10:41pm Saturday Night

We have a 5-minute rough cut right now at just before 11pm Saturday night. We're smack in the middle of the time limit which is awesome. Now we're going into fine-tuning mode. All the nitty gritty details of minute edits of single frames at a time. This is where things get interesting.

The team is feeling good. We're tired, sunburned, really sore, but staying energized through laughter. Long live the 48-Hour Film Project. So far, it's been another fun-filled year.

48hfp DC Day

Good morning, South County United team,

Well, today's the day! I hope you are all well rested this week as we embark on what could turn out to be the zaniest 48 hours of everyone's 2011.

It appears that Mother Nature is going to play nicely for the third year in a row. Blue sunny skies are in the forecast all weekend with cool temps. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about filming during any pesky tornado warnings.

Sean, Ed, and I will be going to Kickoff tonight. The announcement with the 3 required elements will take place at precisely 7pm. We'll text you all when we get our genre, and 3 required elements. Then we'll race back to Edgewater to begin brainstorming and writing script. Once you get our text, start brainstorming yourselves and WRITE DOWN all of your ideas, no matter how trivial you think they might be. You never know what creativity a small nugget of an idea might spark in someone else.

We should be back to Sean's house by 8pm. Erin will be home if you want or need to get to Edgewater earlier. If anyone needs directions to Sean's house, please email me and I'll be sure to send that along.

If you are not coming to Edgewater tonight, I will be texting you late tonight (could be after midnight) to let you know when & where to meet us in the morning. We won't know our schedule until we have a story on paper, and Sean decides the filming schedule/sequence.

Also, if you are not coming to Edgewater tonight, please text us any brainstorming ideas you come up with after receiving the genre and required elements.

Top 10 film this year, SCU. Top 10. We are! South. County. United.

Buy your tickets!

Hey gang,

The AFI Silver Theatre website has the 48hfp screening tickets available for purchase now. $11.00 each for general admission. Tickets are on-call and you have to bring the same credit card to the theatre to pick them up. Check your receipt carefully, I entered quantity "2" but when I checked out, they only charged me for one ticket so I had to place a 2nd order to get my other ticket.

Reminder, our film is screening Friday, May 6th at 9:30pm. The link to the AFI order page is here: http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/events.aspx#48hou

Group H...Again

Hey SCU,

We're in screening group H again this year. Our film will screen on Friday, May 6th at 9:30pm. Unfortunately, we're in the same group as the winning team from 2010 (The Big Honkin' who did Shovel Ready last year, which won the 48hfp DC Best Film award). Competition is tough, so we'll have to kick some butt!

Tickets for the screening at AFI Silver theatre don't go on sale until Monday. I'll send out a reminder on Monday to purchase your tickets and start recruiting friends and family to come vote for our film.

Best of 48hfp DC: Screening

Hey gang,

The "Best of DC" screenings are scheduled for Thursday, May 26th at 7:30pm and 9:00pm. So mark your calendars now so you can try to keep that evening free. It looks like we won't get our Screening Groups assigned until tomorrow at the earliest. I'll update everyone tomorrow night once I get back online.

Friday Night: Kickoff, Brainstorming, Scripting

Hi SCU,

We're anxiously awaiting the announcement with the screening groups, we should have that info later today and I will post the info when I get it.

Next Friday night, I'll be attending the Kickoff Event, hopefully with someone (Mark/Ed/Sean). Anyone who wants to come in Friday night for brainstorming and scripting, we're meeting at Sean Healey's house around 8pm (that's when we'll be home from the Kickoff Event). We'll blast out the genre and 3 elements at 7pm as soon as we get them.

If anyone has any questions, please email or call me.

15 minutes of fame

The Edgewater-Davidsonville Patch (http://edgewater.patch.com/) is going to be doing a story on South County United! One of the contributors called me today and he wants to do a video story on our team. Kind of exciting, now we just need to secure an Editor!

The reporter will come out Saturday morning to see our cast & crew kickoff meeting and hang around while we begin filming (I'll make sure he knows he can't get in the way, Sean.)

So, think about if you want to be on a video report that will be posted online for eternity. If not, make sure to let me know that morning so we can be sure to exclude you from any video the reporter shoots.

48hfp DC: SCU Timeline

Hey SCU, I’m finally starting to get excited about this year’s contest!! I’ve had a bit of trouble getting motivated and excited this year, but it’s starting to ramp up now.

I was re-reading my notes from the last two years and we had some funny things happen, and some challenging issues that we were able to overcome. Having my notes has helped me tweak our timeline based on our “Lessons Learned.”

I’ve built extra time into a few important steps (like rendering the final films and copying them to flash drives) so we don’t end up speeding down Route 50 while still rendering, and having to pull off on the shoulder of the highway to hand over the flash drives like some kind of drug deal gone bad. (Yes, that happened in 2010).

Anyway, the following is a rough schedule outline for next weekend. Please take time to read it so you get the gist. Let me know if you have any questions. As before, we’ll be serving you food throughout the weekend including Friday night, Saturday breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks, and late-night food for those of us still awake and editing. On Sunday, we’ll have breakfast for anyone still standing.

If you want to hang out Saturday, we’ll have beds, sofas, and floors available at either Sean, Jen, or Mark’s house for anyone who wants to crash in Edgewater. If you want to booze it up, please provide your own libations. Time to get excited!!

Friday Evening

·                     5:30pm - 7:00pm - Jen Siler will attend kickoff event to get assignments (hopefully with another team member if anyone’s schedule allows).

·                     7:01pm - Jen will call Sean Healey with the 3 elements and genre. Sean will blast the info to the team.

·                     7:30pm - Focused Brainstorming session begins at __(TBD’s)    house in Edgewater for anyone interested in attending. (Short timeframe, very focused brainstorming, nothing but story and music ideas.)

·                     9:00pm – Anyone not spending the night leaves brainstorming house except for core writing/music team (Sean, Mark, Jen, Scott) to refine script, dialog, and music.

·                     1:00am - Target deadline for final script. Printout 20 copies.

·                     2:00am-7:00am – Shut-eye

Saturday Morning

·                     7:00am-8:00am - Call time for cast and crew. Arrive at    (location TBD)    no later than 8:00am. **We will let you know Friday night where the call time location is going to be on Sat AM. Sean Healey or Jen Siler will text or call you Saturday morning if an alternative meeting location is required.**

·                     7:00am-9:30am – Jen Siler will be chasing you for signatures on the required paperwork and contracts. Every cast & crew member is required to sign a waiver.

·                     8:00am-9:30am - Arrive onset at first shoot location. Crew sets up gear and preps set. Director provides special instructions and reviews shooting schedule. Cast reads through the script.

·                     9:30am - Target start time for filming.

·                     9:30am-5:30pm – Someone runs tape back to Editor throughout the day. Editor gets all video into computer, organizes it, starts laying down rough timeline in FCP. Editor to work on closing film credits and required opening sequence (something creative beyond black screen with white text).

·                     5:30pm - Target completion of filming.

·                     5:30pm-7:00pm - Return to   Editing Location (TBD) . Dinner and wrap party/debrief.

·                     7:01pm-onward - Post-Production continues (ongoing through entire 48 hours).

Sunday

·                     Cast & Crew confirm film title

·                     Cast & Crew write logline

·                     Jen Siler completes paperwork and final online receipt

·                     2:30pm – Start rendering films (Last year it took 2 hours to render and copy two film copies. This year we’re allowing 3 hours.)

·                     5:00pm - Target deadline for final films on flash drives

·                     5:30pm – Drop dead time to leave Edgewater

·                     7:00pm – Films due in downtown DC

48hfp DC 2011: T minus 9 days

This year's contest really snuck up on us! We're only 9 days away from Kickoff and we've barely done any planning. We have our paperwork printed, our two flash drives are purchased, and we have a rough cast & crew lined up. There may be some scheduling conflicts for some of our key crew members that we hadn't anticipated because the Capitals will be playing in town that weekend for the Stanley Cup playoffs - yowza!

We're anxiously awaiting the Caps schedule for the semifinals, hoping our Editor doesn't get called away on Sunday, and praying our lax attitude this year produces a better film this year on our 3rd entry into the 48hfp DC.

I was considering making a Twitter account so I could document the day, just not sure I should bother since I won't be able to drum up many followers. Might just use the old standard Facebook instead.

I can't wait until they announce screening groups!