for a bunch of Royalty free songs.  You had to download them all and luckily, the PMLDnet (our town-wide WiMax internet service) was running at 1mB/sec that day, something it rarely does.  They are pretty good but one track sounded a lot like ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man", which is not to my knowledge in the public domain, despite a like 20-year slump for ZZ Top.   So I kind of wonder about these. But oh well.

The 48 Hour FIlm Project

We're also looking into entering this contest, which runs in various cities around the globe on different dates.  Teams compete to make a movie in 48 hours. They get a randomly chosen genre, character, prop, and line on Friday night.  On Sunday night, the teams turn in their finished movies (5-7 minutes long).  Its an interesting, if not gruelling excercise in time management and creative spontaneaity.  We're looking into entering the Providence RI contest this summer, and have started to collect a war chest of ideas for various genres.  Anyone interested in participating, let me know, we can use the help!  More details as this gets closer and we decide whether to enter or not.

Mad Ned Movie Update

Some happenings lately.  Devil Bunny Needs a Ham was put onto YouTube, after "El Cheapo", owner of Cheapass games, gave the OK.  Its had over a hundred hits so far and at least one 14 year old seemed to like it, so that's good.   Go onto YouTube and search for "Devil Bunny Ham", you should find it. Add your comments!

Carpool was rejected from the Dam Short Film Festival, and it's status for the DIY Film Festival will be announced later this week when the deadline for submissions expires - I'll keep everyone posted.  If it is rejected there, we will move it to the internet somewhere but probably not YouTube.  I was thinking of iKlipz.com possibly, they have a movie-maker-centric mentality to their site I like a lot.