48 Hour Film Project: -2 hrs to 5hrs

A man, a plan, a ... kayak?

Today is the ... no, yesterday is the day. I really wanted to collect all my thoughts before I slept. Actually, what I really want is a shower, but I don't want to wake anyone else up. ;-)

4:50pm -- Amy telephones me and lets me know they're en route to draw their random elements for the film. Stuck on Fields-Ertel, which is one of those nightmarish roads upon which construction occurs, but no improvement. Everyone needs to be at the Plum Street Cafe in downtown Cincinnati by 7pm to begin work as soon as elements are announced. I'm planning to leave around 6:30 ... leaving fifteen minutes earlier usually just puts you that much closer to the rush, so you end up arriving at the same time with more glunking in the car.

6:10 -- Amy again, "Hey, Linds, where are you?" Me, "I'm not driving yet, leaving in a few minutes." Her, "Well, there's this accident ..." Me, "Aaack. Getting in car. Now."

6:50 -- bumper to bumper traffic, thirteen miles to go and OMG WHY IS THERE A BUS DRIVING ON THE LEFT HAND BERM?

7:26 -- finally downtown. Circled around once. No parking. Saw Amy and her husband Jim, tried to beep at them, probably ticked off other drivers. Phonecall, picked her up on the next go-round, and finally got parked.

Inside at last for the moment of truth:

Genre: Road Movie
Required Character: Winston (or Wilma) Weatherby, an auctioneer
Required Prop: A roll of toilet paper
Line of dialogue: "There's no way this is going to work."

I think there are a dozen people in the room, and we get down to coming up with a general form. Some things are kicked around - I suggest a bicycle road movie, someone brings up Antiques Roadshow. Turns out there's a true story about the brothers who own the apartment we're taking over and one of those things that sounds like a good idea when one is drunk: an epic tale of trying to bring a dumped kayak back to their apartment.

There are a couple other suggestions, but this seems to lead. Everyone contributes to general form, possible incorporation of the elements, and by just a little after nine o'clock, we have a rough outline. Terry, Scott (I think) and I are turned loose to script-write. Terry takes the typing and the lead; she's opinionated but not roughshod, so this works really well. I feel like I'm quiet, but I do contribute some. I am inordinately distracted by the fact that we have a storyboard artist drawing shots of the scene as we're scripting. Too. Awesome.

(Also, I stop to have a conversation with Randall, the dog. No one finds this odd.)

At this point, time begins to bluuuuur. I think it took us two hours to get a rough draft - four pages, which at about a minute a page (and with a couple of action/montage scenes) put us comfortably in the 4 - 7 minute restriction. Time became of the essence because, while conceptualizing the script, we realized it had to be shot completely at night. So - shooting would start (has started) tonight and be finished Saturday night.

(I have a chocolate orgasm. This is a cookie. My diet is more shot than a tourist trap.)

Readthrough, suggested minor changes, and then some more significant thematic issues, handled with a few lines. Amazing what focus and clarity can be conveyed in minor tweaks.

Laura and Quinn pop upstairs at this point and have written us a themesong. Chords, lyrics, melody and campiness about being in a kayak with no paddle. Themesong. Seriously. Wow.

Continuing into tomorrow ...