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Quick! There isn’t a lot of time!
If you don’t already know, the 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend where you and an adrenaline-filled (and highly caffeinated) team takes on the daunting task of creating a short film in a mere 48 hours. After our previous films The Specialist and I’ll Be Right Behind You we knew expectations were high. Here’s what we’re working with:[/az_column_text][az_column_text]
Required Elements
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Character:
Samantha Cantwell, Chili Cookoff Winner
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Prop:
Towel
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Dialogue:
“You and I need to talk…”
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Watch the final film and learn more about how it was made below
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THE IDEA
Friday night we are off and running but before any logistical moves can be made, we have to have a plan. This year the stars aligned and we agreed on the very first idea pitched: A boxer that quite literally can’t keep his s*** together.
This wasn’t our first rodeo with the 48 Hour Film Project, and our producer Kaylen Kress knew that every second counts.
“I put work into casting and locations prior to the 48 hour brainstorm, so that when we were ready with our idea we had a great bunch to choose from. I sent out the call sheet, location, and details around 11:00 PM on Friday night to the cast and crew and everyone was on board.”
-Kaylen Kress, Producer
While the team went home to get some much-needed rest, Vidzu director & producer Josh Guffey stayed behind to finish the script of Gut Punch, which would later be renamed South City Rumble.[/az_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding=”default-padding”][vc_column width=”1/2″][az_column_text]
PRODUCTION
We started off Saturday morning bright and early at Memorial Park in Brentwood to film our hero’s chili contest, as well as our opening car scene. As you can see, we had to work through a fair amount of chili. Our Director of Photography, Levi Kirby, was especially excited for the 48 Film Project because he was able to break out his newest toy, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro, as well as a few anamorphic cinema lenses that he had from a previous project. After a few quick shots and a can or two of cold chili, we made our way to Title Boxing to set-up the remainder of the shoot.
“It was my first time using the Blackmagic camera and anamorphic lenses which was a fun experiment for me. I’m happy with how the film looked.The juxtaposition between the beautiful imagery and moody lighting and what the actors were actually doing and talking about was pretty funny, which is a double edged sword because if they make me laugh, they camera shakes!”
-Levi Kirby, Director of Photography
As we worked into the night blue skies turned to grey and we were hit by a nasty thunderstorm. To make matters even worse, the Blues lost 7-2 to the Bruins. Nevertheless, the team persevered and we wrapped up filming (very) late that night.
The edit suite is where the real race against the clock began.
“From a post perspective, this was one of the most challenging films we have ever done. Not only was the length of the film one of the longest we’ve done but the fight scenes meant going through a LOT of footage to find those great looking punches that really fit the story. We essentially had to choreograph the fight in post. In the past, editing on Saturday night goes until about 1 AM to assemble a rough cut. This time it went till 5 am. There was still a lot to do though so we started right up back up early Sunday morning.”
-Amanda Smith, Editor
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Get a look behind the scenes
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THE FINAL HOURS
From here it was a race to the finish as we finalized the cut, shot and did graphics for our end credits, searched for music that was suitably epic, mastered our audio, graded our film to make it as cinematic and gorgeous as possible, and of course added a bunch of fart noises.
Also paperwork…you would not believe the paperwork.
We went down to the wire this year.
We always complete a safety render for emergency purposes, but this was the first year we almost used it. We sent Levi off with our un-proofed copy of the film to ensure we had something for the judges to look at. Meanwhile at the office, we noticed something that made our stomachs drop. There was a sync issue! The deadline was 15 minutes away and we knew we would only have one shot to fix our film.
Our creative director, Kyle Dufendach was sitting outside the office, engine running, as our animator Sarah sprinted towards him, flash drive in hand. After the passing off the symbolic torch she said “Go!” and our fearless creative director indeed, went.
Kyle handed the final entry into the judges with only 3 minutes left to spare.
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THE AWARDS
Two long weeks later we arrived at the BEST OF STL SCREENING and our film South City Rumble did not fail to impress. Vidzu’s very own team Green Eggs & Cams left Washington University with an impressive list of awards including:
- Best DIRECTING : Kyle Dufendach
- Best EDITING : Amanda Smith
- Best USE OF PROP (towel)
- Best USE OF GENRE (sports)
- Best ACTOR : Terry TenBroek
- Best CREDITS
- AUDIENCE CHOICE (group B)
“What’s really great about the 48 Hour Film Project is that we get actors we’ve never used before. We got this group of people and it was fun seeing their personalities come through. Terry and Luiz specifically brought great personalities to their roles. They made it really fun and really funny! Luiz was game for just about anything. He showed up at 9 AM and we had cold chili in cans that we poured into bowls and he ate bowl after bowl of cold chili. His sense of urgency for the whole piece was just awesome.”
-Kyle Dufendach, Creative Director
Making a short film in only 48 hours is a challenge, but it’s one of the many challenges we love taking on. It forces us to act on our feet, think outside of the box, and work as a team. We think that Executive Vice-President of Vidzu Media, John Launius says it best:
What I love about the 48 hour film festival is the camaraderie and the team aspect, because at the end of the day, yes, we all have roles, but just to watch an idea form and bring it into reality in essentially under 48 hours is really extraordinary. If you’re interested in filmmaking or you’re interested in building a team of people around that does something I think it’s something you should do!”
-John Launius, Executive Vice-President, Vidzu Media
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THANK YOU
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CAST & CREW
Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time and talent to make this film a success!
Luis Perez, Terry L TenBroek, Sydney Dufendach, Jon Page, John Launius, Eric Hennig, Glenn “Cliff” Mirabella, Keith Nussbaum, Anthony Grawe, Peyton Mogley, Matthew Boyd, Michael Kennedy, Sarah Gibson, Bethany Schmit, Lynn Ullman and Allison Schmidt[/az_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][az_column_text]
OUR SUPPORTERS
And a special thank you to our supporters who didn’t appear in the film but help make it possible.
Keith Alper, Nitrous Effect, Stew Smith, and Title Boxing Club Rock Hill[/az_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][az_column_text]
EVENT ORGANIZERS
Thank you to Cinema St. Louis, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, Washington University, The Brown Theatre, as well as the many other supporters of this awesome event.[/az_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][az_divider divider_number_text=””][az_latest_posts latest_posts_layout_mode=”grid” latest_posts_columns_count=”3clm” orderby=”date” order=”ASC” latest_posts_number=”3″ latest_posts_category=”Film”][/vc_column][/vc_row]