48HR Film Project (Cincinnati)

[Nikk Hearn-Sutton SOC]

I recently completed another crazy weekend for the 2nd year running on the infamous 48HR Film project as DP and Steadi Op on top of that as a Camera Op and Grip and my good friend Howard as 1st AC,Gaffer,Best Boy,Grip and 1st AD.

It was a hellish weekend and the only reason being everyone was more concerned in my opinion to the cast than the technical crew (no big suprise there) not counting audio out but when it came to rigging the set besides one PA NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED TO ASK IF THEY COULD HELP :angry: Anyway the shots and the lighting scheme we made out of 4 Omni's, 2 Peppers, 2 DP's a Rifela and 2 1k's was straight TITS!!! Once I get the picts from the shoot I'll post them. We shot on a XL1-1s w/a frame rate of 60. It was fun and I'm still trying to recover from lack of sleep but the main thing that urked me, and I'm sure everyone has experienced this, once I said what the shot would be,out of no where the director bring up a shot that he hasn't even asked me if it was possible and says he wants it in the shot.

Quick recap, 48HRS to make a 4 to 10 min short,editing time,set up time and lighting. BIG RED FLAG, SURVEY SAYS!!!!!!!!!! ERRRRRRR. No WAy No How. Basically a figure was coming out of the fog, you could see her but cant make her out. Then as a pick up I follow her in low mode just see her from the waist down to a building to a doorway then she goes in the door. Simple Right!! WROOOOOOOONG!!!!!!! YOU BUNCH OF SISSY MARY"S!!!!!! THIS "DIRECTOR" desides to get a cart and put her on it and have her float to the door. Now that all well and fine but a couple problems, she's established walking the you want to elevate her so she looks 10 ft tall!?!?! can yo say CONTINUITY!!!! I CAN. So he gets pissy and throws a fit but the shot went the way I said it would and the beauty of this was the EXE. Producer/Actor when she hired me said if a shot can't be done I have COMPLETE VETO over everything. If it can't be done it can't. So I pulled ranks.

Its amazing, you would think that of all peple the dir would have some idea on how the shot should look but he was visually numb and on top of that he said contantly "want ever you think looks good just do it" Do I sound JADED or Bitter at all <_< . Besides that I had a ball!!!! :lol: Its amazing what you can do in 48HRS. So if someone asks me what you do this weekend, I'll have to say have a seat and order a couple rounds it'll be a while.

I'm curious to know if anyone else has done the 48HR projects.

 

Nikk "It's a 48HR Thang!!! You wouldn't understand!!!" Sutton

[Charles Papert]

Nikk:

 

Weekend after next I'll be directing my tenth film made in 48 hours--that's right, daddy, 10th! I co-created a version of the concept about 3 years ago, we call it "Instant Films" and hate to say it, but we make the 48-hour Film Project rules look like--well, to use your phrase, sissy merry's (should that be "Mary's?"). With ours, the writing isn't done in advance, the directors have no prep time as they are separate from the writers, you can't pick your locations in advance, and the screening is at the 48th hour so you can't cheat even if you wanted to!

 

Boy, I feel somewhat shameless for hijacking this thread for a second to plug the festival--but seeing as we having one coming up, I just gotta...August 22nd at the Los Angeles Center Studios, details (and our 107-film archive) are at www.instantfilms.tv.

 

Sorry about that!

 

Incidentally, Nikk, I've shot most of mine with the XL1 on Frame mode (the faux-30P setting). Do you like/not like this look? I find it the most filmlike for that camera.

[Nikk Hearn-Sutton SOC]

I've shot most of mine with the XL1 on Frame mode (the faux-30P setting). Do you like/not like this look? I find it the most filmlike for that camera.

For what it's worth I like it especially when you can change the frame rate on an eight is really cool cause of the ghosting FX but that is until the XL2 comes out but thats a whole other topic