THAT'S A WRAP

So I just finished acting in a fantastic, creative, fun filled film project called 48 Hours.  What’s that?  You want my autograph?  Well, if you insist...

This was one of the ultimate highlights of my life so far.  I was privileged to work with people who were so brilliant, I had to wear shades.

I owe this all to my friend Tanya, who talked me into auditioning with her for the 48 Hour Film Project.  The auditions were held at Vision Pulse in Mira Mesa which is owned by Eddie Lain.  Everyone had to present a one minute monologue in front of a room full of directors and producers. What?  Was I nervous?  Nah, just your normal plunging off a cliff into shark infested waters kind of day.  Piece of cake. 

Tanya and I high fived each other after surviving the audition process.  We were both chosen to perform, but on different teams. 

48 Hours is a worldwide competition and this was the San Diego County edition.  We met at a gazebo in Mission Bay on a Friday night where we waited to hear what our genre would be.  There were around 73 teams and each director took turns picking genre cards out of a hat.  If you didn’t like the genre, you could turn it in for a wild card, but then you might get stuck with opera or something you really really really didn’t want.  I was on the Creative Humanoids team and our director, David Barak, was assigned the Superheroes genre.  At first we didn’t know what we were going to do with that, but as it turned out, we had the best cast ever for this theme.  

"Know what I mean?"

Next, we waited to hear the other three components that had to be incorporated into our film.  They were character, line of dialogue and prop.  The character was Mac or Margaret McCarthy, Interpreter.  Line of dialogue was, “You know what I mean?” and prop was garden hose. 

After receiving this crucial information, everyone scurried off to write a script based on their genre and the above mentioned components, and to find a location for filming.  We had 48 hours to complete the film which had to be turned in by 7 PM Sunday night.  Crazy, right?

David and his writers stayed up until the wee hours of Saturday morning writing the script.  Then he texted us to meet at a location he’d found in Santee.  One of the actor’s parents lived in a trailer park there and said we could film in the clubhouse.  We raced over as fast as we could and were given our scripts which we attempted to memorize.  My character was Margaret McCarthy, therapist to the Superheroes, so of course I wore my t-shirt with 3 cocktails parading across the chest and Group Therapy written underneath.   

Pay no attention to my demon eyes. You're supposed to be looking at my chest.

My character was counseling the Superheroes who were having relationship problems.  Our Superheroes were Superman, 

Clark Kent and Storm

Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Batman, Sexy Robin, Thor, Loki, Wolverine, Storm, and The Joker. 

Don't mess with Sexy Robin !

Batman relaxing between takes

 I was the straight man, but the rest of them got to ham it up and ad lib a lot.  

Loki, Sexy Robin, Thor, Thor's hammer

 It was fun to watch their creative minds spin and add their personal touches to lines and movement, and they all did such a great job!  

Hard to tell from this picture, but David Raines is a really nice guy, not evil at all, and very funny.  He was also one of the writers.

This was my first experience in a film which is so different than theater.  There are many intricate details that have to be accounted for; lighting, sound, angle, movement, color ... no wonder there are so many retakes!  Most of us stumbled around with our lines when they took the scripts away because we hadn’t had much time to memorize.  We filmed time after time, practicing, adjusting light and sound.  Just when we all started getting in the right groove, the trailer park manager burst in and shut us down.  Apparently, we didn’t have permission to film there, and we had to leave.  Now. 

We were all very disappointed at this turn of events and tried to be mature and not stick our tongues out at Mr. Killjoy.  This meant we had to pack up all the cameras, lighting and sound equipment as well as the copious amount of junk food brought in to feed the actors.  Then we had to find a new location.  Luckily, Eddie at Vision Pulse was able to accommodate us and we raced over there in the middle of the afternoon.

This actually turned out to be a lot better than the first location, and we were able to complete our indoor and outdoor scenes.   

Lois Lane with Eddie, our HERO!

We all had so much fun, we didn’t want it to end!  There was a scene at the end where all the Superheroes exit the therapist’s office, arguing with each other.  This was all ad lib and Loki and Thor had the brilliant idea of popping beers open and drinking them as they were exiting.  Unfortunately, this scene required numerous takes.  After a while they had to fake opening beer because:  A. they had run out of beer and B. there was a slight beer buzz going on. 

Superman and Wolverine making a beer run.  Hey guys? You forgot my wine and/or martini!

The same thing happened at the end when they were filming Sexy Robin signing her name, picking a donut out of the box on the table, taking a bite and throwing it back in the box.  She had to do this over and over, and I bet she is sick of donuts now.  I’m sure Thor and Loki are sick of beer now too – OK, maybe not.  We filmed until 8 PM Saturday night, then David and his crew had to edit the film and race to turn it in on time Sunday evening.  

Cameraman Robin

 They made it with minutes to spare and, dare I say, the result was impressive.  See it for yourself right here: http://vimeo.com/71394774.

The screening of our film was held in the Gaslamp area while I was still in Cost Rica, so I missed seeing it on the big screen, but I got to attend the Best Of Screening this past Saturday night.  They had a red carpet event for all the actors to get their pictures taken, just like Hollywood!  Huge beachball sized balloons bounced around in the auditorium and a keyboardist/singer entertained us before the event.  All the films were great!  I was so impressed.  The films were judged on talent, creativity, and how the character, line of dialogue and prop were incorporated into the film.  Even though we didn't take home a physical reward, in my eyes, we were winners because we all worked well together and accomplished our goal of turning in a great film within the 48 hour time period.
This was a positive experience in every way.  Even after they had finished filming my scenes, I hung around until the very end so I could hear them say, "That's a wrap!"