If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve been invited to participate in a weekend movie project, where we get a group of people together to write, film, and (maybe) edit together a short movie in a weekend.
Quick note: here’s the link to the form I ask that you fill out if you’re interested in participating in one of these projects.
Back in 2005, my best friend’s mom saw an ad in the local paper about a 48-hour film competition. (Remember when 48-hour film competitions were cool?) My buddy reached out to me, we signed up, and my life was forever changed.
I love the magic and the barely-contained chaos that happens when you make a movie in 48 hours, especially with a group of people who don’t know what they’re doing. I want to do more of these projects, even if 48-hour films are no longer cool.
This is an attempt to describe how these projects work, more or less. I’m using 6PM Friday to 6PM Sunday as the timeline, but this can be adjusted as needed.
- Before We Begin:
- I collect the names and contact information from everyone who wants to participate.
- I send an introductory email to all participants with a link to a form to collect a list of assets.
- I need an electronically signed waiver from everyone stating that they’re willing to participate, just to cover our asses.
- What are you interested in? Do you want to help write? Act? Run the camera? Setup lights? Just do whatever needs to be done?
- Do you have relevant skills and experience? Can you run a camera? Setup lights? Was your performance as Roxie Hart the talk of your high school?
- Do you have access to any cool locations for filming? Nifty costumes? Unique props?
- We agree on a form of group communication. I prefer that everyone uses Signal or Telegram, but there are other options.
- Friday night – Writing the Script
- We gather the writers to brainstorm and write the script. We’ll want 2-6 of us. More than that is difficult to manage.
- This takes as long as it takes. I’ve had times where we had a script by 11PM, and other times where we were still struggling at 3AM.
- We take inventory of our assets: actors and crew, filming locations, available costumes and props, etc.
- We take note of elements we’ve decided on: genre, theme, line of dialog, prop, etc.
- We brainstorm. This can easily take a couple of hours and go all over the damn place. This process is very much yes-and. We note and explore ideas, we don’t shoot anything down.
- We decide on an idea to develop. We sketch out a basic plot, characters and character arcs, and scenes.
- We write the actual script. This does NOT need to be perfect. There WILL be improv and changes as we film.
- We create a list of props, locations, actors, etc. We tentatively assign rolls and jobs.
- We create a rough shot list.
- We send a message to the whole team with their roles and assignments, the script, the shot list, needed props, etc.
- Saturday morning – Preparing for Battle
- We connect with the entire team at an agreed-upon time, in person and/or electronically. We assign jobs and errands:
- Thrift store and hardware store runs for props and costumes.
- Calls and visits to secure access to filming locations.
- Actors with major parts begin to read through and run through their scenes.
- I run through basic training on how to use my equipment with whoever needs it.
- We connect with the entire team at an agreed-upon time, in person and/or electronically. We assign jobs and errands:
- Saturday – Aaaaand, Action!
- We begin to film. This is going to look vastly different for every project. We all do our best to pull our resources together when we need them, and get through each scene.
- It’s far more important to get scenes on video than it is to get them right. I try to get as few takes as possible so we can move on to the next scene. Everyone needs to be prepared to be flexible, quick, and dirty.
- This takes as long as it takes. We shoot until we’re done, or we pass out, or the force us off of the playground.
- Sunday Always Comes Too Late
- In the old 48-hour competitions, Sunday was all about editing things together. Since we’re doing doing a contest, we have more flexibility. I’d imagine that most groups would want to finish filming Sunday, then do the editing after the weekend is over. Some options:
- We decide we want to stick to the rigid 48-hour timeline. In this case, we’d start organizing video and sound clips Saturday night, and plan to spend all day Sunday editing things together. I’d want one, MAYBE two other people working with me on this. Any more than that would be a mess.
- We agree beforehand that I’m going to edit things together after the weekend is over. I’d want to negotiate a deadline – 2 weeks, 4 weeks – but I’d edit things on my own time. In this scenario, we can finish shooting scenes on Sunday.
- If someone on the team wants to take on editing, I’d hand off the footage, sound, and other assets. At that point, I’d be happy to consult as needed, or simply wait to see the finished product.
- In the old 48-hour competitions, Sunday was all about editing things together. Since we’re doing doing a contest, we have more flexibility. I’d imagine that most groups would want to finish filming Sunday, then do the editing after the weekend is over. Some options:
This is more or less what we can expect from one of these weekend movie projects. There’s a lot of for negotiating with the people involved, depending on what the group wants to do and is able to do.
I cannot, of course, guarantee that we’ll end up with a quality movie. If people show up and do the work, I can ALMOST guarantee that we’ll have a movie to show for our efforts. I can almost guarantee that the movie will be fun, even if it isn’t good. I can also almost guarantee that the experience will be a solid combination of fun, frustrating, uplifting, disappointing, etc. as nearly all creative endeavors seem to be.