Mom and Dad Didn't Waste Their Money!!!

This past weekend was the Philadelphia 48 Hour Film Project. It's a competition between film making teams that spans the time period from Friday at 7:30 pm thru Sunday at 7:30 pm and culminates in a small film festival during the ensuing week to showcase all the films produced during the weekend.

Each team has 48 hours to write, film, edit, and score a 4-7 minute short film. Each film has the same four elements: Character, Occupation, Prop, and Line of Dialog. What differs is the genre of each team's film. For instance, this year the character's name was either Ira or Irene Livingston whose occupation was dishwasher. The prop needed to be a wrench and the line of dialog was, "You'd better double check." So every single film had those elements in common. Our genre was Holiday film. The holiday could be anything, even a made-up holiday. We chose April Fool's Day.

Our team leader was Chris Kerney, a friend from my mortgage days and an old roommate. His brother, Eric, was our director. I wanted to either work the camera or hold the boom microphone and maybe do a little editing. I would have been happy being in charge of script-continuity. But no, I didn't get any of those responsibilities. I got to do something much more horrific, especially for someone as quiet and shy as I usually am: I was cast as the lead, Ira Livingston.

Let me tell you that there is nothing more unsettling than seeing yourself on screen. Remember when you were a kid and you heard your voice on an audio tape and you sounded nothing like what you thought you sounded like and that made you uncomfortable and self-conscious, especially if you were listening to said tape in the presence of friends? Yeah, well add seeing yourself on screen and thinking that you look nothing like what you see in the mirror every day and, God, the camera really does add ten pounds, while you're speaking in a voice you don't recognize. It's weird.

I got to edit the film together which was cool. I got to do the voice-overs and the music tracks and the credits. It was an amazing experience. Unfortunately we ran out of time and couldn't add in all the aspects of the film that we wanted to. The film makes sense how it is, but we had some really funny things planned that we didn't get to include and we wanted to tighten up some of the editing.

The film screened last night at the International House in Philadelphia at 37th and Chestnut. There was a good turnout there and the audience seemed to enjoy our film a lot. I had a patron come up to me as we were exiting the building and tell me how much she liked my performance, and the film in general (hearing that was a nice little boost to the ego). But the film as presented last night was still a work in progress. We want to change up the ending and add in the things that we just couldn't get to during the initial 48 hours.

The film should be online on their website within the next few weeks. I'll post the link to it when it's available. Of course, that will be the unfinished version. Once we actually finish the film, I guess you could call it the Director's Cut, I will post the link to that as well. That version will be on YouTube so you can either go there to find it or I will just embed the video on this blog. Either way, you'll soon be able to see both versions of the film.

New York is having a 48 Hour Film Project in June. What sucks is that it's during the weekend of all of my siblings' birthdays, but I've got to do it. I'm addicted now. I already told Tiff about it and she gave me her blessing and I told Chris that I'd be available that weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't wait. Anyway, I hope to have some links for you soon so you can see our film. Just don't tell me how bad I look. And don't tell me I look good, either, because I'll just assume you're trying to make me feel good.