Vegas Seven 04-14-2011 : Page 87
shoots. Despite wor r ies, D owntown Cocktail Room came through in the end . I know most people don’t have access to the resources I do, and I’m gratef ul to be part of such an amazing creative communit y. 8:25 a.m. Sunday, April 10, my house. Hard to wake up this morning. Set alarm for 6:30 a .m., but snoozed until 7:15. D idn’t get any of the music or titles done last night , so trying to cram them in before the rest of my team gets here to do edits. Feel more tired now on six hours of sleep than I did yesterday on three. Right now, we have exactly 10 hours to deliver a finished short film. It seems reason-able, but time moves very quickly, I’ve found. T hose last words were prophet ic. Kennedy cleans up after shaving off his stubble to play a teenage musician. p.m., w it h 10 minutes left to ma ke a 15 -minute dr ive to t he T heater7 drop -of f point. We had t he benefit of easy Sunday evening t raf fic, but I’d be ly ing if I sa id I d id n’t blow past a sta le yel low l ight or t wo. At 7:34 p.m., we were stuck at a red l ight at t he intersect ion of Four t h St reet and L as Vegas Bou levard, l itera l ly so close I cou ld recog nize t he faces on t he people stand ing outside T heater7. A s Troy was wa it ing for our DV D to fi n-ish bur ning on h is MacBook, I yel led for Daniel to g rab t he USB dr ive and r un to t he t heater. H is 6 -foot-8 -inch frame bounded across oncoming t raf fic toward t he fi nish l ine, w it h our submis-sion coming in seconds before t he five-minute g race per iod ended. * * * Ma k ing a five-minute mov ie may sound easy, but even after work ing w it h a ter r i fic team, creat ing S ugar-hook came about as easy as passing a ping-pong-ba l l-size ga l lstone. Despite a l l our ef for ts to achieve per fect ion, we st i l l overlooked cer ta in deta i ls: double-check ing sound levels, includ ing a l l cred its and ensur ing we k new how to bur n a DV D beforehand. But we made it. We have somet hing to be proud of, somet hing made for t he pure love of fi lmma k ing. It wou ld be reward ing to wa l k away w it h one of Derek’s homemade trophies. But rea l ly, t he on ly va l idat ion we need is t he fi nished work itself. I f you want to see what 14 ver y t ired people can accompl ish in t wo days of fabu lous self-denia l, check out t he fi lm at FaceBook. com/Mechanica lCow. It was, as adver t ised, a w i ld week-end. New fr iendships were forged, and none were r uined. We a l l lear ned so much about t he craft of fi lmma k ing, and came to appreciate t he dozens of often-overlooked names t hat fly past on t he big screen after t he r ich and famous people’s faces d isappear. I’m proud of what our team produced. A nd I’m excited to do it a l l aga in, but I’m a lso glad I have a year to recover. Director Troy Heard (left) plans his next shot with cinematographer Ryan Weber. my house, but our team d id n’t fi nish t he scr ipt unt i l 1 a.m. Meanwhi le, I was ma k ing ca l ls, send ing e-ma i ls, field ing texts and genera l ly doing t he producer t hing unt i l 2:30 a.m. We had a ca l l t ime of 7 a.m. Saturday for cast and crew. Plus, because one actor wasn’t ava i lable, I had to be ready to per for m a minor role as wel l. T he actua l shoot ing went smoot h ly. Most of our cast and crew made it to my house before 8 a.m., a lbeit barely awa ke. A fter r unning dow n t he shoot-ing schedu le and g iv ing ever yone t heir assig nments, we broke of f to our respect ive task s: rehearsing l ines, l ight-ing rooms, choosing costumes. We had t he benefit of hav ing t hree cameras at our d isposa l, so for most scenes we shot from t hree angles, which later a l lowed us to create some sl ick ed its. T he team caravanned from my house to Daniel’s for one scene, and t hen to Dow ntow n Cockta i l Room for t he fi na l shots— a gorgeously l it scene in which I inter v iew Vanessa about her comeback. Somehow, we w rapped by 6 p.m. I tried to keep a journal throughout the experience, but there wasn’t even time to stop for food (hence the stomach pain) or anything else not directly related to film-making over the weekend. So all I ended up with, ty ped into my cell phone in my car at stoplights, walking to locations or making prop runs, was this: 6:05 a.m. Sat urday, Apr i l 9, Einstein Bros. Bagel. W hen they say sleepless, they’re not exag gerating. My team finished wr iting around 1:30 a .m ., I spent another hour editing and pr inting scr ipts, and woke at 5:30 a .m . to shower and dr ive to E inste in to get bagels and cof fee for the team . 1:30 p.m., Big L ots. W hat it means to be a producer: spending a lot of money. Secur-ing locations. Feeding cast and crew. D r iving. 3:53 p.m., E l Cor tez Pa rk ing Ga rage. In the homestretch as for location A fter play ing catchup on Sunday mor ning creat ing and prepar ing fi lm scores, g raphics and st i l l photog raphy, we were stay ing (what felt l i ke) ahead of schedu le. St i l l, my i Mac took its sweet t ime render ing v ideo fi les and I was slow lear ning how to use my new Fina l Cut Ex press soft ware on t he fly. By 6 p.m. (an hour and a half before deadline), we had all of our major edits done, but still had to create credits, titles, adjust the sound and make a photo montage. By 7 p.m. (30 minutes to go!), we were done, but couldn’t prev iew our changes, and had to export the fi lm to a fi le while crossing our fingers. A fter about 10 minutes, the fi le was ready to burn to a DV D. Except when I fumbled that, the next 10 minutes became a mad dash as we waited for the fi le to copy to a USB drive. Meanwhile, I scrambled for my keys; Daniel rifled through our required forms; and Troy researched how to burn a DV D on the Mac. We headed out t he door at 7:20 48 Hour Film Project (48HourFilm.com/lasvegas) Premiere Screenings 7 and 9 p.m. April 14 Centur y 16 Suncoast, 9090 Alta Drive “Best of ” Screening 7 p . m . A p r i l 27 Centur y 16 Suncoast Apr il 14-20, 2011 week lyseven .com 87
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