What do a pair of tweezers, a construction worker and the phrase “Hey? Have you heard the news?” have in common? That was the dilemma facing filmmaker Joe Park and the two other members of his Renegade Swine production company this past Friday night.
This past weekend Park got together with co-workers David Yim and Adrienne Ziegler to write, shoot, edit and score an entire movie in San Diego in just two days as part of the 48-hour Film Project (48HFP).
The contest is the brainchild Mark Ruppert and Liz Langston, who hosted the first competition in Washington, DC, in 2001. Since then, it has grown into national and international phenomenon. Last year about 30,000 people entered contests in 55 cities across the U.S. and the world.
“This is a competition like no other,” Ruppert said. “It brings together people from around the world and unites them with one common goal.”
This year the 48HFP tour is scheduled to visit 60 cities across the U.S. and the world where teams will compete for a cash prize, film equipment and a chance for national distribution. The San Diego contest kicked off Friday evening when roughly 40 teams of contestants met at the Torrey Pines State Park to pick the genre of their film in a random draw.
The Renegade Swine team drew “thriller / suspense,” and all the teams were instructed to incorporate a pair of tweezers, the character of construction worker Joe Beeble and the line “Hey, have you heard the news?” into their creations. Besides the interesting twist that these elements add to the challenge, they serve as a type of fraud prevention by ensuring that teams do not show up with a pre-produced movie “in the can.”
“The teams build relationships and get experience that will help them advance within this challenging industry,” Langston said. “We provide them with the setting that helps them harness their creativity, drive and perseverance.”
The suggestion to enter the contest came to Park from Chris Parker, an old friend from high school in Orange County who produces the 48HFP in Amsterdam. Park found the challenge interesting and formed a team with co-workers from the Mira Mesa-based Internet marketing company where he works as a videographer.
At 7:30 p.m. on Friday night, the contest organizers set the contestants loose. Renegade Swine’s team members rushed from Torrey Pines to a Mission Valley apartment, where they would spend the next few hours putting together the story, the script and shooting schedule for their movie.
As the story started to take shape, phone calls were placed to friends who had already volunteered to help and others who had offered houses and backyards as possible shooting locations. The task of creating a musical score fell to a friend that Park had worked with on another movie. Two other co-workers with acting experience were cast in the main roles. Props were gathered, shot lists were created, and by 2 a.m., seven hours into the contest and already exhausted, the team broke for the night.
Shooting on “The Paper Spy” began just after 8 a.m. outside Park’s apartment in Mission Valley. Construction worker Joe Beeble was innocently enjoying his morning coffee when a car pulled slowly to a stop at the curb outside his home. The crew worked feverishly throughout Saturday at a few locations around San Diego, including some time in front of a green screen at a studio.
That evening, Park edited together scenes from the day, and the final arrangements were made for Sunday’s schedule. Just after noon on Sunday, on a quiet street in Pacific Beach, the shooting was complete, and the team returned to Mission Valley to edit the movie together before the 7:30 p.m. deadline.
“At 7:07 p.m. the final rendering began,” Park said. “At 7:24 p.m. we jumped into the car and headed for the drop-off.”
Luckily the drop-off point at Mission Valley’s Ultrastar Cinemas is close enough to the apartment that Team Renegade managed to make it with just two minutes to spare.
The contest entries will be screened at the Ultrastar Cinemas Saturday, Aug. 16, from 1 to 10 p.m.
Ticket information and more details are available at www.48hourfilm.com/sandiego.
Examples of previous entrants are available for viewing on the website.
On Monday morning Park sounded tired but happy that his team had made the challenge.
“Yes. Sure,” he replied when asked if he had learned anything from the experience.
“Don’t try to make a movie in 48 hours,” he laughed.