post 279: alan smithee

I participated in a 24 hour filmmaking festival, and I am beat. But, I have enough strength the write a decent post, I think.

The Alan Smithee festival started Friday at noon. Groups are given packets with a genre and certain things that need to be in our films. We write, shoot, and edit our films in 24 HOURS!!! It's insane. Arrived on campus to meet with group after my field trip for one of my classes around 5. I knew three people (Brian, Ryan, and Vicki) in the group, the other people are older and in production and animation classes. We got the genre sci-fi, so they were pounding out a time travel film. We first filmed in the animation room where they have a blue screen--totally cool. Our main actors, Chris and Peter, are hilarious and very good at improv.

We filmed at school, then ate dinner at the mall, then took the Muni downtown so that we can film at the Muni stations. It was awesome, but tiring. I talked to Peter, an animation major, a bit on the bus. He looks like Jack Black's double, is extremely hilarious, and can do voice impressions very well. He asked me about my shoes, an old pair of Roos (they have zippered pockets on the sides).

"What do you keep in there?" He motioned to the pockets.
"Lucky pennies that I find on the ground," I answered.

We shot in a long underground hallway at the MUNI station. I was the camera operator for a bit, sitting on a longboard and being pushed to film a shot of feet running. It was fun. I started swerving and fell off the longboard, but I saved the camera! I would sacrifice my body to save film, it seems. Everyone asked if I was okay, but I laughed it off. While sitting on the longboard for another shot, Peter was nearby. He dropped a penny nearby me, it landed heads up. I picked it up and held it out for him.

"It's yours," he said.
I think I went, "Aaaawww!!! Thanks!" I was so happy. A boy gives me a lucky penny, and I am floored. I put it in my shoe pocket.

We shot some more downtown. While waiting for a bus, Peter took out another penny and put it on the tracks because a cable car was going to drive by. It flattened it, or as Romero, the Brazilian director in our group said, "It got squeezed!" I laughed so hard at his lovely diction. Peter took his "squeezed" penny and handed it to me. Again, my heart twirled.

After filming, we went to Brian's apartment to film a party scene and to later edit our film. Jennifer, one of the writers, and Romero asked if I could play the love interest that Chris likes. I agreed! Chris and Peter were supposed to travel in time to go back to the party and get my number. It was fun acting, but I don't think I'm good at it--not as good as Chris and Peter. Peter was in top form, I had to restrain myself from laughing at his lines.

We stayed up all night. Romero, Ryan, and Jennifer were doing most of the editing. Chris and Peter wanted to watch Star Wars and put on Empire Strikes Back. I napped 4 times and watched a bit of the movie in between naps. What an awesome time. We finished around 11:30 in the morning, watched the final cut (so funny!), and dropped off our film.

I love meeting people through film, especially when they're funny boys who give me squeezed pennies.