24 Speed Weekend at W&M

My old College held their 5th annual 24 Speed (24 Hour) filmmaking contest this past weekend. On Friday February 20th, 12 teams received their genre, line of dialogue, and a prop. By 6pm the next day, 6 teams turned in a video on time, 3 turned in a video after the 6pm deadline, 2 did not turn in a film, and one giant idiot did not understand that the contest was 24 hours. The 9 completed films were then screened at 5pm the following Sunday. I figured what better time to visit the school then during a film competition (after all, I had been a participant myself for 3 years '04-'07 helping to organize the first one, and even came up with the 24 speed name).

I also contacted a few alumni to see if I could also get them to come back for the event, and was fortunate enough to get my buddies Gustav from L.A. and Kevin from New York to come down. I even setup a little talk about the film production business, where they each discussed their respective cities.

(L-R Gustav, Me, Jeremy, Kevin)

Only about 5 or 6 people were in the audience (not including myself and my buddy Jeremy), but it was still fun, and the few people who did show up appreciated it. I had aspirations of creating a "just for fun" alumni team for the 24 Speed event, but that of course, did not pan out to well. We were all happy to see each other, so instead spent the night of the competition drinking at the Leafe (the College's main bar). However, I did manage to throw together a short movie with my friend Jeremy in the few hours before the competition deadline. The joke genre we received was called Steampunk, which is basically the category that Bladerunner falls into, or so I am told. Regardless, the product that resulted can be viewed below:



The weekend also afforded me the chance to meet with Nathaniel Kahn, a two time Oscar nominated documentary maker. He was nominated for his films My Architect and Two Hands: The Leon Fleisher story. A small lunch was setup with Nathaniel Kahn consisting of about 5-6 people. We all got to personally share our own stories with Kahn and received very pertinent and useful advice. It was really cool to meet Nathaniel Kahn and I definitely appreciated the interest he showed and willingness to give advice to us all.

Later that weekend, I also got to judge the films in the 24 Speed contest. The previous year I was an official judge, and had setup an editing award called the "Xanadu Editing Ignited Award." This year, I thought that I was just going to help pick the Editing award, and nothing more; however, another judge canceled, and since I was hanging around, I got to be an official judge a second time. Nathaniel Kahn was the Special Guest Judge this year, so I got the pleasure of discussing and judging the films with him. Now, this is really cool because Kahn is a member of the Academy board and so he also votes for the films that get nominated for the Oscars.

The final screening of the films was 5pm that Sunday night. The film that I liked the most was made by Rifthead Productions. The teamleader Ted Hogeman is a friend of mine and makes alot of films. Here is his youtube channel: Rifthead01. Ted's film Shadows of Shadows won the Xanadua Editing Ignited Award, the Excellence in Sound Award, and the Audience Award.



The rest of the films can be viewed here: 24 Speed 2009 Films

Hand Some Devil

Check out my latest flick. Mad props to Chris Damon who allowed me to use his music.



THE STORY BEHIND THE MOVIE

So, I got one of those urges...one of those I need to make a movie stat urges. And so I did. Well, it didn't happen as quickly as I liked, but it happened. It started with a simple skit idea that I had several months back, which was basically a severed hand in the litter box, but more deeply, "what if my cat solved her problems by hiding/burying them."



The skit was simply: I uncover the hand, then confront the cat, who then jumps on me, thus knocking me out, which then cues a trippy knockout dream, and a cut back to me waking up with a start and a pile of kitty litter on my stomach. I would of course end it with me yelling something like, "Phantom! This is not how we deal with our problems!"

However, when the desperation hit me to make a film, it started to go in a darker direction. This started with the inclusion of Phantom's claws under the door. I always found my cat's pension for sliding her claws under the door to be quite hilarious. Plus, i wanted to open with the idea that the cat had been out doing something mysterious and something way beyond my own knowledge. One of the trickiest parts was directing the animal of course.



The moment I set down the rolling camera in front of the door, she refused to stick out her paws, even she always did this time and time again on her own. I had to use a cat toy and swing it under the door to get them out, and in the process, I got my finger slashed twice. Initially, it was supposed to be a cheap gag. I was going to walk to the door, the paws pop out with some loud music, and then I open the door. I couldn't get her to pop out her paws, but I could get a nice slice on my hand. So when she tagged me, I decided to just put it in the movie, which worked out really well.

The first set of filming concluded just after I discovered the hand. I was at a loss for an ending, but was planning a "the cat attacks me. Fade to black" type ending. Again, I could not get this cat to act. And after editing what I had, I came to the conclusion that the focus should shift to the hand. I had just purchased the 20th anniversary edition of Hellraiser and decided to throw in a parody of that. Then it hit me, how about I film my face ripping through a plastic bag and overlay it on my hand! A face ripping through the palm, why the hell not. This proved to work better than I had thought, but also more of a pain in the ass than I had thought. In order to make it seem real, I had to keygraph every single frame so that my bagface would mimic the subtle movements of my hand. Meaning: each of those 2 second long hand clips took well over an hour to edit.

In the end, I think the film came out rather well. Part of me wishes I had stayed simple and lighter, but part of me is happy for what it morphed into. Also, I think the hand stuff ended up being pretty unique. It was also my first time shooting in hdv with my camera, which is hella-cool.




Note: I filmed myself as the hand creature saying "In this economy, it is hard to find a proper box." I wanted to throw this joke in, but decided it just wouldn't fit. And yes, the movie is an attempt at being completely ridiculous, while still managing to pull off the horror/thriller genre.

Never Miss An Oppurtunity

Filmmaking is one of those unique hobbies (or professions for those lucky enough to succeed) that is constantly building upon itself. No project or idea is too small. In fact, sometimes it is the smallest of opportunities that can lead to more significant ones in the future. For example, while I was in College at William and Mary, my school opened up a Media Center. I immediately got involved with center and took a job there. The opportunity to create a propaganda video for the center was opened up to the staff, and I was one of the few who decided to make one. Borrowing a little from the Conan O'Brien show, I created a short involving a talking statue of Lord Botetourt (or Loboto, so dubbed by the son of the Media Center's director).



It was just a short little video, but people liked the character of the statue, which led to a couple other appearances in Media Center videos. In fact, 2 years later after I had graduated, the media center was approached by the school to make an Easter Egg video to go along with the launch of the school's redesigned web site. The media center peeps contacted me to reprise the roll of Loboto again, and so I did. WATCH.

Again, it is just a short little video and a small opportunity, but now it is, to a degree, a part of school history.

But you are probably still thinking, so where is this all leading. Well, at the end of November I was contacted again by my good friend Kevin (Media Center's Creative Media Dude) to do another Loboto movie. Apparently, W&M alumnus Bill Lawrence (the creator of Spin City, Scrubs, and Clone High) was planning a visit to the school in January. The SWEM development office wanted the Media Center to do a nice little video to send to Mr. Lawrence as a way to say, "we are thinking of you and looking forward to your visit." So, the idea for another Lord Botetourt vid was tossed around, and I was sent another script for the Loboto part. This approach probably would have been fine, but I was beginning to worry that Mr. Loboto was getting played out. I also thought it might be nice to do something more personal for Bill Lawrence.

I began thinking of another idea, and after searching online I found this real nice article on Why We Write by Bill Lawrence. Read Article. In the article Bill Lawrence says, "That’s what writing is to me - crafting a beautiful lie." From that, I decided a good idea would be to simply make a series of exaggerations, lies, as well as some truths about the changes the College had undergone since Mr. Lawrence's graduation in 1990. Kevin liked the idea, and we both agreed that I should make the two hour trip from Charlottesville to Williamsburg in order to make the video. I took an opportunity to visit some friends and make a fun little video for the creator of Scrubs (seemed like a no-brainer to me).

On January 29th, Bill Lawrence visited the school and I got to meet him. Not only did I meet him, but I got to be introduced as "the guy that made that video for you." And the best part about it was that he liked it! He liked it enough that I got to pass along my resume and a demo reel directly to him. In addition, the close relations I have maintained with the Media center also made me privy to all the events with Mr. Lawrence, including reserved seating to a full house talk with Mr. Lawrence and an autographed Scrubs poster! So yes, taking advantage of the opportunities, resources, and connections that you have is a must. Of course, I am doubting that much more will really come out of it all. But Bill Lawrence is an incredibly nice guy, and he was serious about wanting to help me, specifically, and just that alone is enough to make all worthwhile.

Plus, I cannot go on enough about how wonderful a person Bill Lawrence is. He is the most humble, gracious, and genuine person. He really appreciated being back at his old school, and just wanted to talk as long as possible with everyone, giving them honest encouragement. He is a solid class act, and a true testament to the fact that good people can still be successful in Hollywood. Please purchase and watch all of his shows!