48 Hour Film Project/National Film Challenge
48 hours to conceive, write, shoot, edit, and complete a short film. That's the conceit of the 48 Hour Film Project. I had long wanted to get hooked up with a team and finally did so in 2008. Since then I've worked on five 48 Hour Film Project/National Film Challenge teams. The 2010 National Film Project film, Motivations Unlimited, was one of 19 finalists of 157 entries from around the world.
Motivations Unlimited (2010)
Character: Morgan Wunderlich, Motivational Speaker. Prop: Chopsticks. Line: "Pull the car over". Genre: Romance.
This is my first script for Malarkey Films, and the first time the writing process was structured how I would like. Typically a team will spend hours arguing amongst themselves about what to do, putting forth half formed ideas hoping to get enough consensus for their idea to win the day. This time we decided in advance that we would spend the first two hours actually writing scripts or ideas. We would then read aloud the scripts and choose from them the direction to go. The result is a much more cohesive movie than would have been the result with a script by committee approach. In fact, this script was the second one I wrote during the writing period, as the first idea didn't quite come together. The freedom of this writing process allowed me to get to this second idea. I'm especially happy with how we managed to use all of the required elements well. In fact, we won the prizes for the use of genre (romance) and the use of character (Morgan Wunderlich, Motivational Speaker). It's usually a big temptation to hide the required elements, and I think it's better when you can feature them rather than hide from them.
The National Film Challenge films get 72 hours to make their film, and Malarkey put the extra 24 hours to good use with the exceptional credit sequence at the end and the general amount of polish of the whole film.
Secret of My Success (2008)
Character: Reginald H. Higganbotham, Diplomat. Prop: Receipt. Line: "This could get complicated". Genre: Suspense.
This was my first involvement in a 48 Hour Film Project, and I wrote up an idea from Todd Christy about the inner monologue of a serial killer. I thought this came off very well, and was a little surprised it wasn't a finalist that year. One thing I thought should have come across a bit clearer was that the main character was a serial killer, not a hit man. Two very good lead performances, and genuinely creepy direction.
Maybe one reason that it wasn't a finalist was that the required elements, while there, weren't really prominent. The prop (receipt), the line of dialogue ("This could get complicated"), and the character (the victim at the beginning) were shoehorned in but weren't vital. Do judges give extra credit to films that push the required elements to the fore?
Static (2009)
Character: Mary Quinzani, Second-in-Command. Prop: Magnet. Line: "Yes! I mean, I hope so.". Genre: Sci Fi.
My second time around with Argali wasn't as successful as my first. The required genre of Sci-Fi was right up my alley, and the access to the Regis College campus was a major score. I proposed ideas featuring time travel, or mad scientists in love, or alternate universes. And yet, I couldn't convince people that we could get this done. This is an instance in which there were too many voices in the room, and we settled on an idea that no one really had a handle on. So I and my co-writer were stuck writing someone else's idea when we really didn't understand the idea and what made it tick. The result is what you see, and that's the reason I support actually writing scripts to start the 48 Hour Film Project period. Judging actual scripts as opposed to ideas will yield better results.
The Poughkeepsie Job (2008)
Character: Monte Cheney, Hairdresser. Prop: Pear. Line: "If you see him again, tell me.". Genre: Road Movie.
After my first 48 Film Project period, I hooked up with a team in Providence for their 48 Film Project shoot. It was a fun group of people, but even more chaotic than usual, and the script decision process again suffered from the "too many people in the room" syndrome. The end result wasn't bad, but there was more potential than what was there.