it DONNED on me

Ok, I have a funny little story. There I was sitting on the guacamole green Ikea couch updating Blogged Arteries: The Unrendered Files when my iPhone beeps. I checked the screen and saw that an email came in from a co-worker. I initially thought it was a work issue and was about to put the iPhone away, but when I saw the subject heading "It Donned On Me," I had to check. I opened up the email, and this is what I saw:

Hey dood. Just checking on this, just in case. Not to sharp-shoot ya or nothin'. You know that the usual expression is written "it dawned on me", yes? I assumed you have a friend named Don or that there's a pun in there with the Godfather or something, but then I thought maybe I better check just to be sure…This is one of those things like when you've got something in your teeth--I wasn't even sure if I should mention it, but then I figured I better mention it. Right. Sorry if this is know-it-all pain-in-the-assery.

Funny! I love that people wonder about our name, because it means that they are talking about us! I emailed the guy back and explained that our director is named Evan Donn, and that It Donned On Me is simply a play on his name. For those who may not know, I was put on the spot last year when I signed us up for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. I had less than a minute to come up with a group name. The first moniker that came to mind was "The Crack of Donn." For all you dirty minded peeps out there, I'd like to clarify that the "crack" refers to us taking a crack at this competition! In any case, it dawned on me that this name probably wouldn't go over well with the team, so I had to come up with something else. It then dawned on me that we should be called "IT DONNED ON ME!" The name stuck and the rest is history.

On that note, I'd like to close out this blog by posting the IT DONNED ON ME story, which Evan has updated on the IDOM website. We've only been together as a team a little over a year, but we have accomplished quite a bit!

The ongoing 'It Donned On Me' saga...

For the past few years Evan Donn has been teaching classes in After Effects and Final Cut Pro in the Multimedia department at College Of San Mateo. Every semester there were a couple of students who just wouldn't go home when the class was over, staying after with a seemingly endless stream of questions about every imaginable aspect of video production. Many of them returned semester after semester for whichever class Evan was teaching at the time.

In the spring of 2006 Evan taught a new class called DV Workflow which consisted almost entirely of these "irregulars". DV Workflow became essentially an 'everything but the kitchen sink' type of class covering the entire process of video production with an emphasis on producing video for the web.

As part of DV Workflow every member of the class had to produce an episodic video series for the web. This led to various members teaming up to work on each others' videos as well as providing valuable input on the finished videos during class screenings. When the class ended everyone felt that the working dynamic of the group was worth continuing.

Led by Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen they dubbed themselves 'The Evan Donn School of Film' and began holding quarterly screenings of everyone's current work. In 2006 several members of the group attended one of the 48 Hour Film screenings, and they all walked out with the same thought - we can do that.

From that point on the quarterly screenings took on a new direction as 'challenges' were thrown out with criteria similar to the 48 Hour Film Project. This helped prepare the team members for the challenge of building a short film around a character, prop and line of dialogue.

As the 2007 competition drew closer Mr. Nguyen once again took the lead and signed up the team for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. Put on the spot to come up with a team name he considered and rejected many possibilities before the ideal name 'donned' on him...

Despite their history the San Francisco competition was the first time all members of the team had worked together on a single project. Everyone jumped right in and the result was our first short film - 'Urgent Care'.

Despite incredible audience reaction to the film, 'Urgent Care' failed to win either the audience or juried competition for San Francisco. However, the team was selected by competition sponsor Visa as one of ten teams from San Francisco to compete in their national "Life Takes" Invitational against teams from New York and Los Angeles.

With only one film in the can, Evan decided the team needed a little more practice before the Visa competition. Unbeknownst to the team, he signed them up for the nearby San Jose 48 Hour Film Project and announced it at the cast & crew party for 'Urgent Care'. Fortunately everyone jumped at the chance to hone their skills and prove that the success of the first film wasn't just luck. The result of that effort is 'Doggie Style', the second official film from It Donned On Me.

In September the team came together once again to complete another 48 hour film for the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational. In collaboration with members of the a capella group "Flying Without Instruments" they completed the fantasy film "EXIT".

In October, 2007 the team completed their fourth 48 hour project, the National Film Challenge, producing "Retreat", an existential tale of a horse seeking enlightenment. After this they took a break from high-speed filmmaking for the holidays in order to prepare for the 2008 season.

In March 2008 IDOM kicked off the 2008 filmmaking season with the International Documentary Challenge, producing our first non-fiction film, "Stick & Pound". Selected as a finalist in the competition, 'Stick & Pound' screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival where the team brought home Documentary Challenge awards for Best Cinematography and Best Directing!

After an amazing first year of competition IDOM came full circle, returning for the second time to the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Challenge and successfully completing our 6th film, "Tail". 'Tail' brought home the award for 'Best Sound Design' as well as being nominated for Best use of Dialoge and Best Cinematography

Just a few weeks later it was once again time for the San Jose 48 Hour Film project. Despite a rough start IDOM pulled together and created 'TwirlyBoy', possibly our strangest film so far.

With seven very different films completed in a years time some would say it's time to take a break, but not IDOM - this is just the beginning as IDOM tackles new projects and goes in new directions in the quest to become the greatest competitive filmmaking team of all time!

Stay Tuned!