'Relic'
A 24+ Hour Adventure
It's time for an epic tale. A tale of shovels, cheesy potatoes, sleep deprivation, and murder. I hope you enjoy.
Once upon a Friday, specifically at 2:00pm on Friday, October 16, 2015, three heroes/ film nerds, otherwise known as "The Trinity" (to no one but ourselves), met up at the house of one member, Miranda. We occupied ourselves with a PVRIS Q&A on the internet until 3:00, when the prompts for the Kansas High School 24-Hour Film Fest would be posted. We read through the prompts, overwhelmed by the complexity, and then set off to our school to get more equipment and pick up our actress, Peyton.
During the drive, we came up with an idea and asked Peyton to text her friends to get more actresses. We began filming scenes with just her at a park near my house. After climbing a tree several times, with a camera, and eating an entire bag of gummy sharks, Peyton informed us that none of her friends were available to help out. So we sat down in the park and had a second brainstorm session.
We came up with a new idea and planned it out. We then headed back to Miranda's house to inform her mother that we would need her to act and to put black-eye makeup on Peyton that we ended up washing off because it looked like crap (no offense Alec).
The Trinity then set off to the first location: a local community center with an awesome tree. We filmed for about an hour, fighting against the fading daylight. Alec got some amazing shots, Miranda got to test out her acting skills, and I proved my knowledge about audio recording.
We went back to Miranda's house for a nacho break (bless Miranda's mother for making us food), but when we started looking through our footage, Miranda and I decided we didn't like the idea anymore and wanted to change it. Alec was a little harder to convince, but he eventually agreed. It was 10 o'clock and we didn't have an idea.
Here's where we implemented an approach that probably helped us win our awards. We decided to treat this project as if it were a music video --something we as a group, and as individuals for that matter, are much more skilled at than short films. If you take nothing else away from this lengthy tale, at least remember that if one way isn't working out, try a different way. Use what you know. So we found a song first and then we based the story off that.
I won't tell you what our idea was because spoilers but I will tell you that the night proceeded with filming, passing a very sketchy RV with dogs inside, shovel murder, bad jokes, sleep-deprived hysterical laughter, and a 4:00 am trip to Perkins for cheesy potatoes.
We turned in the final video at 3:00pm the next day in Wichita, KS (one of my least favorite cities ever) and then proceeded to the live screening and judging of all entries and the following awards' ceremony. The Trinity took home two awards: Best Editing and Best Cinematography. Woot woot!
All in all it was an exhausting weekend and at the time I may have regretted it and wanted to quit, but in the end I'm glad we did it. I feel like we learned a lot and the best bonding happens at the butt crack of dawn.
We went back to Miranda's house for a nacho break (bless Miranda's mother for making us food), but when we started looking through our footage, Miranda and I decided we didn't like the idea anymore and wanted to change it. Alec was a little harder to convince, but he eventually agreed. It was 10 o'clock and we didn't have an idea.
Here's where we implemented an approach that probably helped us win our awards. We decided to treat this project as if it were a music video --something we as a group, and as individuals for that matter, are much more skilled at than short films. If you take nothing else away from this lengthy tale, at least remember that if one way isn't working out, try a different way. Use what you know. So we found a song first and then we based the story off that.
I won't tell you what our idea was because spoilers but I will tell you that the night proceeded with filming, passing a very sketchy RV with dogs inside, shovel murder, bad jokes, sleep-deprived hysterical laughter, and a 4:00 am trip to Perkins for cheesy potatoes.
We turned in the final video at 3:00pm the next day in Wichita, KS (one of my least favorite cities ever) and then proceeded to the live screening and judging of all entries and the following awards' ceremony. The Trinity took home two awards: Best Editing and Best Cinematography. Woot woot!
All in all it was an exhausting weekend and at the time I may have regretted it and wanted to quit, but in the end I'm glad we did it. I feel like we learned a lot and the best bonding happens at the butt crack of dawn.
Link for 'Relic': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USj19HeWb0A
Prompts for 2015 24-Hour Film Fest: https://kansas12hrfilmfest.wordpress.com/this-years-prompt/
*Warning: 'Relic' turned out insanely more violent and twisted than we originally thought it would. Blame our 4 o'clock minds. *
*Warning: 'Relic' turned out insanely more violent and twisted than we originally thought it would. Blame our 4 o'clock minds. *
