8/1/09 - 8/3/09 Filming on the "Pilot" of The 48 HOUR FILM COMPETITION SHOWDOWN

Since production on this documentary lasted more then four days, I'm just going to group the entire experience under one heading. I started work on the 48 Hour Film Competition Showdown before I ever knew that I actually had the job.

Following my work with Interstate Films on the actual 2009 48 Hour Film Festival Competition and the production TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, several of us got together to put together an auditition package for the actual Showdown (which we heard about during the screening of our film). Although only one of us got a call back to be a part of the actual crew of filmmakers being filmed for the showdown, I would eventually get on to the production as part of the documentary crew care of both Ondie Daniel and Renonda Anderson, who referred me to the production. I was hired as an assistant camera on the production.

The Showdown that we are filming is actually a race between two teams (one from Atlanta and the other from Nashville) who have 48 hours to complete a short film (in the same tradition as the original competition) andd we are filming this as part of a "Pilot" episode for a proposed television show. The production crew for the show was huge and as an AC my job was to supply the cameramen with batteries and cards whenever they needed them. On set my co-AC was Jennifer Rowland who was making her film production debute. Together we handled everything that Team Atlanta documentary crew needed during the Morning shift of production (since everything was filmed around the clock). She started work on the production a day before me but over the next 48 hours we would be a non-stop perfect team that complimented each other.

On the first day of production we were mainly on location at an abandoned werehouse (chosen by the film crew) and allowed us to be of the most use. The second day we had a lot less to do and therefore there was a lot of down time but we had to keep in mind that this was a documentary film shoot and we filmed what we needed to film.

There were a lot of surprises on set (too many for me to name here) but I guess I did a well enough job as I was asked to return for the final day of filming in which the screening of the two teams' finished films would be screened in front of an audience. I enjoyed filming on this day the most as I was promoted from AC to camera op as the production needed more camera ops for the added cameras of the shoot. This allowed me to work with the HD cameras for the second time (the first being on TURN THE OTHER CHEEK in which I used an HD camera but filmed in 24p).

The experience was an eye opener as I gained a lot of knowledge from the production personnel as well as the team members being filmed and I gained a lot of new friends that I hope to have on future productions. The experience working on this film is not one that I would have missed for anything and I'm glad I was able to work on the production and be of some type of help.

I do know that it took me two days to not only recover from the three days on set but also all the other films I worked on just earlier that week. You only get a few great opportunities to work on and with productions such as this (which was a paying gig) and I hope that the production gets picked up so that I might have the opportunity to work on the actual series.

Here's hoping!