Status Update: Delivering to target

The film is finished, and now burnt to a DVD ready to be delivered to the West End of London to be judged.

I would like to take a moment here to thank everyone that took part, and helped make this weekend memorable, and so much fun. Drew and Dave, as much as I hoped to have more people helping out, just the three of us turned out to make a really great film, it wouldn’t have been as much fun without you both. Of course, thanks must also go to Ricky Horn and my mum who joined us to make sure that the cameras kept pointing at the action and soldiered on past fears of horses, and dislike of forests in general to assist.

Of course it wouldn’t have been possible without the script written by James Crowther, who has a brilliant grasp of characters and managed to write a 5 minute film script in the time it took me to get back from London on Saturday which really helped us get moving. My Uncle, John Whybrew, jumped in Sunday afternoon and provided the film with an original sound track and I really like it. For a start it is really nice to have a piece of music the complements my editing work, instead of needing to work the other way round for a change. While most of the special effects and titling work was done by yours truly here, there was one piece of the puzzle that I needed to call in external help for. The Eternity Syndicate, as secretive as they are, needed a logo, in my opinion, and for that, I needed a graphic artist to make one. Thankfully I knew just the guy, Carl Mitchell, the second of my ex-housemates to be roped into helping, and he delivered the brilliant logo that accompanies part of the opening monologue.

So, once again, thanks to everyone that took part in this contest alongside me. It was really great fun, and I mean really mean that. Anyway I need to stop being all sentimental now, and get my act in gear, I have a DVD and just over three hours to get from here to the West End of London and hand it in. Keep your eyes on this space for more information about what happens next.

48 hour film challenge - Day 2

Slightly more refreshed now, after a couple of hours sleep, and a dip in the bath, I am now ramping up to get day 2 of the film challenge started. I was up until 3 am last night getting the rough cut of the film together, and the titles and as much of the special effects together as possible. Today we have to do a round of re-shoots, a couple of things that we didn’t mange to pick up yesterday, or stuff that we noticed we needed only once we started editing. It has been a great laugh so far, and hopefully we will have a lot more fun today, and have something back to the Apollo by 13:00 tomorrow afternoon.

We might also be shooting the last scene needed for the Animus trailer this afternoon as well, so that should be finished by the middle of the week. Thankfully it is only a simple effect so it shouldn’t take too long to put together and add to the trailer.

48 hour film challenge - Now on

As you read this... assuming you read it soon after I post it... I will be working on the 48 hour film challenge. I have pre-written most this blog post so that it can be posted without taking up too much time while I am meant to be working on the actual film. Below is a countdown timer until our deadline for delivery on Monday

[UPDATE: The contest is now complete]

So, on to the part that couldn’t be pre-written. The details about the film. Every film made for the contest has three randomly chosen elements that are partly to add to the challenge of filming, and partly to show that the film was actually made in the 48 hour time limit. That way you cannot submit a short film you made prior to the contest. The three elements are the title of the short, a prop or action that must appear during the film, and a line of dialogue that must either be spoken or written somewhere in the film. My short is called “Status Update”, and includes the dialogue “These are the fast times, these are our fast times” and a black rucksack with a selection of credit cards three mobile phones and two differently coloured passports. Thankfully my friend from university, the very talented Jexus, agreed to write us a script and while I was travelling back from London and acquiring the props that we didn’t have.

My brother and his friend, Dave, agreed to star alongside myself in the epic short, and when I arrived back we divvied up the three roles and secured my mother and another of their friends, to be camera people and away we went. About 2 and 1/2 hours later we have primary filming done and dusted and editing is now underway. This affords me a little time to write this up as the computer captures the footage from the camera automatically. Tonight is going to be a long night... I can tell already.

Elsewhere the Two Towers spoof I am working on has finally finished editing and will be uploaded soon, sadly this weekend gets in the way but looks for it coming out to youtube, and various other video sharing web sites,some time in the next week or so, after we have our little premiere here.

In other more personal news, I have succeeded in getting a job with a video games company in Cambridge. At the moment it is only a limited term contract doing player support, but it should hopefully be easier to move on to bigger things from there. And my brother is home for the Easter holidays, which makes me very happy.