Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project - July 11 to 13

or My Experiences With Guerrilla Screenwriting

Gabriel Pin Large

Over the weekend, I joined a team from Gippos Video Studio lead by Nikea and Jamaule to create a 4-7 minute movie in 48 hours. This is my story.

Come see our film. It's playing Friday July 18th. You can buy tickets here - http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/769647

The Waiting Game

So we (the team of writers) were sitting around a table Friday waiting for news on our genre. It was unanimously decided that if we were to draw musical, we were screwed. The only thing we were less prepared for was sci-fi, oddly enough. But I've seen enough episodes of Star Trek to fix that.

We waited patiently. Well, maybe not so patiently; I seem to remember the group chat monstrosity thing going off constantly as we got updates from the Team Leads down at Chatham as well as posts from others, including one poster who felt the need to describe what he was eating. I think it was Tyler and I think it was something with cheese.

And then we got the news - Musical/Western.

Egads!

And people were excited about it... well, at least those people who weren't going to have to write a musical were excited about it. Oh yes, we went with musical because, seriously, how does one do a western in Pennsylvania in July. The wild west was never as verdant as Pittsburgh.

 

The Challenge Begins

So, there we were, getting ready to make a musical. You would think I would be ecstatic. I've been in dozens of musicals. I can sing rings around most people... and I was terrified because I can't write music to save my life. I can barely read it.

Before you could say "Andrew Lloyd Webber" we were hashing out a screenplay for a musical.

We decided on a story line I proposed about a guy who moves in next door to Satan and falls in love with his daughter. Needless to say, because I was involved, it was destined to be subversively amusing. I had called it, Neighbor of the Beast and that stuck.

Jason and I started writing. I really could have sworn there were more writers at previous meet and greet sessions but when it came down to the wire, it was just the two of us. We quickly outlined a story and proposed songs and sets and before we could get much further, we were off to our first location shoot, a hotel room in the South Side that was standing in for the Devil's living room.

We arrived on set and literally wrote two scenes while the production crew setup and the actors got into makeup. In the mean-time, we were waiting on music from our music guys.

Now, I am great at taking existing songs and making parodies out of them. Weird Al is one of my idols and I have a good feel for rhyme and story but I can't play an instrument and I have no experience or training writing music. So we were dead in the water until we could get some music.

Shooting a Porno?

After filming the one scene, some of the actors were given a break so the crew could film set things like the door opening, etc. Don and few others went outside for what I assume was a smoke break. On their way up in the elevator, they ran into several ladies coming back from partying on the South Side. Since Don and crew were in costume, the ladies wanted to know what they were doing. Being a smart ass, Don told them we were shooting a porno.

Of course, they thought he was joking, and rightly so. The elevator stopped at floor three and everyone got out, cast and ladies both. They all turned and headed down the long hallway. Don finally asked which room was theirs only to find out that they had the room right next door.

As they approached their room, someone opened our door to let Alex film the door opening. I can only image that what they could see through the door was all the film equipment and Alex with a camera and, of course, this was all they needed for confirmation that indeed we were filming a porno. They screamed and laughed and ruined the shot.

camera

Not exactly the equipment they were expecting to see.

Hip Hop Musical

Finally, Lhagic, our music guy, sent us some tracks. Did I mention that he is a rap and hip hop artist? No, I don't suppose I did. While I appreciate what he was trying to do, I don't think he fully grasped the musical concept. We were expecting some instrumental tracks that we could write lyrics to. What we got was a fine rap song that had nothing to do with the story we were telling. On top of that, we couldn't get him to give us just the backing tracks. He was apparently very attached to the final products.

So consternation followed, feelings were injured, tempers were running a little hot and we were no closer to making a musical than we were at 7:00.

At this point, it's going on 3:00 AM and we have no music. So Jason, McKelvy and I went to find a quiet place to write. Together, we wrote two songs complete with lyrics and melodies. We penned the opening love song and the Devil's "I'm so evil" song. I had to sing into McKelvy's phone so we wouldn't forget what we had come up with.

What we made was passable and kind of cute. But with no musicians or instruments for that matter, we were not much further along.

I'm So Drunk

Jason and I went back down to the lobby to hash out some song lyrics for the finale. I went to the bathroom. When I came back, a young, and very drunk girl, had been talking his ear off. I tried to get back to work but she kept at it with "What are you doing?", "Can I be in your movie?", "I'm really drunk." You get the picture. I was doing my best to just ignore her but finally she blurted out, "If I'm annoying, just tell me to go the f*&% away."

So I said, "Go the f*&% away." I think she was hurt. Her last line as she staggered off was, "That was harsh." I guess the lesson is, be careful what you ask for?

cocktails

My best guess as to what she had been drinking.

We didn't get much more done because the shooting wrapped for the night around 5:00 AM and we all headed out to get some rest.

Compromise is Not a Four Letter Word

I say rest, but in reality, I got no more than an hour of sleep. I was awake at 7:00 AM and back to writing. I wrote the entire finale scene complete with the lyrics for the climatic song. Again, I had to sing into my phone to record my ideas.

We rushed off to Pitt to film the "date" scene, the remaining no-music scene in the movie. Thank goodness Jason had written it that morning. I was really starting to get worried. We still had no music or musicians. 

About half way through the morning, our music guy finally sent us four instrumental tracks he and his crew had put together that morning. And here is where compromise is such a tricky thing. I don't like hip hop and I had a hard time believing it would work as a musical but we had no other working options at this point. Other cast members felt similarly and more consternation, injured feelings and apprehension followed as we tried to adapt our lyrics to the tracks we now had.

old man

 

Like this old man, I'm much closer to a hip-pop than hip-hop.

Somehow, I managed to make our lyrics fit the music but now we had another problem - no place to record the vocals.

Hanging Off the Side of the World with a Microphone

After several emails, phone calls and more consternation, we managed to contact someone with a recording studio who was willing to help us. Now, I use that term loosely. What we really had was a talented amateur with a converted bedroom who lived in one of those neighborhoods that, so typical to Pittsburgh, was situated on the side of a steep hill. It may have been the lack of sleep but I swear a herd of goats wandered by.

goat

We passed these guys somewhere in Dormont.

So now, since I was the only one who had any idea how to fit the lyrics with the music, I became the team's vocal coach. And here is where I learned that we should have asked the actors if they could sing. Bless their hearts, they gave it their all. Just don't expect this cast to open in Cats on Broadway.

Mission accomplished (thanks Travis) and we were off to shoot the remaining three scenes.

cats logo

The cast of Cats was not harmed during the making of our film.

Basketball and the Devil

The finale scene was a lot of fun to shoot actually. Well, at least it looked fun for the actors. By this time I was running completely on fumes and no longer of much use. I had done all the creative things I could possibly do. The scenes had been written, the music had been hashed out and even recorded. I was just along, at this point, as a consultant since it was my story line.

The finale involved a basketball and singing minions - Jeff, Marissa and Kelsey were having way too much fun with the last part of the song. I can't blame them. It looked fun and I really hope it came across that way on film.

minions

No, not these minions.

Most of the cast was dismissed, including me, and the remaining crew went off to film the scene between the Devil and Victoria.

The Waiting Game Returns

So I went home after delivering some of the cast to their homes and got some sleep. Part of me wishes I had stuck around just to watch the post-production work. However, I was exhausted and would have fallen asleep anyway.

I guess there was more tempers, more consternation and more hurt feelings and eventually the post-production was down to Nikea and Alex working away in Russian.

And all I could do was sit by my phone waiting to hear if we made the deadline. I think that was the most nervous I have been in a long time.

clock

Actual time my heart stopped.

Finally, we got the news from Jamaule that we had made the deadline and would be showing on Friday.

I can't wait.

Thanks

I can't thank Nikea and Jamaule enough for letting me participate in their project. I had a great time and learned a lot about film making and myself. I may be hooked and I will definitely be doing this again sometime.

Here's our team, or at least who I can remember. I apologize if I missed you.

Crew

  • Director - Nikea
  • Crew - Jamaule, Alex, Tyler, Stephanie, McKelvy, Zoe and Matt
  • Screenplay - Jason and Eric
  • Lyrics - Jason, Eric and McKelvy
  • Music - Lhagic and his crew and Travis

Cast

  • Gabriel Horne - Chace
  • Victoria Carr - Josie
  • Mr. Carr - Don
  • Butler - Jeff
  • Maid - Marissa
  • Minion - Kelsey

Come see our film. It's playing Friday July 18th. You can buy tickets here - http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/769647