So it has started.First some background. A few days ago I responded to a post in a forum. A director was looking for actors for a film he was making for the 48 Hour Film Challenge. The basic run down is that you have one weekend to script, film, edit and toss in the mail a 4 to 8 minute film (in addition you may have 1 minute of credits). No stock footage. No one can be payed. A lot like NaNoWriMo... but even more condensed. And it is an actual contest. Some people do it with one video camera and not much else. Others to it with a full crew and trucks and etc.. (We are probably in the middle.) They also give you the genre and elements you must include: a prop, a character and a line of dialogue. These are emailed on Friday at 7pm.
So I met with the director (Bill) at Starbucks on Wednesday. We talked for a bit and I did a quick monologue for him so he could get a sense of my acting. (I'm tempted to put quotes around 'acting.' It has been years upon years since I have really acted. I of course had no monologues memorized so I took a small speech from last year's novel that I was familiar with (Dave's "How Dating is Like Eating Hot Pockets" analogy) and just improved that.) Bill mentioned some of the sites he thought he might use as locations. I casually mention the brownstone, seeing as it has lots of space and not furniture... something that is damn hard to find in NYC. I'm proud of this place and though it might be possible.
Yesterday Bill and the assistant director (Drew) popped by to check it out. It was fun (as it always is) to see the bit of wide-eyed look folks get when they step inside. Reminds me of when I first looked at the place. At one point Drew and I where chattering on the back deck, and I looked inside to see Bill pacing off camera shots, with his hands practically up in his face creating a frame. The stereotypical director thing. Made me grin. When Bill came outside he said he already had 7 pages of shots figured out in his head. Remember this is without a script or even a genre, and that 7 pages is about 7 minutes of film... on something that can be no longer than 8 minutes.
So I think Bill was sold.
Well, now it is set. The crew and cast has been emailed with my address and will be showing up tomorrow morning.
