Going Guerrilla

The 48-Hour Guerrilla Film Festival is happening this upcoming weekend, and I've just signed up to be on Chatham University's team. I am not sure how this will go but intend to purchase lots of Red Bull and Twinkies.

The concept is: Filmmakers all over the world assemble their teams, and submit their applications. At exactly 7pm this Friday the 13th, a line of dialogue and a genre is randomly generated, and we then have exactly 48 hours to write, shoot, edit -- completely produce a 5 to 10 minute film, which is the assigned genre, and which contains the line of dialogue.

Prior winners have been a western, an action/adventure, "inanimate conversationalists," a zombie movie, and a biographical picture. We've been warned that "80's Movie" and "Sock Puppet" have both been added to this year's genre list.

I'm not worried about the 80's Movie, in fact, I'm the team's secret weapon if we get it. I am the only team member old enough to be able to verify authenticity and make wardrobe and music suggestions.

The one I'm really, truly scared of is a Western.Tough to pull that off with Pittsburgh accents involved. Maybe we call it "Western: Pennsylvania" and make it about these two guys meeting at high noon to duel over whether the Steelers or the Eagles are the better football team.

Our team is made up mostly of graduate students, including a 6-foot-9 guy from Michigan who loves strapping himself weird places to get crazy shots, and a gal I've had classes with whose forte is riding on the hoods of vehicles with a camera in her hand. We're going to let them do the camera work. We also have a zombie expert on hand, and a translator in case we have to do foreign language. I have signed on for writing, scoring, editing team, and costuming.

We think of this as boot camp for creativity, and can't wait to see how it goes. I've told my family to drop me off at Chatham on Friday night, and to pick me up on Sunday night. What will happen in between, and how much it will cost, is anybody's guess. With me, I'll bring some food, my keyboard, my sewing machine, a pillow and a credit card. The rest is up in the air.

The finished films get uploaded online, and screened at a Film Festival in Sarasota. I don't know that any of us actually plan to go to Sarasota. We're doing it for the fun of the exercise, and if we win the $5,000 prize, that's fine. ;)

There is another 48-Hour Film Project this summer, which is set up a bit differently than the one this weekend. In the summer version, organizers declare a theme, and then the project happens in major US cities. The Guerrilla, because they have the means for online delivery, has opened it up worldwide, to everybody. I'm really excited to be involved.

My birthday is Sunday. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by doing something extreme and fun, movie-related, and having a wrap party that doubles as my birthday party.

I'll get back at you early next week to give you the rundown on what the heck happened with all of this!