For The Trees | 48 Hour Film
JACENKNET | 48GFC
Crew
Jason Kraynek – Director, Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Editor, Colorist, Producer, Graphic Artist
Vincent Truman – AD, Writer, Music, Producer
Rodney Glassburn – Audio, Grip
Michael Tsirtsis – AC, Grip
Jenni Schenk – HMU
48GFC – Client
JACENKNET – Studio
Cast
Ethan Henry – Everett
Vincent Truman – Principal Pine
Steven J Young – Mr Carta
Michael Scmid – Stoner Dude
Rodney Glassburn – Power Lifter Dude
Michael Tsirtsis – Smoking Dude
Sarah Luna – Gossip Girl 1
Kat O’Conner – Gossip Girl 2
Gear
Cameras – Canon 5d Mark II
This was our entry for the 48 Hour Guerrilla Film Competition – written, shot, and edited all within 48 hours, braving the elements, and trying to get through each take without laughing to entirely much (this was more of a challenge). We all pulled together and came up with hopefully one of the most off key entries this year.
PRE-PRODUCTION
We got our “movie type” at 8:30pm friday which turned out to be “School Movie”, wrote a script and storyboards that night. There was a rule in the contest that we HAD to have a shot of the city we were located in so we added the ending shot downtown (which happened to be in the middle of a huge storm at the time). Vince and I recorded the Skype sessions of opening the entry and plotting the next 48 hours (which will be included in the BTS/Outtakes video).
PRODUCTION
We met early Sat at 7am, went through the script that Vincent wrote up and then I picked out characters/outfits for each. Drove to the forest location that Vince picked and were up and running by 11amish. Basically picked locations as we went and finding what “looked like” what we needed. It felt very “greek-ish” to basically be set designing on the fly and using a childhood imagination to picture things (i love to do this and it brought me once again back to my improv days).
I used a Canon 5d Mark II, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L, Cinevate inc DSLR Core Package w/shoulder mount, NO LIGHTS, Zoom h4n, 2 countrymen wired mics (wireless or booms would have been wonderful but- dealt with it), Manfrotto 504HD Head w/535 2-Stage Carbon Fiber Tripod System.
POST
Sunday I woke up and edited from 5am till 3 MINUTES BEFORE SUBMISSION TIME 8:33pm (it was a close call but we got it in). Vincent worked on music and we fed stuff back and forth all day till it was complete. It was a marathon of a sunday after converting to Prores 422 and then cutting in Final Cut Studio. I found that when you rush and try to beat the sun/rain you really have to pay attention to continuity so when it comes to editing you can use the “better” takes over the “ones that worked”. I ran into a few issues with this but made my best efforts to put it together and save what I could. Having a strong cast that delivered strong performances helped alot in this fact. Also to note- ALWAYS USE A CLAPPER (we had one, it was on set, I’m just not used to it so i never called for it and that made my sync issues take much longer in post then they should).
After Effects then came in after transferring the XML via Popcorn Island and working on my grading in Magic Bullet Colorista II, then the ending “effect” produced in the native program. I threw it back to FCP as a video file, and then saved the REF for Compressor to encode a mp4 bypassing most of the QuickTime color issues (i think). It turned out still more contrasted than the original and the Youtube version but its better then the MOV version that was washed out.
Some things are kinda off and fixes can be made but considering we did it all in 48 hours I think its acceptable given the crunch and happy with the cast/crew for helping us pull it off.
