Wobbly (48HFP Houston 2010)

Last year my friend Dave sent out an email telling us about a film contest he was going to enter. It was the 48-Hour Film Project (48HFP) in Houston.  48HFP is an amature film contest with it's own tour. Each weekend several cities hold a contest.  I was intrigued with how to take a 5-7 minute film from conception to completion in just 48-hours, while also involving several required elements. It's a rather daunting task and some teams are not able to complete a film within the alloted time. Although intrigued, I had plans for the weekend of last years contest, so I was unable to become involved; however, I told Dave I would like to observe one in the future.


The future has arrived, and I've had a blast this weekend! I did much more than just observe. I wouldn't trade it for a relaxing, do-nothing weekend...unless it was one involving Mama and Daddy...eh...and maybe the "baby sister," (she knows she's really on the list).


Anyway, a few months ago I received this years email telling us the Houston 48HFP (along with 5 other cities) would be this weekend.  I saved the weekend so I could participate and offered my services as an RN (we were blessedly injury-free) and Craft Services--that way I could observe some as well as participate by reducing some of the stress off the cast and crew. Additionally I became involved in Set Design for a couple of scenes--that was really fun, (and also entailed set-up/tear-down/clean-up--a lot of work--but still kind of fun). Dave tried to press me into on-screen stuff, but I begged off because it's June and we're in Houston, so all I packed were shorts. I'm thinking next year the email might remind everyone to come prepared with clothing for many different settings: gym, casual, date, and a professional look, etc. There is always a need for extras, so most of the crew also worked as cast. We were a very cohesive and versatile team.


"Wobbly"  is our team name and we are led by Dave, aka "The Studio." Dave is the Executive Producer, or as he likes to remind everyone, "The Evil Overlord." Because of the distance I had to travel there were several pre-filming activities I was not involved with: 48HFP mixers and screenings of past films at the Houston organizational level, and some Wobbly planning sessions, etc. at the team level. I did make it to our practice 12-hour film a couple of weekends ago. During that shoot, our Videographers camera overheated. After Mark packed up and left we sat around and brainstormed alternate plans in case the same scenario played out this weekend. Did you know you can actually rent professional movie making equipment? I suggested renting from Austin since their contest will be after Houston's (I thought the selection of cameras might be better.) The rental was not needed because John, the Director, went out and purchased a camera--he was looking for an excuse to buy one and when this one presented itself, he jumped on it--I love it when a man can  make a decision.


Friday night rolled around and it was "Kick-Off" time. At the Kick-off the required elements for the entries for your city are announced (they differ each weekend/city so no one has a pre-knowledge advantage). This weekend the Houston elements were:


Character: Sherman (or Sharon) Brown, recently unemployed.    
Prop: Book
Line of dialogue: (doesn't have to be spoken but does have to appear) "There's a $2 service charge."


Additionally, representatives for each team "draw" their genre.  Not quite as picturesque as a Harry Potter-ish Sorting Hat, but just as suspenseful. If a team does not want the genre they drew, they can request a redraw, but the second draw is final. Wobbly drew, "Buddy Film." Not exactly our first choice, but do-able. The information was texted to Dave and the rest of the team at Wobbly HQ (aka Dans house), and the 48-hour countdown began. (I was still en route). 


By the time I arrived, they had developed a story board. The script was written by 12:30 am Saturday, then we stood around talking until about 1am. We agreed to meet at our shoot site by 8am. David W.  had obtained permission to use his awesome Church as one of the possible shoot sites. (It's recommended to obtain as many different places as you can prior to that weekend since you don't know what kind of a story you will be writing/filming).


After the meeting broke up I was too excited to sleep so I set out with the GPS to find the Church and scope out Kolachie and donut places en route, then I went to WallyWorld to purchase some last minute supplies. When I finally got to bed around 4:30am I was exhausted.  Saturdays alarm went off wayyyyy too early. but by the time I arrived at the Church I was fully awake (a feat in and of itself since I am not a morning person even after a full night of good sleep).


While they filmed in other parts of the church, I assisted in the design and setup of both a coffee shop and a restaurant (the restaurant had shots in three different seasons--winter, fall, and summer, so the decorations were different for each shot). After we finished the church site portion of the film, we converged on Dans home for the final scenes. At 6:08pm John called, "It's a wrap." We were only 8 minutes past our self imposed time line. We were very pleased, although we did joke about one of the 3-second, non-dialogue, montage scenes requiring 12 takes. :~)


Before we sat down to eat dinner, "Real Friends," the name of our film, was in the hands of our editing guys. I'm sure that Jim was up most of the night viewing, cutting, splicing, and everything else that goes into Editing. After dinner, Greg (who worked the boom and is our sound guy) went home to take a long bath, and a short nap before working on a soundtrack. Greg is a Renaissance Man--there is nothing he can't do! Every time I meet him I am totally amazed at his many talents.


It's now Sunday afternoon and there has been no word yet how it is progressing, but we expect to make the Drop-Off deadline of 7:30pm. We will reconvene at Dans house for a "Wrap" party around 8pm tonight. I've ordered a cake that I designed to resemble a clap-board thingy (that's what I've been calling the slap thing they use to mark scenes/takes--and what I will call it until I find out and replace this text). As a joke I have it reading "Scene 10, Take 52" :~) It also has the name of our film, "Real Friends" and in the two bottom corners I have "48HFP" and "Wobbly"  respectively. I'll try to remember to take my iPhone and take a photo of it so I will at least have that to post. :~)


This year there were 70 teams filming. The teams have been divided into 5 groups of 12 and a swing group of 10. The film of each team in a group premieres with the other films in their group. The swing group will be divided among the other five groups; therefore, each of the five groups will have a possibility of 14 films to screen (remember, not all films will be completed or turned in on time). The Wobbly premiere of "Real Friends" will be Wednesday @ 5:30pm. I have a doctors appointment and had taken off the rest of the afternoon but still would probably not be able to make Houston by such an early time. The encore showing for our group is Thursday @ 9pm, which means if I attend I would be driving home after midnight and going to work the following morning somewhat bleary-eyed. If I want to see it (and my name in the credits) on the big screen that's going to be the one I have to attend--the sacrifices made for "art." . After the screenings it will be available on the Internet. I'll try to link to it when it becomes available. (I don't know why this is looking this way and I don't know how to fix it...yet.)