So, as I've mentioned in a previous post, I competed in a competition called Student Television Network. In one of my competitions, we are given six hours to make a short film that goes along to a specific prompt, as well as using a line of dialogue that we are also provided.
The prompt we were given was "Off the grid", and the line of dialogue we had to use was "What are you looking at?". I'm going to be honest, I really liked this prompt, there were so many different routes we could take when it came to making a story.
Here is the plot we decided on: A guy and girl are on their first date together, and you can tell they really hit it off. As they are together in the park, the guy, Andrew, tries showing the girl something to impress her. Instead, he fails miserably. Even worse for poor Andrew is that a live streamer happens to catch his mistake on video. Andrew is so embarrassed that he decides he has to run away and get off the grid.
In the competition, you must write and finish filming all within the first three hours, then only two people can edit in the second three hours. So we finish writing within the first 45 minutes, and leave the hotel to go film. We started off at the park, where the embarrassing incident takes place. That's where we had two major technical issues. The first was with the boom mic, which wasn't working with the micro sd card we were using. We figured we could just use voice memos on our phones, because it's surprisingly good at picking up dialogue. That's when the second problem took place. Hayden, our cinematographer, has a really good camera that he bought. However, it only takes a particular type of sd card, which he couldn't find. After a while, he figured out how to lower the quality of the video in order to take a standard sd. At this point, we now only had 90 minutes to film the entire thing. This led to us not being able to film the last scene as we had intended.
At this point, we had to run to the convention center where the editing room is to make it in time. We just barely make it, so two of our group members start editing (only two are allowed). So, me and Hayden go with our friends to a nearby mall to go grab lunch, since there was nothing else we could do with the video. And then I get a call. "We don't have any of the audio, it didn't download. We need you to download it onto a flashdrive and give it to us". So here's the problem. I need a computer to download the audio. I also need a flashdrive, which is in a van that I don't know where it is. So, running time. I'm going to spare the details, but I had to run over a mile as fast as possible to get the audio to them in time. I then had to get back because I had just ordered food before I needed to leave, so I had to pay for that. When I got back, I then got another call. "We're still missing audio". You see, we were sending the audio through Whatsapp, which needs wifi to send. This meant there was still some clips that never got sent. So basically, I had to run all of that AGAIN.
Luckily, even adter all of that, my friends were able to submit on time. A lot went wrong with the project, but it turned out alright. Here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eWPfwe6fJCtDRdlpiaS04xuVcS6XVvU7/view?usp=sharing
Although I was happy with how it turned out considering the circumstances, I didn't have high hopes for placing in the top five. It didn't really meet our expectations, and we had some of the plot we couldn't put in. However, the experience was really great, and I',m glad we did it.
First off, I've learned that a lot of the time, things won't go according to plan. I've also learned that it's okay if it doesn't, as long as you one, do your best to fix any mistakes, and two, make sure you learn from them.
I've also realized that even if something doesn't reach your original vision, it doesn't mean it isn't still well made.
I am going to make sure I use what I've learned and learn from my mistakes when filming my film opening.
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