Sunday, September 30, 2007

Life Takes IDOM.

I am sitting here on the guacamole green Ikea couch trying to comprehend what happened last night. I had to stab myself a few times with a butter knife to see if I was really awake and not dreaming. I now have a few scars on my thigh, but at least I have proof that everything that happened in the last 24 hours was real. I am proud to announce that IT DONNED ON ME finished in the top three of the Visa "Life Takes" Invitationals and walked away with $2500.
What an awesome achievement. As Evan Donn noted, "the competition was strong - all of the top ten films were great, and honestly at the end of the night it could have gone to anyone!" Big congratulations to the first place winner, Team Midas' "Two Coins," and the Grand Prize winner - Team BP's "Terms of Use." IT DONNED ON ME was definitely in good company. I swear, we must be the happiest bronze medalists ever. It never was about winning or losing for us. We were just happy to participate in the 48 Hour Film Project. Making it to the top 30, and then the top 10, and finally to the top 3 was icing on this crazy little cake that we baked from scratch.

Below are some random snapshots from the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational screening an after party at The Bubble Lounge. Along with the butter knife scars on my thigh, these pics are proof that what seemed so very surreal is, in fact, very real.















It is by chance that we met, but it is by choice that we stayed together. We started out as 10 random strangers who met at the College of San Mateo, and now we are award winning film makers. It donned on me that life takes a lot of things: talent, passion, creativity, camaraderie, respect...this little team of film making enthusiasts from that school up on the hill has it all, and I am proud to be a member.

Saturday, September 29, 2007


Believe it or not, I am actually pretty subdued right now. I had been bouncing off walls all week long, so I guess it's good that I've mellowed out a bit. I'm sure I'll get amped up once I get my tux on, and at that point I'll be bouncing off walls again. Maybe I should wear a helmet.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

TOP TEN!



So there I was sitting in class. At about 8:30pm, I decided to check my email. I opened up my Yahoo account and saw an email from the 48 Hour Film Project Producer titled "Visa 'Life Takes' Invitational--Top 10." My heart started to beat faster. I quickly opened up the email and my jaw dropped when I read its content.

To my shock, I saw IT DONNED ON ME on the list. I quickly turned to Joanne to tell her the news. I began to freak out. I wanted to jump out of my seat and make this announcement, but she pretty much bitch slapped me and told me to settle down and not to disrupt class. I had four other IDOM'ers within a five foot radius of me--one of whom is the instructor--but I had to sit still for the rest of class.

I went mad, so I excused myself and stepped outside to inform the other members of my team of the good news via phone. When I returned, Professor Donn ended class, and I directed my team mates to my computer. I had them all read the email, and we all cheered. Can you believe it? WE MADE THE VISA 'LIFE TAKES' INVITATIONAL TOP TEN!!!!!!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mark Ruppert [mailto:mark@48hourfilm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 8:20 PM
To: '48 Hour Film Project'
Subject: Visa "Life Takes" Invitational--Top 10

Hello Filmmakers—

It’s time for our announcement of the 10 films selected to be screened at Theatre 39 this Saturday night. The judges had a difficult choice. There were 30 well made films to choose from, but, as stated earlier, the judges had to choose only 10 to screen.

Each film team deserves hearty congratulations for their efforts. As expected, the level of filmmaking was superior. We only wish that all films could screen at the theater. Those films not screened at the theater will screen at the party at the Bubble Lounge.

The Top 10 Films for the 48HFP Visa “Life Takes” Invitational 2007

(in alphabetical order by Team Name)

Figers
"Britty First Dates"

It Donned On Me
"Exit"

JeffroGee Productions
"Cheese Run"

One Glass
"Top Secret"

Rabid Manatees
"Rock, Paper, Scissors"

Subject To Change
"Life Takes Timing"

SubSanity
"Rated Arrrrrrrrrrr"

Team BP
"Terms of Use"

Team Midas
"Two Coins"

Tri-County Lawn Bowling Assoc.
"Ghost in the Machine"

The 3 prize winners are in this group and will be announced after the screening. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Mark Ruppert and Liz Langston
Executive Producers
48 Hour Film Project, Inc.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Project #1 Completed.

I am happy to say that I completed my first Digital Work Flow assignment. This concept of making mini 48 Hour Film Projects is fun and challenging. My goal in this class is to learn the technical aspects of film making such as audio, lighting, and camera angles, and though my film de femme was well received, I realized that, once again, I reverted back to my comfort zone. As a result, I did not achieve my goal. This first project was definitely a learning experience for me, and I feedback that I received from Professor Donn and my classmates will surely help me to improve. What did I take away from Project #1?
  1. Do not rest on my laurels. I took the path of least resistance on this first project and reverted back to my "mash up" style of film making. In essence, I took existing footage and "mashed" them up into a new project. To be honest, when I received the film de femme genre, I went into a little panic because I had no idea how I was going to execute this type of film, so naturally I gravitated towards what I knew. The problem is that I will never learn anything if I don't try different things. For project #2, I will step out of my comfort zone and focus more on the production side rather than post production.
  2. Do not get obsessed over one small piece of the project. I spent three hours trying to restore a vintage photo. After I completed the Photoshop tinkering, I realized that there was no way that my audience would recognize the difference! That's how subtle it was, but yet it did take me hours to complete. In the end, that photo was on screen for probably a total of 2 seconds.
  3. Make a schedule and stick to it. For the rest of this semester, I will treat every assignment as if they were projects that clients have hired me on to complete. In the real world, if you do not deliver, then you will not get rehired. One of the reasons why I reverted back to my comfort zone is because I allowed myself to fall behind. As the due date approached, I panicked and jumped back into the box.
  4. Editing something down to 3 minutes is damn hard. Those who know me well know that I have a tendency to go on and on and on. I am a mini-series kinda guy, so it's hard for me to edit things down. I had to shave off about two minutes of this film which proved to be the biggest challenge for me. I think the best way to approach this in the future is to actually have a story board, if not on paper, then in my head. It's always good to have a plan. All too often, I will dive into a project and go with the flow. If I had some sense of organization upfront, then I would have more direction and not have to rely on the flow.
I said early on that "I will do my best to step out my comfort zone and experiment with new camera angles and lighting. I guess I should probably invest in some good microphones as well. I am going to take this class seriously because I really want to do things right. Like I said, I cannot depend solely on my FCP skills anymore. I really need to become the film jack of all trades." I didn't do those things for assignment one, so moving forward, this is what I will do differently.

With all that said, I do would like to say that I am proud of the final project. I haven't shown it to my sister Diane yet, but after I click on the publish post button of this blog entry, I will send her the link. It's definitely not easy making a three minute film de femme, incorporating a Chinese fan, a bull rider named Becky, and the quote "I love you long time," into it. I think Diane will be happy with this film :-)

Monday, September 17, 2007

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Film de Femme Update.

I found out what I'm really good at: procrastination. It's about 5:30pm on Sunday, and I'm sitting here on the guacamole green Ikea couch watching football. I feel like I've just gotten out of bed, as I am still in my boxers and scrubs. I've moved the couch about 10 inches in front of the TV set because I'm too lazy to put my contacts in. I'm pretty much blind today. I'm feeling a bit guilty because rather than working on my assignment, I caught the Colts vs. Titans and Broncos vs. Raiders games, and now I'm watching Tom Brady tame the Bolts. At some point, I will need to turn off the TV and get to work on my Film de Femme. If it's any consolation, I do have my MacBook Pro on my lap, and I am working on some Photoshop work for my film. Should I be revealing so much about my procrastination being that Professor Donn reads everything that goes on in this blog? Well, this is a course in digital work flow, and procrastination does play a part in my work flow. I might as well be honest about it.

I'm spending way too much time on cleaning up vintage photos. I will be using a few old pics from my mom's photo album, and I am finding that I am being way too meticulous with the restoration process. Look at the two photos below. Can you see any significant differences? I see them because I've been obsessing over it for about 3 hours. As I noted earlier, this is a course in work flow, and I am realizing that I am spending too much time on something that the average viewer may not even notice.



For the next project, I am actually going to assign myself a schedule so that I don't get too carried away with perfection. I have to remember that I do have a deadline, and that spending three hours with the rubber stamp and eraser tools in Photoshop is not the most practical thing to do. I'll also have to work on my chronic procrastination problem. Is there a drug I can take to cure me of this?

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Film de Femme.

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting here on the guacamole green Ikea couch working on my Film de Femme. When that Korean girl with short hair who sits next to me in class pulled this genre, I immediately scratched my head. Film de Femme? Hmmm. I looked online to see what the 48 Hour Film Project's interpretation of this genre and this is what I found:

What's a strong female character? Think Police Chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo, Bette Davis in All About Eve, Reese Witherspoon in Election or Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich. Smart and complicated. Try to avoid having a woman doing a man's job like a man would do his job. And contrary to public opinion, strong women characters are not required to kill someone!

So after pondering this for a few days, I have decided to make a short film about my sister Diane. To me, a strong woman is not necessarily a female VP at a Fortune 500 company or a Norma Rae type who fights for a cause. My sister may be neither of these things, but she still is a strong woman. Why? Because she realizes her fears in life, but she will not run away from them. Every year for her birthday, Diane tries to conquer one of her phobias or fear by facing them dead on. This will be a film de femme about my sister Diane.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Where Is Professor Donn?

So word on the street is that Professor Donn won't be able to make it to class tonight. Word on the street is that there is a substitute teacher, but at this time I am thinking that I would better be able to use my time at Starbucks working on my first project. The Visa "Life Takes" Invitational zapped me of all energy, both physical and creative. I'll be better off sipping my venti green tea lemonade sweetened with four Splendas at my favorite cafe on Bryant & Mariposa.

My goal for tonight is to figure out how I am going to piece together this film de femme. For our written assignment, Professor Donn noted that he would like us "to write about how [our] first shoot for this class went - what difficulties did [we] encounter, did [we] discover anything new, what do you think you might do differently next time?' Well, all I can say about this is that I will be using existing footage this time around. I wanted to film something, but time constraints and limited resources just won't allow it. I will step out of my comfort zone for assignment two, but for now, I'll create the standard "Borm Mash Up" piece.

I'm really tired. Visa did a number on me. But it's all good. Below are pics from the weekend.



Sunday, September 9, 2007

Life Takes Harmony.

IT DONNED ON ME participated in the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational this weekend. Another 48 Hour Film Project. This is the third one for our team, and it's still exciting as ever. The stakes are obviously higher for this one, being that it is the Visa Invitational, but my team was ready for just about anything.

It's about 8am on a Sunday morning and I am creatively, mentally, and physically beat. I probably slept a total of 10 hours in the past five days. Between the NFL season kick off game in Indianapolis and this Life "Takes Visa" competition, I am dangerously close to burning myself out. My blood shot eyeballs are so beat up that they are screaming for an enucleation. Hence, I decided to give them pupils a break and put on my beaten up pair of glasses instead. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, but today, these windows will have a protective plexiglass in front of them. My eyeballs feel like squishy rotten grapes this morning, so I won't torture them by sticking contact lenses into them. I am TIRED, but I will stop ranting about my fatigue.

We are 36 hours into this 48 Hour film project. We met up at Dolby on Friday night to collect our required elements, and to my surprise, there were none! Actually, let me rephrase that. The required elements were not what we expected in that we go to choose our genre! In addition, there was no character, the prop was a Visa card, and the line of dialogue was "Life takes (fill in the blank). At first, I thought that this would make the project easier, but in actuality, it made it harder, at least in my humble opinion. Did I really just say "in my humble opinion?" Seems so un-Borm. In any case, we had lined up "Flying Without Instruments," a Bay Area acapella group, and the Dolby Theater for this project, so we wanted to incorporate these items into our project. We made up our minds to make a musical, but trying to figure out a plot that worked proved to be quite difficult. We threw ideas back and forth and even walked up to the theater to find inspiration. It didn't happen. At about 11pm, we all looked at each in frustration and I feared that defeat was right around the corner. Our audio guy thought that we should move away from the acapella group and theater and try to come up with something completely different. We went with the flow, but nothing seemed to hit us. We did have a good laugh during this process, but I wonder if the laughter was from fear of not having anything concrete so late in the night. Luckily, at about 11:30pm, the light bulb lit up. Someone in the group mentioned ghost story, which lead to the fantasy genre. Before I knew it, our story was written. I let out a sigh of relief. We finished brainstorming a little after midnight and made plans to meet up at 9am in San Francisco the next day. When I got home, I emailed Flying Without Instruments with the plan. I then crashed.

On Saturday morning, Dinah and Sig rang my door bell at 8:15am. I thought I was dreaming. I remember reaching up to my alarm clock and attempting to press the snooze button but had no luck. I remember opening my left eye thinking, "ah shit, that's Dinah and Sig coming to get me." I jumped out of bed, stumbled to the front door, and let my two "love ladies" into the house (inside joke, I'll have to fill you all in once I am coherent again). Even without contacts or glasses, I could see both ladies look me up and down. I guess they weren't used to seeing me in my scrubs and boxers. I've been around these IDOM'ers so much that I could be completely naked with my Vietnamese ass hanging out and it wouldn't phase me. In any case, I quickly got dressed, and the three of us headed up to the city. I swear, that Saturday was the longest Saturday I've had in a long time. As the producer of this project, I had to make sure that everything was in place, so I spent the bulk of this day running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Yes, gruesome visual, I know, but I'm so fatigued right now that I can't come up with anything else. Please bear with me. A number of things stressed me out, but the key thing is the fact that I am responsible for everything that goes on at my work place, so it didn't help calm my nerves any when I had to run a bunch of errands. Technically, I was supposed to be in the building at all times, but oh well. I'll do whatever it takes for the team. In any case, below is a rough time line of hours 12 though 36 of this Visa "Life Takes" Invitational:
  • 8:15 am. Sig and Dinah arrive.
  • 9:00 am. Tony, Sig, and Dinah get stuck in Saturday morning traffic. WTF?!
  • 9:30 am. The IT DONNED ON ME Crew arrive at Dolby.
  • 11:00 am. Flying Without Instruments (FWI) arrive.
  • 12:00 pm. The technical crew attempts to start filming while FWI rehearses.
  • 12:30 pm. Tony scrambles to get lunch, costumes, and props, for the team.
  • 1:00 pm. Lunch in the Dolby break room. Through a mix up, the star did not have his lunch, so Tony runs back to Potrero Center to get another sandwich.
  • 2:00 pm. FWI audio recording takes place.
  • 3:00 pm. Filming begins.
  • 5:00 pm. Actors and crew hurry to Potrero Hill to film final scene before the sun goes down.
  • 6:00 pm. Dinner. Tony provides an Asian feast.
  • 7:00 pm. Filming continues.
  • 11:00 pm. Filming ends.
  • 12:oo am. Tony goes home and passes out.
So there you have it. Can you see why I am beat? I spent the whole day running around like a mad man, but like I said, anything for the team. I did manage to get about 6 hours of sleep, so I'm good to go. I did, also, get to sneak in a nap in the screening room some time last night. Big mistake. Someone with a camera snapped a few shots. Boy oh boy, I looked like an elephant seal. Am I surprised that my fellow IDOM'er took this picture? Nope. Am I happy about it? Yeah, I am. The reason? Because this IT DONNED ON ME TEAM is so comfortable with each other that we can play around like this. Yeah, I look like an oversized mammal, but it's funny. I really do love this team.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

The First Project

It's 5am in the morning and I am sitting in the Dallas Fort Worth airport. I am waiting for my connecting flight to Indianapolis. The NFL officially kicks off tonight, and I'll be there at the RCA Dome to support my Colts. The red eye flight from San Francisco to Dallas was a bumpy one, and needless to say, I did not sleep. Instead, I thought about Digital Workflow and what the heck I am going to do for my first project. I have a challenge ahead of me, and I owe it all to the Korean Girl who sat next to me. She was the one who drew the genre out of my tupperware bowl. Film de femme...oh boy. Below are the required elements for my first project.

Character:
Buck or Becky, Bull Rider.

Prop:
A Chinese hand fan.

Line of Dialogue:
"I love you long time."

Film Genre:
Film de Femme.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Future of Internet TV Is Coming Into View

I can relate to Leslie Walker's article "Future of Internet TV Is Coming Into View." In her opening paragraph, the technology columnist noted that she "was trying to sleep on a flight home from Las Vegas Sunday when the craving hit: I want my Internet TV." Talk about timing. I thought the exact same thing a week ago with I was sitting on a plane returning from Scotland.

I was in Scotland for The Edinburgh Festival Fringe the week of August 17th through the 24th. During my 20-plus hour journey, I, like Ms. Walker, really wanted alternative entertainment. I didn't have too many options on those Air Canada flights: it was either watch Shrek 3 (which I saw once on my way from San Francisco to Toronto and then again on my way from Toronto to London) or listen to the Hannah Montana soundtrack (I bet a lot of you don't know who Hannah Montana is. I just happen to have a 12 year old niece, so I know this Disney channel TV character very well). I went bonkers, so I turned to my MacBook Pro for video entertainment.

As part of my packing ritual, I always make sure that I have enough entertainment on the plane, so I bought some TV shows off if iTunes. Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson of the Manhattan SVU squad kept me company until I fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later and realized that the plane was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and that we wouldn't be arriving in London for another four hours, so again I scrambled to find some entertainment. Luckily, I found clips of The Indianapolis Colts post-season games that I had stashed in my iTunes library. I never get sick of watching Peyton Manning and The Colts come from behind and beating the New England Patriots in the last year's AFC Championships Game, so I watched that over and over again for the next two hours. At that point, my battery died.

It was good that I came prepared for this flight with these videos. Walker noted that "Instead of watching the dorky movie US Airways was showing, say I flip open my six-inch Verizon Internet viewer, switch to my Google Video channel, select "CSI: Baltimore; Jan. 5," and watch my favorite TV show, which I missed while in Vegas (hey, there's bound to be a "CSI: Baltimore" by then)." I thought the exact same thing. What I really wanted was to watch other 48 Hour Film Projects, YouTube clips, and music videos. No More Shrek, puh-leeze!!! Technology has come a long way, so I'm on board with Walker's prediction for the future. I'm looking forward to it. Ah, wouldn't it be nice to just be able to choose anything to watch at any time the next time I'm on a transatlantic flight?