Dedication
Behold, Jenni’s Angels’ 48 hour film for 2009!
Genre: Revenge
Required Prop: a rock
Line: “It doesn’t fit”
Character: Alex Puddle, an exaggerator.
Dedication.
Higher quality and more share-able on Vimeo, but I don’t seem to be able to embed from there.
Wellington 48 hours finals
Team Testies “Race to the Top” Nature Run Amok
This film didn’t actually make the finals, but it was included and given a prize for the best worst film. Similar to Aborgeddon but not as high concept, this was a bit more Shaun of the Dead in excecution. Three slacker friends realise that trees have come alive and are killing people. None of their cellphones have coverage so they run for higher ground…up Mt Vic…through the forests. Hilarious baby-in-peril stuff, great genre tropes and clever evil tree stuff. I enjoyed it very much. I actually really loved how their use of “it doesn’t fit” was completely unrelated to anything. I’m strange like that.
2RhAB (Two Redheads and a Blonde) - “Lost and Found” – Parallel World
Triple split screen about three different choices our hero makes in regards to the lost wallet outside his house. I thought this one was really strong and had a hell of a payoff. On the other hand I kind of forgot about it after I saw it, so it didn’t have sticking power.
A Trick With A Knife – “Call Me Al” – Musical
A really charming and simple musical with no normal talking at all, everything was sung. A man and a woman agree to meet after chatting online and hopes are high…then disappointment. The songs were clever, the camerawork was suitably cheesy but well done and the performances outstanding. My second favourite 48 hour film ever after “Shooting Star” and my second favourite film of the night.
Chain Gang – “Chip: an Actor’s Actor” – Nature Run Amok
Creepy but awesome make up turned a man into a tree. Good twist on the genre having a plant going off the rails, drinking too much, etc. Fun times. I kind of liked the stuff over the end credits better than any of the rest of it, so I’m not sure what that says about the film. Or about me.
Chess Club – “Alex, His Kids and Miracle World” – Family
This movie was awesome! Totally nailed the heartwarming family movie. The premise was a bit familiar: adult telling the kids a story which is then acted out, but they kept it fresh with the great performances and the weirdness in the story. The left out son being made a zebra in the story make me laugh so hard. Also the noise that zebras make. (Fnneeerrr fnnneeeerrr.) I also enjoyed the next door neighbour who you never saw the face off. He was hilarious. Best film of the night for me. Or was it? Yeah, it totally was.
Dog Films – “Extraction” – Revenge
Eh. Gore-nography. I just don’t like it. The movie was nicely shot and at least it wasn’t a man torturing a woman. Good acting etc, but I just can’t enjoy this kind of thing.
Eat Kitteo - “Poultry Pounder 3″ – Parallel World
This was so good. The whole audience was roaring with laughter. A guy buys a forbidden, banned and cursed video game, brings it home and the chicken from it steals his baby! He follows the chicken into the game for an amazing sequence and a great pay off. I really enjoyed seeing something so short and to the point as well, I also love this team’s name animation and the easter egg at the end of the credits. Great time was had by all.
Killah Walz/Orca - “Otack Otack Otack Fall” – Religious
A very different kind of 48 hour film, this was a strange arty movie set in a mental institution. One of the inmates begins to wonder what is going on. The whole thing was very beautiful and strange. Loved the music, loved the design, loved the weirdness. I also understood what was going on, which I think is a bonus. A couple of the people I saw it with didn’t understand and perhaps because of that, didn’t appreciate it. I thought it was very daring and will stick in my memory for ages. They also won the grand prize, so it’ll be on TV for the National Finals.
Liquid Chicken – “No Warrant” – Twist
This movie had Keisha Castle-Hughes in it. Someone at the back of the theatre yelled out ‘no fair!’ when she was revealed, which I thought was funny. This was well acted and very prettily shot but it didn’t really have an M Night big twist. They did include a photo of M Night and I thought they were going to go one way with it, which would have been awesome. Instead they just had a little twist and then a reveal and I was disappointed. I kind of feel like none of the movies of this genre have really got it. It makes me want to write one.
mrs e movies – “Bienvenidos A Nueva Zelanda” – Educational
Another hilarious film. This was a travel show for Spanish people settling in Wellington. Due to cut backs they had to cut out actors and use little wooden dolls which were very cute. Nice use of the exaggerator as the voice over, saying how wonderful Wellington is while showing crappy houses, road works, etc. Me and Chelle giggled all the way through. Plus, bonus points for the rock being an engagement ring like we had.
The Official V 48 Hour Team – “Behind the Scenes: One Flu Over the Bees Nest” – Conspiracy
Ok, so it was a film about people making a 48 hour film, and there was gratuitous placement of V…but somehow they won me over. Maybe it was the dedicated performance of the director who kept taking his clothes off. Maybe it was the long haired skateboarder being cast as John Key. I don’t know, but it was better than I had expected it to be.
Sauce-Era – “The Perfect Fit” – Politically Incorrect
A very politically incorrect film set at a job interview. The interviewee relates all the terrible things he’s done at past jobs; being perverted, creepy, rude to customers, homophobic, etc. Some of which was appropriately hard to watch and you were laughing despite yourself. Had a Hell of a payoff. Good work on the concept.
Traces of Nut – “Free Range” – Religious
Rowan from The Winding City is in this one as the head of a religious cult that worships eggs. On their last day on this Earth before ascending to the albumen one member of the cult begins to have misgivings. Beautifully acted, fantastic overall look with the costumes and some nice jokes as well. I liked the ending as well. Praise Gupa!
Overall I think it was a much stronger group than last years’ finals. I felt a little weird about the Official V team winning prizes, but their movie was pretty darn good. I’m also a little weirded out that Traces of Nut filmed in the war memorial without permission with no apparent repercussions but whatevs. The judges’ decision is final and all that.
Winners here, although you probably have to join the forums to see the list.
Also see the 48 hours heat our film was in
Writing for the 48
Some thoughts on what to keep in mind when writing a script for a 48 hour film and how to do it well.
Because I am a huge expert on this now that I have done it once for real and once for practice. My other credits are directing, acting, editing and watching a whole lot of 48 hour films.
The first thing to keep in mind is that you are making a short film, not a 7 minute feature film. This is actually a very difficult thing to do, because most people have more experience with the long format. Many of the genres handed out suggest a long feature length story as well. You have to narrow your focus down, right down to a small story.
First you have to get your basic concept through whatever means your team chooses. ( I recommend brain storming with as much of the team as can make it in Friday night, so that everyone is invested in the project). Then you can sort out the basic plot, choose characters and figure out how to use the three elements in the best way. Then casting, location decisions and costumes choices can happen.
After that your writer or team of writers should remove themselves from the rest of the team and get down to business. Our team has always had a team of writers working together, this is because you get more fresh ideas, you can take turns napping if you need to and you have tie breakers.
Our writing team worked just by talking through the plot, inventing dialogue as we went and then refining everything. If one of us had a problem with a line or the way something went down we had be honestly voice it and be willing to be shot down. “Kill your darlings” was one of our other watch-phrases. Don’t get precious about something you’ve written and insist it stay just because you like it. Write your own things in your own time and be precious about them. The 48 hour film competition is all about time and the lack of it. Don’t waste it on something you thought up an hour ago.
The writing team’s job is to keep it as simple as they can for the rest of the team to shoot. This doesn’t have to mean two characters, one location, if your team wants to push themselves with special effects, multiple locations and zombie make up then by all means include all that in the script, but you can still make it easier on them.
Important question to keep in mind 1: How late can you start the story?
I’ve seen a bunch of 48 hour movies who start the story too early. Say you’re telling the story of some monster hunters tracking down a monster who may be acting in self defence. Do you need to show how the hunter team was formed? Do you need to show the team being asked by the authorities to step in? Do you need to show them driving all the way to the area the monster is terrorising? In a feature film, sure. In a 7 minute short? You can start as late as the hunters turning up with their armoury. Maybe you can even start later depending on what your film is about.
Remember that you want to tell the smallest version of your story as you can. If this means cutting out the montage of the main character getting up in the morning and having breakfast, then I say do it. Writing a short film is very much like writing a short story. A piece of advice I got from the Morgue our head writer, in regards to a short story is relevant here: “In a story this short, anything that isn’t 100% part of *this* story
is clutter.” In other words, if you have a scene, a shot or a character that isn’t moving the plot forward then you can cut them.
Important question to keep in mind 2: What is the heart of your story?
Why do you want to tell this particular story? Is it about the nature of human suffering? Is it a story about a dog who just wants his breakfast? Or do you just want to show a man torturing a woman? Whatever it is you have a reason to tell this story. Figure it out. With our film “Dedication” we wanted to show the real emotional core of the revenge story. The fact that someone is hurting bad enough to lash out at the person who hurt them. The writing team kept this in mind as we nutted out the story beats.
Remember to keep it simple when it comes to dialogue as well. Your film will look more polished in the heats if you have your characters saying loaded sentences full of meaning rather than chatting away with a lot of filler. Bonus points if you can pack double meaning into the words you choose. I watched a few films this year and previous years where some of the lines clunked. This is a problem because it can jar your audience, throwing them out of the film and reminding them that there’s a world outside your story. Try to make your dialogue flow like it’s real people talking, but write it better than actual conversation.
One of the things we did to try and achieve this is we read through a late version of the script at around 2am, line by line. If anyone on the team thought there could be a better phrasing or felt meh about the line we talked it through. You might not be able to fix it, but we got a lot of better stuff by doing this.
Extra reading: Helpful questions to ask from Deb-onair
Another 48 hours heat
Monday night Lee and I attended another 48 hour heat, to support some friends. Heat 15 had more newbies in it than Heat 8 I think, which can be both a blessing and a curse.
* Slapstick Surgery Love Burns
An animated revenge film with a simple premise and a cohesive story. Nice smooth animation and a nasty twist. I liked the way the gangster mooks looked.
* Slice of Fried Gold Production Grand Finale
Musical or dance film about a 48 hour team having trouble writing a 48 hour movie. They all argue about the ending which we see a bunch of times with different twists. I might be getting old and cynical but I don’t really appreciate 48 hour films about making 48 hour films.
* Team Slowhand Back to the Past
Mockumentary parallel universe film about a missing person who has possibly gone back in time. This film was a bit disjointed, there were some internal inconsistencies that bugged me and the way the interviewed people were often shown in profile was kind of jarring.
* The Soft Chewy Centers The Incredible Journey
A horror film closely parodying The Amazing Race, this film was great fun. There was the standard lazy wife/angry husband team, a brother and sister team and two zombies. I especially liked the special effects shots, the reality TV in jokes and the inevitability of the conclusion.
* SPEKTRONE Twin Set
A sweet little religious film about a boy who worships the Queen. It was perhaps a little slow to start but I thought they really nailed the emotions of the lead character in this one. Nice to see a twist on the religious film as well, and great use of ‘it doesn’t fit’.
* Stage Philangees The Brain Drain
Another mockumentary, this one was a conspiracy film about the recent immigrants to New Zealand. Our presenter was convinced that the zombies were dangerous. An interview with a Robert Muldoon type politician denying it and a talk with a neighbour who’d been to a re-education class were very nicely done. I loved when the presenter stopped a zombie eating someone’s head only to be told off by the man with a fresh hole in his head for being racist.
* Stinky Murphy How to Avoid Charity
An educational film showing an adult education class on how to avoid charity collectors. It was filmed very nicely and it the sound, etc was very professional. I just kind of didn’t enjoy the premise. I feel bad for the charity collectors!
* Struck By Lightning The Hardened Heart
Family film from Napier about a brother and a sister. They drive around and visit their Grandmother’s grave. The sister was obsessed with animals and had a very vivid imagination. I thought the story dragged a little but there were some whizzy special effects.
* Team Stunge Job Satisfaction
Romance set in an office and kind of based on The Office, this might have been mostly improv-ed. That meant there wasn’t all that much of a narrative, but there were some good moments. The end twist of who the romance was *really* between was clever and appropriately upsetting.
* Sunday Night Dinner Club Rattled
Nature Run Amok film shot in a very avant-garde style with entirely original music. I found it hard to hear what the actors were saying at times. Bold move to not include any actual nature-run-amok, just implied in dialogue and sound effects. The film focussed instead on the possibly-not-ethical reactions of two people.
* SquidWig Productions Dead Time
Real Time film about an emo who had killed his girlfriend. Leaving aside the whole men killing women thing, this was a pretty good short. The lead was fantastically creepy and cold towards the dead body, and had a good line in creepy stares.
Our 48 hours heat
Heat 8, Wellington 48 hours furious filmmaking competition 2009. I’m making special mention of how the prop was used in each review since I was impressed with the diversity of interpretation.
*By Another Verified Idiot Murder 101
An educational film set in an educational institution. Some good laughs in this one, and generally the format of the classroom final exam in murdering worked well. I thought some shoddy editing let them down. Spooky implied reality with the cloned victims though. Rock used to kill someone by a Goth after voodoo didn’t work.
* He who likes boats You Are My Rock
This was a real time movie that was both confused and confusing. They made some funny jokes with time ticking past and nothing much happening but then it seemed to be trying to tell quite a sad story. Just at first I thought it was going to be a Memento homage, but it wasn’t. I don’t think. The flashbacks didn’t give us any extra story. The rock in this one….well, there was a rock on top of Mt Vic. Or it might have been the girl. Not too sure.
* Head on a Stick Arborgeddon
A freaking fantastic nature run amok film which totally nailed the genre. Our hero is creeping through the office the suspense is racked up as a body is dragged away. Evil plants are attacking! So many good moments….so many awesome bits. Plus a jump scare right at the end. Loved it to bits. The rock was a game of rock, paper, scissors and quite nicely used.
* Helen and the Cockroaches Pun’s Labyrinth
I found myself thinking while I watched this, that I could have tightened up the script some. Overall a sweet comedy about too shy guy going to pun world to learn to be funnier. Terrible puns all the way through, looks like the team had a heap of fun making it. The rock started out as a paperweight and then turned into Duane Johnson The Rock wrestling action figure. Someone had to do it. Awesome.
* Hi-Deaf Blink: and You’ll Miss
A conspiracy film that hit its beats well, showing the conspiracy to be true and then how those in power can manipulate the naysayers. Lee found it difficult to follow, but I got the whole story. I wasn’t sure there needed to be quite that much drug use or swearing in it. Didn’t add that much. The rock was drugs though, which is a clever use.
* HMS Awesome The Brothers Cage
Nice twist on the family movie genre, this was about a man who is told that Nicholas Cage is his brother. It was a bit weird and stalkerish but good acting and script fully had me on side by the end. It was lovely. The rock was thrown into the ocean at an emo moment.
* icwProductions Notes
I loved this movie, and was gutted that they were disqualified. A romance film about an awkward writer trying to find love. Mostly by being set up by ‘Pud the bud’ Alex Puddle. His next door neighbour leaves him notes, that he corrects the spelling on. It was very honest and sweet and well acted. The notes were wrapped around rocks, apparently cute girls next door have an endless supply of rocks in their handbags.
* ID TEN Ts So Many Reasons
A one man team animated film of the M. Night Shyamalan Big Twist genre. A quiet, clever little film with a nice twist. I believe the rock was right at the end….
* Jato unit Faith in a Recession
Horror Film, starts with a dead body in a bathtub. The man in the apartment doesn’t answer the phone. A hippy walks in, he’s an angel. The other guy is a devil and they’re going to fight over who gets the soul of the dead guy. Devil: “He’s a suicide, he goes to Hell.” Angel “Hey, it’s a recession, we have to diversify.” These guys really lifted their game this year, I thought this was a very clever and nicely shot film. I especially loved how they turned the required line into a ‘yo mama’ joke. There were rocks when the Devil switched locations to a more hellish landscape than the botanic gardens.
* Jenni’s Angels Dedication
I’m still too close to this to watch it objectively. Some sound issues meant a couple of Jon’s important lines weren’t too clear and I noticed the gladwrap but otherwise I found it very moving. Again, pretty much biased here. The rest of the audience laughed at our one or two little jokes, but once it got serious there was respectful silence. I was pleased with how it went down. It’s so much harder to judge than a comedy audience reaction though! We had a diamond ring being a rock.
All in all, I feel like it was a really high standard over the whole heat.
Things I Love Thursday
Actually I’m way too psyched about tonight’s screening of our 48 hour film to focus too much, so I’ll just put up a random list and a funny picture.
Ben and Matt love to surf!
My bed is lovely and warm when I have my polar fleece blanket on top of my sheet and my duvet and my quilt. So warm and snuggly. I love to sleep. I’ve been catching up on sleep all week with napping.
The 48 film competition. The way all these people just pull together and make something amazing happen…it’s just cool. I love doing something like this, because it’s so unusual compared to other people’s weekends. I am proud of Jenni’s Angels.
Books books books, Lee bought me two books on amazon that came super fast. Can’t wait to read them! I have so much good reading to do.
Arrested Development, Dollhouse, Supernatural, How I Met Your Mother on TV.
Sok and Jenni love to surf! On the deck! With sleep dep!
PoF: Gala Darling
CO: 4848484848
the 48 timeline with twitter
I have included my twitter updates to give the post a timeline. I find it helpful, hopefully you won’t find it annoying.
Giffy picked up me and Nick around 5.30, there was a lot of horrible traffic in Wellington due to rush hour and heavy rain. We went straight to Norm’s. The lovely Svend picked up Maverick’s pizza for us, of which I was only able to eat two slices. There was happy chatting catch up with Regan, Chelle, Steph, Norm and the others filtered in in the next hour. Then I got the call, Lee and Jon had gone to pick up the elements….
We have been given revenge movie. Not feeling that confident but cheerful 
7.10pm
I didn’t feel very good about the genre. I mean, sure, I like watching the odd revenge movie, but generally you have a lot of time in a feature film to build up sympathy for your character before something awful happens that leads to the revenge. 5 minute revenge film? Hard call.
The other elements were as follows: Character: Alex Puddle, an exaggerator.
Prop: A rock
Line: “It doesn’t fit.”
Brainstorm was long and tricky but we’re doing a Film noir writer revenged by character. 10.30pm
We spent a lot of time at the brainstorming talking in circles. In part because the revenge movie is very formulaic and how do you get a good twist on it? Morgue wrote his impressions of the brainstorming (and indeed the whole weekend here. The writers retired to Steph’s house to nut out the script. We were all feeling a bit daunted, but conversation in the car sparked some good ideas.
(more…)
things i love thursday
- The 48 hour film competition is tomorrow, OMG eeeee! I will probably be twittering the weekend as much as I can, so you should check if you want the skinny in real time.
- Grey wolves no longer endangered and….it’s ok to hunt them again? Whatever. The thought of thriving wolf colonies makes me happy.
- I am also surprised fangirl happy about this rumour that there’ll be a Deadpool spinoff from Wolverine. Because I though Ryan Reynolds was really good in Wolverine, and if I didn’t think “Not while I’m awake” would have way too many bad connotations, I would fully put it on a tshirt.
- This Daschund plays fetch by himself may be the happiest dog in the world.
- New books, I know I’m meant to be saving, but I really like new books. I have the second installment of Michael J Fox’s memoir Always Looking Up, Jacqueline Wilson’s second installment of her memoir My Secret Diary, The Jungle Book because I have never read it and I’m keen to compare it to The Graveyard Book and then Lee ordered me Dooce’s book It Sucked and then I Cried and Leo Barbauta’s book The Power of Less. So much good reading to look forward to! Now I just need a solid month off work to get it all done.
Honourable Mentions: The 48! I am so excited! I’m still watching the Slow Loris video from Monday, so freaking cute, my friends, emailing my sister in Rarotonga, photos, friends coming to stay over, books, youtube, people who are polite and friendly on the phone, roleplaying (Buffy game last night was so awesome I had an RPG hangover), looking foward to the coke I can drink tomorrow, writing, long sleeves, layers of clothing, cool tshirts and burger fuel.
And you, my darling? What makes you happy this day?
Wednesday is when we write
Or we try to anyway. Today I had to have two lunches before I felt like I could focus on anything. To be fair the first lunch was a packet of ‘Easy Mac’ chicken flavour that I got for free at Armageddon. It was kind of awesome actually. Then I had a big salad and that was really good as in good for me, unlike the easy mac.
I then wrote a bunch of pages for a children’s story or possibly book which I had the idea for in a dream. It’s Noir for kids. I think it’ll work out well. Unfortunately my arm complained. I haven’t written longhand so much lately and I’m out of practice, it hurt me. So I had to take breaks, in which I did painting. Because apparently I have ADHD.
After I ran out of steam for “Zachery Frye, Private Eye” I remembered I’m supposed to be writing an article for RPG girl’s summer zine, dug up my notes and pounded out 1000 words. I’m writing about being a girl but playing boys. I have lost focus now so I’m wupdating you. I think my article will be pretty good, but it’s very first drafty at the moment.
I feel pretty good about today’s progress, especially since last night I went through and updated the first two chapters of Kiki based on Matt and Debbie’s input. It also feels kind of good to be writing stuff that isn’t horror as well, I think it’s good to stretch myself if I can.
In other writing related news, I’m psyched to announce that this year I’ll be on the writing team for the Jenni’s Angels 48 hour film team. I’ve never done that before, and I am looking forward to it immensely.
Links: Read copybloggers article on How twitter makes you a better writer, you see? That’s why I twitter, not because I’m an egomaniac that demands constant attention. Really.
And two self-improvement posts that spoke to me….Think Simple Now’s Soul cry and Tim Bronson’s actual true, no lies real key to self development.
I also have been reading On The Road a bit more hard out this week and this paragraph seemed relevant:
“Now you just dig them in front. They have worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for has, the weather, how they’ll get there – and all the time they’ll get there anyway, you see. But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiney, their souls won’t really be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and they know it and that too worries them no end.”
– Jack Kerouac.
Now, if there was just some simple way to stop worrying….
POV: secrets of magic
CO: Buffy game this tonight
Borkhardt hates bloopers
Blooper reel for the 48 hour film competition entry from Jenni’s Angels. Enjoy!
PoF: post-swing
CO: meh
