Hello again and welcome!
The Shot Time team took part in the 48 hour film project a couple weeks ago here in the windy city. It was exhausting, long and at times tense but it was also a ton of fun. We spent a couple weeks before the actual weekend of the event prepping as many potential locations as we could so we would have no issues once we got our genre and of course once we got our genre we got thrown for a loop. Reading the many potential genres there was maybe 2 that we didn't want and of course we got one of them... Family film. I gotta say, directing a family film is not something I though I would be doing anytime soon, but it was a lot of fun. Brendan or 'God of Animation' as we have dubbed him had a ton of work to do. In about 24 hours he put together three short animations and also our logo animation and he did great.
One of the most exciting parts of the shoot was the fact we got a sick camera hook up by our fantastic cinematographer. He was able to get us the brand new Sony NEX FS100 with a few prime lenses. I gotta tell you that camera is everything I could ever ask for when shooting on locations where lighting was uncontrollable. Since we only had 48 hours we had little time to set up big lights and ended up using some great little blender LED lights that were battery operated when necessary, but when we didn't the camera still worked like a charm. Only one situation came up where we needed to bump up the gain to +3, but the noise was negligible. We even used the sweet slow motion shooting system. Now this could have been a mistake on our part as we didn't have much time to practice with the camera prior to shooting, but the slow motion shooting had limited shooting length, as in we shot for about 15 seconds and it would stop... Probably our fault, but it was rarely an issue. I think the only thing that seems strange about the NEX FS100 is the fact it has no ND filters. One could be snobby and say that's why you buy ND lens filters and to them I say... shut up... Just kidding. It was not an issue really, but I could see where one would have issues if using this camera for many shoots.
I mentioned those blender LED lights earlier... How freakin awesome are those things?! I mean not only is it only like 5lbs (no more sore back) and battery powered (no more worrying about blowing a fuse) but it also let's you blend color tempertures (no more gels and tape and burning your fingers putting gels back on!!!) Speaking of temperature the thing didn't even get all that hot. I was able to pick it up bare handed while on and move it. Great lights in my opinion especially if you're looking for portability and ease of use! Oh and they apparently have different adaptors available so if you use Sony or Canon or Panasonic you can buy that battery adaptor and not have to go out and buy a whole bunch of new batteries. I am personally in love with these lights.
Anywho back to the tournament. We spent 48 hours working our butts off and made an all around good movie for being done in 48 hours and being a family film which none of us really had any preconceived ideas in the back of our minds for. I know one is not supposed to plan stories before hand but anyone who is really a filmmaker has at least 10-12 movie ideas in their mind that they think would be great, and I am hard pressed to believe they just said well I knew that idea already so let's think of something else.
All in all it was a fun festival. They asked all of the directors if they would do this event again next year, and I think I was the only one who said no. I don't say that because it was a bad festival but because I think Shot Time will begin to grow and try to spend several months to a year putting together one great movie and compete in the feature film categories. So to anyone wondering if they should do this festival, I would say yes if you have the money laying around to pay all the fees since it costs around $160 to enter then $12 dollars for tickets to the screening and $20 for the winners screening. It adds up quickly, but it was fun seeing the movies at the Logan theatre and the Vic. If not get a bunch of guys together and put together your own 48 hours film festival. In 48 hours you can't sweat the small stuff and you really learn a lot about working quickly and efficiently and how/when mistakes are made. That is what I think was the best thing I took from this event.
As always I hope to hear from you via email/comments. Until next time, take care!
It's Shot Time,
STP
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