TANGENT

 

BEHIND THE SCENES / MAKING OF


After just switching majors from animation to VFX, a friend came to me to see if I could assist with an entry in a 48 hour film festival in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, I was already booked with other projects and wasn’t able to be involved. Having to say “No” is one of the hardest parts of any job, especially when you want it to be “Yes”, so I settled on a “No- BUT…” and made the group a promise then and there that I would take whatever steps necessary to be a part of the following year’s entry.

Sure enough, the following summer a member of the group contacted me once again, and this time I was ready and raring to go. Unfortunately, the majority of the group was decidedly less so. It seemed there were lots of conflict within the group. They had actors, they had a location, but they didn't have a budget secured or a full production crew ready to go. The timing was a major challenge as the fest would take place the same week as the end of our school semester which led to many senior members unable or declining to participate. A bigger problem was one of perspective- there were actually two festivals in our area that summer- Milwaukee & Chicago- and the majority of the group held the opinion that since Chicago had more entries and a bigger audience, it was therefor more important. I was signed on regardless, as was the group's President who was slated to direct. I ended up meeting with the group for a planning and strategy session in which I urged them to consider- if Chicago was truly so important- why not just look at the Milwaukee fest as a practice shoot? A “Chicago: Part One” of sorts? The group had very real concerns, especially operating with a limited budget. After negotiating a very small percentage of the budget, and dismissing any remaining voices of doubt or dissent, we were left with $200 and about half a dozen of remaining volunteers. With only a few days at our disposal, we started building an “all new, all different” production crew consisting of promoted PA’s and friends from other majors.

All I could think of was we were in real "Bad News Bears" territory.

While the director was happy with the way the crew was shaping up, I still had lots of concerns. First and foremost, was the disregard for audio capture and mixing. In a very “when you’re a hammer every problem is a nail” setup, it seemed that the primary focus on video production had blinded many people to the necessity for strong audio. I went out of my way to hype and bribe some select audio students, especially ones that were able to assist in live audio capture, and more importantly could preemptively troubleshoot audio needs as I was afraid of a bottleneck during editing/finishing. I was also very anxious about having enough camera equipment, not to mention operators and brought in a second cinematographer. Last but not least, I was able to convince several other students to simply be drivers and part time runners over the weekend. Once I was happy with crew staffing levels, I went to town assisting the group with the acquisition of as much gear as we could carry. Between call sheets and spreadsheets, our group was prepped and ready to roll.

The production officially kicked off on a Friday at 6:00pm. Our director got a phone call from a production assistant in Milwaukee and we were given our criteria for consideration into the festival. The required story elements were:

  • Genre: "Sci-Fi"

  • Main Character(s): Michael or Michelle McDugan

  • Occupation: Carpenter

  • Line: "Your guess is as good as mine."

  • Prop: Clipboard

Once we had our criteria the director and I quickly lead the crew out to the shoot location. Once we had the team moving on getting electrical and networks set up, we had one thing on our minds.

The story.

The director was of the mindset that we needed to imply such mainstay science fiction tropes such as aliens, or futuristic technology. With self imposed treatment deadlines fast approaching, I asked him to be more considerate of more recent movies such as Shane Carruth's “Primer” & “Upstream Color” as well as “Another Earth” and “Safety Not Guaranteed” films that I felt were absolutely Sci-Fi, but got there by focusing on the nuances human emotional reactions to big ideas or big conflicts. We were not expecting “Sci-Fi” at all, and our limitations had me completely convinced that we had no other choicebut to go for a "less is more" approach to the idea of "Sci Fi",  where we could focus on emotions and themes rather than plot and potential timing pitfalls. With the clock ticking, the debate continued.

I felt like we were going in circles- which led to the "aha" moment. What if our character was caught in a "time bubble"? How would he know? How could we show it? How many times had he gone through the same events? Or event?

My elevator pitch was simple. Imagine if David Lynch had done "Groundhog Day"?

The wheels were turning and we were on the same page. We roughed out an outline, and proceeded to literally tear it up and rearrange our main story beats so we start in the middle. Just when I thought we were good, I got the news that our principal actors decided to carpool (against my instructions) and had been in a minor accident. Even though I was scheduled to be involved in every other part of our production- running set dressings, a quick animation of a VFX shot, assisting the lead editor- it looked like I was our only option to act as well. Not my first choice, but again- sometimes I can't say no.

The thing I was most concerned with though, was having to scrap our other character which led to some very chaotic changes to the script. Not to mention the necessity for a very awkward bit of exposition/v.o. work which I had desperately wanted to avoid. Finally, once we had settled on the story, I threw together some of the sloppiest looking storyboards I’d ever produced to get a shot list together. The director mapped out a very hasty production schedule, so rather than sit idly by, we boldly moved forward with as many of the shots that we could complete in the remaining hours of nightfall.  It was gorilla style filming from about midnight, before finally taking small "sleep shifts" into the morning. This arduous process continued well into early Sunday afternoon, when we finally broke everything on set down (A few of the crew even broke down by that point) and sent our director and editor via a well rested driver to make the several hour drive up to Milwaukee to turn in our entry. On the way up there were many, many frantic phone calls between myself and the "delivery guys" doing last minute adr, not to mention trying to keep the set cleanup and breakdown organized.

The deadline to turn in was 6pm.
The last call I had from them was 5:45.
My phone rang at 6:20.
It was the director.
"The render finished at 5:58. We were the last to turn in. We made it." 

.
.
.
.    

Several days later, after the festival, I was informed that the film had not only been one of the best received by audiences, but had actually tied for the most awards won by any film of the entire festival! We ended up coming back with wins for "Best Sound Design", "Best Editing" and "Runner Up Best Film"