Opening Night At The Roxie!

I am all about supporting the 48 Hour Film Project community, so I make every effort to come to all the screenings. It Donned On Me won't be premiering "Sur Mesure: Journeys In Transpersonal Haberdashery" until Wednesday night, but I did ventured out to The Roxie for the first screening. For those who are interested in attending these screenings, I highly recommend that you get your tickets online. Luckily, I ordered my ticket earlier in the afternoon, because had I not, I would have had to stand in the rush line. It did not look like the theater sold out on opening night, but at least I was able to get a decent seat.

As I stood in line, a familiar face approached me. It was Jeff Crispi, our leading man from "Doggie Style." Jeff is looking pretty good. He shaved off 25 pounds and he's gunning for another 75. Jeff worked with Atlantis Entertainment on the film de femme film "Held At Bay." Unfortunately, the film was not turned in on time, so it won't be eligible for the major awards. However, the producers did finish it, and it did get turned in, so it was screened first. I sat with the "Held At Bay" team.

A few films stood out for me. I really enjoyed Straight To DVD's superhero flick "Will Power." This action/comedy/musical/fantasy/call it what you want to call it film made me laugh out loud. I wonder if Straight To DVD really wanted to pull the musical genre but didn't, but made one any way. It wasn't a full on musical, but it definitely had elements of one. What made this film work was its quirkiness and comic book cheeziness. I definitely give "Will Power" two thumbs up.

"Getting Weird" by How Now Brown Scary Cow also gets my vote because I really felt like I was high watching it! If we could have 3-D films, why can't we have a smell-o-vision feature where Mary Jane puffs through the screen and her MJ funes just permeate through the theater for all to enjoy? How Now Brown Cow nailed this one. They didn't just make a stoner film, it looked like they were actually stoned making it!

"Midday Serenade" by The East/West Connection also impressed me. This romantic comedy didn't have anything extravagant like special effects or crazy costumes, but it was quirky enough to keep my interest. I often find myself going off on tangents when reading a good book, so I really related to the progatonist.

The film that really stood out for me was CurlyHairedPeople's "The Greatest Holiday Story Ever Made." I was excited to come to this screening to see this team because I absolutely loved their Barbie meets The Italian Job detective/cop flick from last year. I am a big fan of CurlyHairedPeople, and they certainly did not disappoint. Their making of a holiday film had enough gags to keep me laughing throughout the whole film. Kudos to CurlyHairedPeople!

Below are the three films I voted for. As for the audience award, I must choose CurlyHairedPeople's holiday film.

“Held At Bay” - Atlantis Entertainment

Genre: Film De Femme

“Heaven Is A Place on Earth” - Proper Thought Studios

Genre: Sci Fi

“Will Power” – Straight To DVD

Genre: Superhero

“Two” – The Compost Heap

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

“Midday Serenade” – The East/West Connection

Genre: Romance

“Mataha Bar” – Zero Hour SF

Genre: Horror

“The Telegram” – Tico

Genre: Mockumentary

“Custom Framing” – No My Day Job Productions

Genre: Detective/Cop

“Getting Weird” – How Now Brown Scary Cow

Genre: Stoner Film

“Movements” – 1 Blue Spore

Genre: Drama

“Changing Tempos” – Asian Mainstream Productions

Genre: Musical

“Thunderfingers” – The Pants Production

Genre: Buddy Film

“The Greatest Holiday Story Ever Made” – CurlyHairedPeople

Genre: Holiday Film

“Night Session” – Pillybooka

Genre: Fantasy

Haberdashery Poster

My job now officially begins. It is time to market the hat out of this mockumentary!

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Elena Cruz
To: sanfrancisco@48hourfilm.com
Cc: Erin Bertiglia
Sent: Sunday, June 7, 2009 11:30:32 PM
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS SAN FRANCISCO FILMMAKERS!

Hi everyone,

Congrats on completing the SF 48 Hour Film Project! Just wanted to give you an update on the screenings and comp tickets:

COMP TICKETS:

How to get them: A volunteer (most likely Erin) will be standing in front of the Roxie from 6:30pm - 7pm to give out your comp tickets. They will be under the "team leader's name + 1." Team leader - figure out who gets the +1 on your team. No need for the +1 to arrive at the same time. Also, do not wait in the will-call line or ask the Roxie box office for your comp tickets. Just go directly to the volunteer with the clipboard and collect your tickets.

Remember, your comp tickets are for the 7PM show for your screening night. Please let me know ASAP if you want a comp ticket for the later show instead (at 930pm).

If you bought your tickets online, please wait in the "will call" line.

If you are buying your tickets that same day, there will be a separate "day of" line.

Q&A:

After the 7pm show, there will be a Q&A - have 1 or 2 people prepared to represent your team. I may ask everyone...what lesson did you learn? (in case the audience is a bunch of duds).

AUDIENCE AWARD:

Don't forget to tell family, friends and co-workers about the screenings. Feel free to bring props/anything to bribe the audience into voting for you (that would definitely work for me). Remember, ALL FILMS are eligible for the Audience Award, late and on-time.

Please feel free to email me with any other questions. Great job, everyone!! Looking forward to seeing the films.

Best,

Elena

Sur Mesure: Journeys In Transpersonal Haberdashery

We have a title! Voila: Sur Mesure: Journeys In Transpersonal Haberdashery. How's that for a title?? Yes, it sounds absurd, but when you see this film and see how absurd it is, you will understand. I am very happy to announce that It Donned On Me completed our 9th film together as a team! WOO HOO!! I am too tired to give the minute by minute recap, so below is the visual representation of our post production Sunday.







Hats off to It Donned On Me!

A Mockumentary About Hats?

Here we go again! The 48 Hour Film Project is always exciting, but there is just something about the San Francisco event that gets me worked up! I love the energy, and amazingly enough, I was able to keep the adrenaline pumping throughout the whole day and into the night.

8:13am.
I arrived on set to let the team in. We were scheduled to have Brenda Usher-Carpino, our Hatista, come in at 9am, so the crew had to be there bright and early. I showed up with a Mini Cooper full of hats.




9:03am.
Our Hatista arrived, and is immediately sent to hair and make-up. Dinah preps her up while Evan, Rick, and Rob set up for the opening scene. We begin to shoot the scene at about 10am.







11:07am.
All our other actors begin to trickle in one by one. I spend the bulk of the morning sewing hats to the ceiling and running around like a chicken with its head chopped off. Thank God I have Colleen, IDOM's latest addition. Colleen was my production assistant, and she was a great help!







1:18pm.
Shortly after the crew filmed the opening scene with The Hatista, Daniel, our Japanese business man, got into hair and makeup for his big scene. Evan shot his scene in three takes and moved on to scout out locations for the Mark and Ryan's scenes. I went ran off to Jade Cafe to get lunch for the cast and crew. The mu shu pork and fortune cookies sat in the dining area while we jumped right into the group therapy scene. A few of us IDOM'ers got to make cameos.







3:18pm.
After lunch, we went to the warehouse to film Ryan and Jeremy's scene. Ryan had on the goofiest "Blossom" hat. It looked like a yamaka with a big flower on it. Hilarious. There is definitely chemistry between these two.







5:48pm.
After the crew completed Ryan and Jeremy's scene, they moved onto the Mark's scene in his cube and in the board room. I wasn't there for most of that, but I heard that Mark and Evan had to go through a few takes because they were cracking each other up the whole time.







8:48pm.
After Mark's scene, Joanne picked up some dinner for us and then we headed to Mark's place to film Colleen's scene. This was the final scene, and Colleen totally rocked it. I never knew she had it in her!





10:23pm.
It's a wrap! After a long long day of filming, IDOM'er was able to say the words every crew member wants to here: IT'S A WRAP! We packed up all our equipment, thanked Mark for graciously offering his home for the shoot, and headed home for some shut eye. We agreed to meet back at headquarters at 10am the following day for post production.

Third Time's A Charm In San Francisco

It seems like just yesterday I was at Fat City pulling out the road movie genre, and IDOM ended up making a little film called "Urgent Care." That was two years ago. Well, it's that time again, and I am excited for the 2009 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project! This is where it all started for It Donned On Me, and this will be our ninth film together as a team. And to think, our third stab at San Francisco almost didn't happen due to scheduling conflicts. I'm glad things worked out, because it would have really sucked if IDOM had to pass on this event!

6:04pm.
Dinah and I arrived at Poleng Lounge on Fulton & Masonic to get the required elements for the 2009 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. The two IDOM'ers patiently waited at the bar as everyone checked in. I looked around for familar faces, but the only one I recognized was the robot butler from "Servo," Team Chaka Khan's leading man from their 2008 48HFP submission. Dinah also recogized Curly Haired People, who gave us that awesome Barbie Meets The Italian Job flick last year. I looked around for the Barkada boys, but no luck. At about 6:30pm, Elena Cruz, The San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project Producer, announced that we would get the show on the road by 7pm.

7:14pm.
Representatives from each team gathered up on stage to pull the genre from a hat. Actually, it was a manila envelope. It Donned On Me fell into group B, so we had to patiently wait for the first group to. Oh the anticipation!





Genre:
Mockumentary

Character:
Claude or Claudette Green, Guitarist

Prop:
A hat

Line of Dialogue:
“I believe anyone can change."



8:17pm.
The rest of the IDOM team gathered to brainstorm. Evan threw out the idea of making a mockumentary about hats, since the required element for the prop is a hat. Evan also noted that since the required line of dialog is "I believe anyone can change," we could open the mockumentary with that line. This mockumentary would be about a "hatista," or a life coach, who helps people improve their lives with hats. Every one seemed to like this idea, so we fleshed it out for the next two hours.

8:57pm.
The characters for this mockumentary was decided. The hatista would be played by Dinah's friend, Brenda Usher-Carpino. The other characters would be played by Mark Hodgson, Ryan Boyd, and Collen Haight. Jeremy Marquez will play Claude Green, our guitarist. We decided that there would most likely be a bunch of cameo appearances by fellow IDOM'ers and friends.





10:32pm.
Done! This was easy! I think it helped that we've done this eight times before, two of which were real documentaries. In any case, we all decided to meet back in the morning at 8am. My task for the rest of the night was to find every hat I could. This could be challenging.

Follow IDOM On Twitter!

Welcome Colleen Haight!

Please welcome the newest addition to the IDOM Team!



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Quang Khoi
To: Quang Khoi; Evan Donn; Dinah deSpenza; Tom Flowers; Kirk Moore; Rick Kemp; Rob Carey; Michael Evyzov; Sig Thorsen; Joanne Donn; Joe Kirsch
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2009 3:50:45 PM
Subject: Re: 48HFP New Rules and Highlights in 2009 + Drop-off info

Bring Colleen on board! I know she's a scholar, so I know that her paperwork must be impeccable. It's tough without Sig (and Joanne, for that matter), so it would definitely save us if Colleen is handling paperwork. I remember for TwirlyBoy, I had to deal with the paperwork stuff on top of being in the film. That was crazy. Fortunately for me, Sig showed up on that Sunday and took the burden away. Having one designated person to do paperwork would be life saver.

Tony

---

From: Rick Kemp
To: Quang Khoi; Evan Donn; Dinah deSpenza; Tom Flowers; Kirk Moore; Rick Kemp; Rob Carey; Michael Evyzov; Sig Thorsen; Joanne Donn; Joe Kirsch
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2009 3:40:25 PM
Subject: RE: 48HFP New Rules and Highlights in 2009 + Drop-off info

Hey IDOM'ers! I'm looking forward to another weekend of artistic abuse. Colleen offered to help out in any way and/or spearhead the paperwork shuffle if need be since Sig will be absent and it sounds like Tony will be short handed. She really enjoys the process of these competitions but did not want to be an interloper. I will bring her along for the event unless I hear otherwise from the group. Tony, if you want her to manage the paperwork let me know in advance. I will direct her her to the rules and regs section of the competition website so she will be prepared. See you all on Friday!

Talent Round Up

I'm getting a little excited, can you tell?

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Quang Khoi
To: Evan Donn; Dinah deSpenza; Tom Flowers; Kirk Moore; Rick Kemp; Rob Carey; Michael Evyzov; Sig Thorsen; Joanne Donn; Joe Kirsch
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2009 10:47:31 AM
Subject: Re: 48HFP New Rules and Highlights in 2009 + Drop-off info

IDOM Peeps!

The SF48HFP kicks off this Friday!! Dinah and I will attend the kick off event to get the required elements. Let's meet at Dolby on Friday, June 5th, at 7:30pm. As of now, I have received confirmation from Evan, Dinah, Rick, Rob, and Mike who are in. Sig, unfortunately, will not be able to participate this time around, and Joanne will be in and out. Joe, Kirk, Tom? You in? I don't want to bombard you all with email after email, so if I don't hear from you by this Wednesday, I will automatically remove you from the distribution list. I will be bringing along an assistant to help assist with minor duties such as catering and such. I found that with "A Place Like This..." it was not enough having just me and Mike!

As for actors, I have lined up two talented comedians whom we've worked with in past: Ryan Boyd and Jeremy Marquez. Ryan is a tall good looking biracial male, 30-ish, can pull off a thug or a romantic lead. Jeremy is a 30-ish Filipino male. He was in my musical "Featherweight Blues." These two are funny, and very fun to work with. They are both very comfortable in front of the camera. I also have lined up a 40-ish Caucasian bald male named Mark Hodgson who is well versed in theater and is a good character actor. He has a collection of facial expressions and voices. Ryan and Mark are the two I am most confident can carry our film. Dinah also noted she may have a potential female actor. I'm working on some other female actors, but I wouldn't rule out Isabelle, who played the neighbour in Urgent Care. I recently bumped into her in the City and she asked when we were going to put her in another film, lol.

As for soundtrack, Dinah noted that she met with a composer and performer named Ajayi Lumumba, who is classically trained and has written scores for theater. He is an OPC faculty member. If we wanted to go the route of an original score, we have the Dolby theater for recording. I don't see anythind in the screening room calendar, so I think we're good to go.