A FILM IN 48 HOURS: The Making of TURN THE OTHER CHEEK Part 4

7/01/09

The screening of all the films produced during the 2009 48 Hour Film Competition will began on Tuesday and continue until Thursday. There are six sections of screenings of which the Interstate Film production of Turn The Other Cheek will be part of Group C, which will screen at 7:00 pm tonight along with eleven other films. The trick is that each section is given a specific criteria to follow in order to qualify for the competition (these criteria being the specific prop, character, and phrase that had to be in all the films of each section).
The screening will all be at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. This venue is a friend to independent cinema as it specializes in limited release domestic and foreign films not to mention being a sponsor of the Atlanta Film Festival (which also so happens to be a sponsor of this event). The venue is a great place to showcase these indie films to a larger audience.
Many, if not all, the cast and crew will be seeing the film for the very first time on this night so it is a big deal to us all. Although producer Gary Hamrick, Jr. is lamentably nervous about the whole affair having been on call for the entire process of the film (and lets not forget the other producer Ondie Daniel) because he was originally set to direct the film before relinquishing the role to Jim Adams.
We have an amazing turnout for the film that included (but is not limited to) actors Liz Martin, James Robert Jarrett, Luisa Casas (who also co-edited), Daniel, Corey Chalef, and Robert Sattler, to name a few. Members of our crew also made an appearance from Asa Rose (key grip), Emilie Peters (script supervisor), Christine Cuff (production assistant), and Michael Bailey (head writer), to name a few. It is a grand event as filmmakers from all the films screening show up to support their films as well as the event itself and fun is to be had all around as people cheered and awed at the amazing lineup of films on display.
This being my first 48 Hour Film Competition I just take it all in. It will be the first film I’ve been a part of that screened on a big screen (I don’t count JACK O’LANTERN since I never saw it on the big screen when it was screened). It is a great sense of accomplishment to see a completed film on the screen and that everyone enjoys the experience because regardless of the quality of the film it is one of the most nerve racking and exhilarating experiences that I have ever had (other then shooting my own film House of Secrets that is).
There is no describing the feeling one gets when you are able to see a finished film on the big screen and that people other then your own cast and crew are enjoying it. It is one of the greatest feelings that any filmmaker can have sinse deep down inside we all want someone to enjoy the films that we produce. I don’t know about other filmmakers but I like to think that I don’t do films just for me but that I hope others will enjoy them as well (no matter how messed up and unusual they are).

I have mixed feelings about the film itself but that’s because I have mixed feelings about everything I work on. I’ve never once had a great reaction to anything I’ve ever worked on and knowing that this is only a rough version and that director Jim Adams intends to film an expanded version of the film only solidifies my insecurities about the film since he wants to make the story better by working on the characters more. There is only so much you can do with a story that’s less then seven minutes long and in which we were given particular things to put in the film, but whatever…the festival version of the film is its own entity that will be separate from the expanded version just like the competition version of Ron McLellen’s Night of the Hungry Dead is vastly different from the final Director’s Cut, which was expanded post it’s festival version.
All in all I think the cast & crew of Interstate Films did a good job putting together Turn The Other Cheek and even though it may not be the strongest film that any of us have produced it is one of the most fun and I can’t wait for the opportunity to work with the cast & crew again.
Working on the 48 Hour Film Competition is a unique opportunity for me to work with other filmmakers and expand my skills as a filmmaker and I hope that I get the chance to repeat it next year.

THE END.