Need a debit card?

Last Thursday I headed over to Alex’s house for the day and well… put the two of us together and things just… happen. A few days prior, we had learned about a film contest sponsored by Higher One, a debit card company used by students at Austin Community College.

It looked simple, it sounded fun, and the entry fee was right (free is always right). So Alex and I scratched our brains on Thursday night and came up with a few ideas by 2am.

Introducing... uh... our hick?

With a little prompting and a whole lot more sleep than we’re used to on film projects we left the house at 7am and began constructing a set.

Our make-up department (i.e. “Lerma Ladies, Inc.”) began transforming Alex into the latest gold-grubber to grace Tombstone.  Mascara does wonders on males… even making a marked improvement on Alex’s normally slovenly self.  (whoa, did I just say that? I mean… um… uhh…)

While the makeup department dolled up Alex vis-à-vis his facial appearance our resident seamstresses (i.e. “Lerma Ladies and Guzman Gal, Limited.“) began scouring for costumes/clothing. The script called for a scruffy looking miner that looked like he was at the end of his luck.

I never realized until Alex informed me that morning that jeans and pre-1900 costumes don’t mix. Ever. I know that it’s not very intuitive. Slacks aren’t known for their durability while jeans are, but the camera doesn’t care. 21st-century jeans worn on a 19th-century individual look just like what they are… 21st-century jeans worn on a 19th-century individual. Of course there may be a few exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb don’t ever use jeans for any type of film shoot unless it takes place in the modern world. Settle for slacks.

Introducing... um... our rookie camera man?

Somewhere in the mix there was an attempt to make Alex gain some substantial weight; say in the realm of 30 or so pounds. A pillow was obtained and for a second Alex appeared to be uh… um… I’ll leave it as that. Fortunately for the world that idea was scratched and Alex retained his dashing, inspiring, trim physique (where’s my check man?). Call it, “liposuction to the n^th degree”.

Wrapping up Alex’s wardrobe was an ample serving of mud and grime. After capturing our footage we determined that Alex’s shirt looked too “clean” on tape.  For any of you planning to film someone who is inherently “dirty” make sure that they appear “dirty” on the screen. Lighting and camera settings (e.g. aperture) can make all the difference between a human’s eye and a camera’s eye.

The storyline required a deep well about the width of a human that a bucket could be lowered into. While a specific year isn’t mentioned, we wanted to evoke an era perhaps in the 1800s. Rusty implements, aging materials, and general all-around “junkiness” was the feel that we were after. So after some searching we built the set onto the side of a gentle slope.

The set takes shape

The location was chosen primarily because a 6 foot post was already driven into the ground onto which we could lean and tie all of our beams and posts to. Some wood pallets, aluminum siding, blocks of wood, sundry logs, large rocks, and rotten boards made up our siding and floors. After some shoving and delicate balancing, the set finally took shape as a ramshackle shack that looked about as sturdy as a tomato vine in a hurricane. We were quite proud of it and joked that we could market it as a historical site to the city.

Luxury on the cheap

In the meantime our props team (i.e. “All Available Males, Limited“)was busily finding every piece of scrap metal and lumber we could lay hands on. Glass bottles, old washtubs, pots, pans, buckets, horseshoes, broken tools, rags, rope, and even a wheelbarrow were pressed into service.

Issac served as our general gopher and was sent to paint some warning signs and make a few gold nuggets (unknown to many, one of Isaacs many talents is alchemy), Rachel kindly volunteered as our boom operator, Alex applied a few more layers of dirt, and finally, we began shooting around 11:30am.

Ok, let me make one thing clear. I know that I’ve worked with Alex on some hard stuff. I’ve been to theatrical plays that he’s written and directed. I’ve seen him firsthand as he interacted with our actors in “For Honor”. But I have never, ever seen Alex act onscreen (unless you count the bonus features in the “For Honor” DVD).

So it came almost as a shock when I realized that my cohort is an absolute riot. Wow, he was an absolute ham. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe when the general public watches it they’ll think he’s a deadbeat. But looking back at it I start thinking of Abbott and Costello (hm… that gives me an idea).

Alex surveys his new home

By 2:00pm the flooring was shattered, the camp was a mess, and the set was a wreck (testaments to Alex’s acting). But we had what we needed. As we reviewed our scenes we realized a few errors that we had made and some things that we could have done better. As the cameraman/DP (director of photography) for this shoot I think I made a couple mistakes regarding lighting levels/contrast and framing. But I think we all felt more or less comfortable with what we had. Our audio wasn’t bad and our acting was a hoot. Back at the house we recorded a voice-over, pulled together a soundtrack from Soundsnap, and wrapped up editing by 10pm.

In summary, in a little less than 24 hours we went from script and storyboard to final cut and submission. It felt pretty fulfilling. The submission guidelines for the contest limited the commercial to 30 seconds and 5 MB (which is really, really, really small). But we have enough footage that we might put together something for Sermonspice using a different voice-over.

In late August the top 3 commercials will be selected and placed on YouTube where the public will have a few days to vote on their favorite. Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering, “Paul, thanks for telling us all about the video… but where in the world is it? Why don’t I see it here? Did I skip it or did you make all this up?” then rest assured that you’ll see it as soon as we can let you. We can’t display it online until after the top 3 are selected.

Visit Imagivation again towards mid-late August to see the top 3. Who knows? One of them might just have a miserable miner.