Doc, Lori and I competed again this year in the 24 Hour Video Race competition. This year we also added Lori’s friend Thomas to the team. I think that we came up with a really neat idea and executed it very well. We chose our roles in advance. Doc was the director, Lori was the producer, Thomas was the cinematographer/cameraman, and I was the location sound guy (or, as Yvonne called me, “Fish Boom”) and editor.
Friday night we gathered at the Magnolia Lounge in Fair Park, where we signed in, picked up our badge lanyards and a case of “vitamin water” (weak koolaid), and at midnight they showed us a video depicting the required elements for our films. This year, our theme was “Cover Story,” the prop was any measuring device, the location was a statue or other public work of art, and the line of dialogue was “That’s what I’m talking about.”
We hopped in the car and brainstomed all the way home, making a brief stopover at SMU’s Meadows Museum to look at the outdoor sculptures to see if any would be suitable. Once we got home, we continued to generate ideas, and finally around 2 a.m. we narrowed it down to our top two. We chose our final idea based partially on the fact that it would require us to shoot at only one location, and last year we feel that we wasted time at too many different locations. From 2 to 4 a.m., we worked on the script, storyboards, and shot list. Kathryn and Brett came over about 2 a.m. with makeup and costume possibilities in tow, and hung out with us for a while before heading up to my studio to get some sleep.
We all went to bed around 4 a.m. and got up a little before 7. We ate breakfast, drank coffee, showered, and then Doc, Lori, and Thomas headed out to scout locations. I worked on props and costuming, and about 8 a.m. we decided to race out to Kat and Brett’s house in Wylie to gather more costume pieces.
When we all arrived back at the house, we discussed the location possibilities, settled on one, completed our shot list, gathered up our equipment and headed downtown. We unloaded at the sculpture Four Chromatic Gates by Herbert Bayer (1984) at Ervay and Federal near Thanksgiving Square. The sculpture is located in a narrow plaza between two office buildings, one of which had some broken out windows and a construction fence encircling it.
Shooting took about 2-1/2 hours, much less time than last year. We were completed by 1:30, ahead of schedule. Kathryn, Brett, and Doc were wearing multiple layers of heavy clothing and our scenes required them standing or lying on the ground for extended periods of time; although our film was set in winter, it was actually about 95 degrees outside. I was really afraid that one or all of them were going to have heatstroke! But we kept them hydrated with water and dabbing the sweat from their faces before each take.
When Lori and Thomas scouted the location, it looked ideal, but almost as soon as we started shooting, construction workers in one of the buildings started jackhammering like crazy. They made that godawful noise almost the entire time we were shooting, and I was hoping against hope that the shotgun boom mike that I was carrying was picking up the actors’ sound more than the jackhammers. Also, about halfway into shooting, the workers started dropping bricks and concrete out of one of the 10th-floor windows, and then shouting at us in Spanish, most likely telling us to leave. We realized that although they’d cordoned off an area around the building, they were probably wanting to throw their bricks and other stuff into the middle of the plaza (easier, I guess) right where we were working. We decided that we would just ignore them, shoot as fast as we could, and keep going until or unless somebody came downstairs to talk to us. We talked to a couple of security guards from the other building, who came outside to smoke and see what we were doing. They had no problem with us being there, especially because we assured them that we wouldn’t be long, we’d clean up, and we’d be respectful of the space.
Anyway, we lucked out and did not get kicked out of our location. If we had, then I think we would have had to forfeit the competition, because if we’d had to re-do everything at another location, we would not have been able to finish in time.
When we finished shooting, we packed up and came home. Lori and Doc went upstairs to my studio, where we’d set up a capturing station to get the footage off the tape, and started that process. I went out to get some pizza for all of us. Kathryn and Brett had some food and cold drinks, hung out for a while, and then went home. About 3 p.m., we had all the footage reviewed and captured, and I started the editing process.
Editing took a long time — we didn’t finish until nearly 11 p.m. — but that was TONS more time than we had last year and I think we were able to be calmer about it and make some really good editing decisions. Doc chose the music from the craptastic selection we were given from a sponsor called the Music Bakery, and Lori and I sat there and worked on the editing. Doc finalized the sound — realizing that we were simply not going to have time to splice in and sync up our “good” sound from the shotgun mic, we simply used the noisy sound-on-camera, but Doc worked extensively with it to tone it down to the point where the jackhammers weren’t as noticeable. And layering it over the nice cello music we used, I think it turned out very well.
We rendered it (which took all of about 30 seconds), printed it back to DV tape, tested it out, and raced back down to the Magnolia Lounge to turn it in. Our official turn-in time was 11:37 p.m., and we were team #26 to turn in our film. Just like last year, we didn’t see very many teams come in after us to turn their tapes in, yet today we found out that 68 teams “made it to the finish line.” It sure didn’t seem to me like 42 additional teams wandered in after we got there, so I’m not quite sure what to make of that figure. Supposedly the deadline was midnight, no exceptions. Then we all went back to our respective houses, showered, and went to bed.
And now, for the part you’ve all been waiting for — what was our film about? Working within the constraints of our assigned elements, we came up with a love story. The plot: a crazy man, an instrument of fate, wanders through an urban scene. He carries a gray wool blanket with him. He stops in front of a sculpture and starts yelling at it, hitting it with his blanket. He then throws the blanket to the ground and stomps off. A homeless man sleeping underneath the cover of the sculpture picks up the blanket, making sure the crazy guy isn’t coming back for it. Warmed, he stops shivering and falls asleep. He wakes some time later to discover his new blanket is missing. He looks around, sees it draped atop a lump a few feet away, and snatches it back. He goes to sleep. He wakes again to find a homeless woman stealing the covers off of him before his eyes. A tug of war ensues, and he wins. The woman crawls back to her pile of newspapers, defeated. He curls up under his blanket again. But something is bothering him. He realizes that she is cold too and he’s bothered by that. An idea strikes him — he will cut the blanket in two and give half to her! He pulls off his belt to measure the blanket, and takes out an old knife to cut it down the middle. But before he can make the first slice, she realizes what he’s about to do and comes over to stay his hand. They look at each other, smile, and curl up under the blanket together. Our instrument of fate comes storming back down the street again, stops in front of the art to yell at it, notices our homeless people curled up together, and has a moment of clarity. He calmly says “That’s what I’m talking about!” and wanders off again, muttering to himself. Fade to black.
The cool thing is, because there were no leafy trees in the scenes or other telltale signs of summer, and because of the costuming and the fact that our actors could, well, ACT, I think it’s totally believable that it was the middle of winter.
And Kathryn had an incredibly clever idea for our end credits: have our “homeless” actors hold them up written on cardboard signs!
I had to heavily edit the film and leave out a couple of scenes that we’d originally wanted to use, because of time constraints. Our final time was 4:58, two seconds under the limit. Doc isn’t happy with his performance, but the rest of us think he was fantastic. Kathryn was wonderfully expressive, as usual. And Brett, who claimed that he had no talent and was simply following instructions, did a terrific job.
“Cover Story” will be screened at the Angelika on Tuesday, May 16, at 8 p.m. If we make it to the finals, those will be held on Tuesday, May 23. Wish us luck!!!
ok, how freakin’ cool is this?!
i really enjoyed “the dying gaul,” which we saw last night. it was about a screenwriter (robert, played by the talented and ever so tasty peter sarsgaard) who wrote a script based on the life of his lover malcolm who had just died of AIDS. a hollywood studio executive (jeffrey, played by campbell scott) wants to pay robert $1 million for the script, with the caveat that he must change the script so the two main characters are heterosexual instead of homosexual, because no one will go to see a film where the main characters are gay.