Monday, June 25, 2007

The 48-Hour Film Project

I am so tired. So very, very tired. I can barely move my fingers to type these words I'm so tired. I've taken two naps today and am still tired. Very tired. So very, very tired. So very, very, very tired. So very, very, very, very, very ... zzzzzzzzzzz ... What happened? I must've fallen asleep. What was I talking about? Oh yes, I was talking about being tired.

The reason I'm so tired is due to a big project I was involved in over the weekend. It’s called the 48-Hour Film Project, an international film competition that came to Austin. In this competition, teams of filmmakers compete to produce a short film in 48 hours. When the gun is fired (so to speak), each team is given the genre for the script, along with a few other parameters, then they have 48 hours to complete it.

How did I, a comic book artist, get involved in such a project? This happened when Austin Chronicle writer Josh Rosenblatt recruited me to participate in an experiment in which creative professionals from media other than film (and with little or no knowledge of the technology of filmmaking) would be assembled into a team to produce a film. The experiment would be observed by Josh who would later write an article about it for the Chronicle.

Josh chose me to edit the film, his idea being that that might be something a comic book could do. For the director, he chose choreographer Lyn Wiltshire, Professor of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. He also chose a great many other fine, talented individuals for the project, but I should not tell the whole story, but rather let Josh tell it when he writes his article. I'll just say that yesterday morning I got up early to meet the director Lyn to edit the film and we worked for 14 hours straight under the most stressful deadline conditions I have ever worked under. However, I must say that, as arduous as it was for me, it was even more so for Lyn, who had only had 4 hours sleep since completing shooting. I should also mention that my stress was greatly alleviated at times by the presence of Rita Sanders, a professional film editor who served in a consulting capacity. Rita had given me a crash course in the film editing software, Final Cut Pro, two days before, but naturally, when it actually came time to use Final Cut Pro I did have numerous technical questions for her and would have been hopelessly lost had she not been there. Anyway, the result of all this madness was that our team did succeed in producing a film in 48 hours and it is a very good film.

Don't believe me? Well, you can see it yourself this week if you live in the Austin area. Our film (titled "Vertical Miles") will be screened tomorrow night at 6 pm and Wednesday at 8 pm at the Regal Arbor Cinema, 10000 Research Blvd. Tickets are $8 at the door, $5 in advance. I don't know when the Chronicle article will appear, but I'll post that information here when I know. Will also post a link to the article, as I believe it will also appear on line.

That's all for now. I'm too tired to write anything else tonight. So tired, so very, very, very ... zzzzzzzzzzzzz ....