Absolutelynoscope took part in Dubai's first 48 Hour Film Project held in November 2011. The concept was very appealing and even though we were only one short film old and we got to know of the event barely a week in advance, I thought: heck, why not?
The only pre-preparation allowed was in terms of scoping and finalising locations, equipment, cast and crew. The rest of the work, viz. scripting, shooting, editing etc. is to be done within the 48 hour window. Whew!
The pre-prep itself turned out to be quite a task. Since we only had a few days, there was no time to get people organised. And since other teams were on the task longer, most of the tried and tested resources were already booked out.
In terms of equipment, we decided to go shotgun as with our first film and shoot the whole thing on an iPhone.
Day 1, Thursday 19:00
All teams sent a representative to the kick-off meeting, where the event organisers would announce the Mandatory Prop, Line, Character name and trait. These had to be incorporated into the final product in some way. Genre’s were picked by lot and as it turned out, we were the first to pick our genre and, to a rousing cheer, I stepped up to the bike helmet (not hat) and drew the genre: Superhero.
I was very conflicted when I picked it: The thing is, we could still opt for a wild card and pick one of the pre-listed wild card genres. However, once the wild card is picked, you can’t change it or even go back to your original pick.
As a genre, Superhero is quite tricky. To be true to the genre, the film would need some amount of special effects and the like which are difficult for Indie film-makers to begin with, and nigh on impossible to pull off in 48 hours. Still, it would be an interesting challenge. After much thought, we decided to stick with it and do our best.
Upon much brain racking, we came up with an idea that could work. The general consensus on the idea was favourable, but there were serious concerns that we would manage to complete the film within the time limit provided. Since we were going in blind anyway, we decided to give it our best. Whatever happens, well, happens. So far the available cast and crew had crept up to six people.
We decided to meet up on location bright and sparky in the morning. Problem was it had already gone past midnight and all the excitement and anticipation of the shoot meant that sleep was very, very, difficult. I think I must have dazed and stumbled into some sort of stupor around 4 a.m. All the while planning the shots, revising the script, and trying to figure out how we could manage certain takes given our limited resources, not the least being time itself.
The only pre-preparation allowed was in terms of scoping and finalising locations, equipment, cast and crew. The rest of the work, viz. scripting, shooting, editing etc. is to be done within the 48 hour window. Whew!
The pre-prep itself turned out to be quite a task. Since we only had a few days, there was no time to get people organised. And since other teams were on the task longer, most of the tried and tested resources were already booked out.
In terms of equipment, we decided to go shotgun as with our first film and shoot the whole thing on an iPhone.
Day 1, Thursday 19:00
All teams sent a representative to the kick-off meeting, where the event organisers would announce the Mandatory Prop, Line, Character name and trait. These had to be incorporated into the final product in some way. Genre’s were picked by lot and as it turned out, we were the first to pick our genre and, to a rousing cheer, I stepped up to the bike helmet (not hat) and drew the genre: Superhero.
I was very conflicted when I picked it: The thing is, we could still opt for a wild card and pick one of the pre-listed wild card genres. However, once the wild card is picked, you can’t change it or even go back to your original pick.
As a genre, Superhero is quite tricky. To be true to the genre, the film would need some amount of special effects and the like which are difficult for Indie film-makers to begin with, and nigh on impossible to pull off in 48 hours. Still, it would be an interesting challenge. After much thought, we decided to stick with it and do our best.
Upon much brain racking, we came up with an idea that could work. The general consensus on the idea was favourable, but there were serious concerns that we would manage to complete the film within the time limit provided. Since we were going in blind anyway, we decided to give it our best. Whatever happens, well, happens. So far the available cast and crew had crept up to six people.
We decided to meet up on location bright and sparky in the morning. Problem was it had already gone past midnight and all the excitement and anticipation of the shoot meant that sleep was very, very, difficult. I think I must have dazed and stumbled into some sort of stupor around 4 a.m. All the while planning the shots, revising the script, and trying to figure out how we could manage certain takes given our limited resources, not the least being time itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment