Blog on make a movie in a week- thoughts gathered and put in what I hope is an enjoyable blog format-

So, there I was on twitter, like all stories seem to begin these days, and I see that @s7vendaysageek is hosting a make a movie in a week contest! Now, i am NOT a movie maker, but when I was told no females had entered, yet another “nerd thing” where girls don’t have a large presence in i had to jump in. I guess I can’t blame nerdery, or the way the system works…and I also can’t blame @FeliciaDay…girl geeks everywhere need to do our part. So, however foolishly I said yes.
Then i got an email.
And three more.
I was two weeks behind, and holey crap!! Is that Adam freakin Barker? @BarkerPodcasts !?! @InnerCityGeeks?! I am a writer, but not like a @KayKayCannon writer, just a “barely” one.
As the “in over my head” alarms started going off, I scrolled to the synopsis to see what I needed to make.
And my response was “Shit.”
A man/woman, wanted by the cops is kidnapped and forced to play out a game of truth or lies to survive the ordeal”
And I thought, in rapid fashion, all at once:
“Shit I don’t write horror”
“Shit I’ve seen too many of the “Saw” movies to do this without ripping saw off.”
“That fucker did he pick this just to make life hell?”
“How can I make it different?”
“It’s movie commentary watching time!”
I am eh on movies, but I fucking love commentary, and all the behind the scenes stuff. I’ve done theatre. Maybe it’s a start.
Pitch Perfect, my go to movie, while highly useful and informative with two commentaries, one featuring the amazing @ElizabethBanks who I believe to be a genius, someone who appreciates books, and the translation to screen. However, I don’t need to write a book.
I need to write a horror script right? But the thing is, I’ve seen just about every horror movie out there, and I love watching them. Not freakin writing em.
But script frenzy was canceled this year, and I want to push my creative muscles, so i turned on “Perks of Being a Wallflower”, which is a brillant book, brillant movie, all directed and written by someone I admire and look up to- @StephenChbosky so, I dove in.
I like a few things in it- that I wanted to use, themes I felt were important.
No one is a victim, and no one is a bad guy.
Everyone has a past.
Get the tough shot
And thanks to pitch perfect, which actually did come in handy, punctuate everything with humor.
So, I opened my journal on day one of the contest with no idea what to write, but a general idea of themes, or things that occur in it.
So, I pounded out a few pages of script that I thought sucked. Then I did some improv in the mirror, remembered back in theatre I always did better with impromptu stuff, and I should wing it.
Problem is, I have exactly 7 slots I can fill for the contest.
Three characters in script.
Only two on set.
Which led to the most multi-tasking over my head production yet. So, I had a general idea of what the characters were like, and had some rough ideas of what should be conveyed.
Our budget cap was 200 dollars. I’m well under the cap…by my count, by about 200 bucks.
However, I live on a farm.
So, we raided the garage and all the barns, borrowed some flour and red food dye, and began making a set. I won’t give too much away because we are making a commentary on it, which should be fairly high-Larious considering the movie I made.
We started shooting, and halfway through scene one, I knew how to end it…it being scene one. And that’s roughly how it went.
Poor Boots only has windows movie maker for editing, and our tech was limited…to a still camera with a video option and my iPhone. Thank goodness at least one scene has to be done on a mobile. Also thank goodness, 60% of the movie must be shot in same location. Hello! My music corner became our torture scene, the opening scene, nice and behind a desk, less then three feet away, and the final scene was directly across from the central focal point. Yup. All in one room. ONE.
Now you may be thinking, yo, Abbi, dumbass, you have 20 acres, and LOVE Friday the 13th movies.
Man fuck that. That seems like a lot of running.
No. I will run for the Doctor, (Doctor Who? ;-) ) or my life, and not much else.
So we shot alot of single shots, got alot of hard takes on first shot….which was good, since turns out the “dull” blade our Heroine is sliced up with…wasn’t so dull.
Yeah. All the blood you see in the movie? Hiding real wounds. Fake blood also stings, but mixes really well with real blood.

Commentary and pics from shooting will be posted here too, and I guess on my YouTube page- and I don’t want to give too much in case you haven’t seen it. Once you have, watch the commentary or just ask me something. I may have a legit answer for you…
You see, I took this way too seriously, and read what I can only assume is the equivalent of what film majors must read. And I watched a ton as well. Blah. Did the best I could, and, even cooler, stretched my creative muscles, and Boots got to as well! Hopefully you guys like my spin…and don’t hate my bad acting.
For the record: all slaps, punches, and slices were, while pulled a bit, still very real, hurt like hell, and horrified my grandmother. We all went to eat dinner to celebrate wrapping the filming, and I scared the waiters with my cut up chest and face.
And it was a Mexican restaurant….you would think if they serve menuedo they can handle it…whatever, food was great, pain was real and worth it, and I hope everyone likes what I came up with. If you don’t? Meh, keep your hate to yourself, writing, filming, acting, directing, all that…and improv, while chained to a chair and actually bleeding, I don’t need your hate. No one does. Watch the end of my movie to see how I feel about the haters, bully’s, and assholes.

So; as you watch it this upcoming weekend on I believe @PodGods page, remember: Still Cam, iPhone, windows movie maker. One location. Zero money. Zero experience….and don’t hate.

seenontabletop:

When I first heard about International Tabletop Day, I was very excited. Every day I typed the postcode of my nearest city into the page and was thrilled when I found an event listed. Growing up in regional Australia meant that I wasn’t exposed to gamer culture growing up -…

Oh my what was I thinking! This is an insane contest idea- and to make matters worse, my secret gem of a winner person is now unable to b here. Jeez. Oh well, “the show must go on.” Although I feel like this show may be murder…which would save loads in special effects….

Can’t go- its not midnight- next best thing to do in anticipation of the make a movie contest is drink a glass of wine.
Maybe smoke some green. Not that I would ever do anything illegal. Ever.

#cantwait
-a