We participated in the 2009 Washington D.C.
48 Hour Film Project for the first time,
and accomplished our two main goals: to actually finish a movie in the alotted
48 hours, and to have fun doing it.
Friday evening, all teams selected a genre randomly out of a hat.
We got "Horror." We were then given a character (Eve/Ivan Pagoda,
a "coach"), a prop (an ID badge) and a line of dialogue
("We're hoping things will change") that everyone in D.C. were
required to use. Two days later, our result was "Execute," the story
of a man who begins killing people without knowing why.
As you can imagine, it was an eventful two days. Our team brainstormed
Friday evening and our writers wrote through the night. Saturday morning
we met on the University of Maryland campus to start filming.
Almost immediately we covered our "homeless victim," Kevin
Hollenbeck, in fake blood. His corpse looked convincing enough to
attract a circle of actual hovering vultures.
Filming went fairly smoothly with only a few location hiccups.
We wrapped filming around 10:00 pm Saturday and got all the footage
into the computer before crashing--hard.
Apparently the computer set up for editing did likewise. Sunday was
a study in last-minute fixes as various crew returned with laptops to
help edit and deliver the film on time. Sadly, there was not time to
fix a few sound issues or add a musical score.
"Execute" was shown at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland
on Friday, May 8 to a packed theater of filmmakers and friends.
But the story doesn't quite end there. "Execute" is back in the
editing room, getting a makeover with improved sound and music.
Stay tuned for the Director's Cut, coming soon!
