In what essentially was a 48 hour film festival with one participant, we created a Todd Akin reaction video that you should check out below. If you somehow don’t know what a certain Republican Representative said, then you should probably remove that rock from up above you.
Here is a little timeline of the events leading up to the creation of the video:
8/20 11:42 – text from my friend Hilary Barraford (actor/producer) – “Dustin!! Any chance you’re avail this week to play? Have a fun little funny or die project and looking for a great DP :)”
We have a brief phone call to discuss early details of the project.
8/20 19:30 – text from Hilary – “Wanna play tomorrow night? Still in the air but will know more”
I get a script later that night and agree to do the project if I can reschedule my afternoon meetings.
8/21 3:40 – Confirmation that I can move my second meeting thus making me available for a 4pm call time.
8/21 12:45 – I am forced to check my email throughout my lunch meeting because we still haven’t locked in a location and I’m getting pictures of potential places
We vacillate between using 2 different offices and Carrie Layne’s apartment in West Hollywood (Actor/Producer) for the next hour.
8/21 13:50 – email from Jennefer Ludwigsen (Producer/Actor) – we are shooting at an office complex in West Los Angeles a mile from my house. Not the best looking place, but I love the convenience factor and it is light years better than using an apartment. Call time is 17:30.
8/21 14:46 – email from Jennefer – Hilary found a much cooler looking location, but we can only be there from 18-23. Sounds like a daunting task: 5+ pages with 6 actors in only 5 hours, but I assure them that we can make it work.
8/21 15:17 – email from Jennefer – “ok, going for it.” The nicer location wins. Call time is now 5pm. We can walk around the space and talk things over, but we can’t start working until 6.
8/21 17:20 – we convince the kind folks at BlankSpaces to let us load our equipment in early to save time.
8/21 18:00 – we are in. The cast and crew collectively eat some pizza and other crafty. I quickly throw some lights up and our director, Justin Dittrich, leads blocking and rehearsing with the actors. Wardrobe is finalized and we scramble to put a little art direction on set in the limited time granted to us.
8/21 18:58 – first shot. The actors are where they need to be and we can start plowing through this thing.
8/21 22:48 – final shot. As I’m rolling this insert, the entire cast is helping wrap out so we can leave on time.
8/21 23:25 – we arrive at Little Bar (a few blocks away) to enjoy some wrap beers with the crew. I am fortunate enough to get the final pour of the insanely tasty Uinta Dubhe Imperial Black IPA.
The editorial process got kind of crazy with people’s schedules and the pressing deadline, but the film that was legitimately conceived on Monday found its way online Saturday morning and began trending on FunnyOrDie shortly thereafter.
What is the shortest time frame that you’ve turned a project around (not including a deadline-oriented festival)? Please don’t say it was a project in film school…
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Wow, an amazing account of the 20th and 21st Dustin! haha! I should add the post process which included dropping off a hard drive to brentwood from Noho at 12am Friday morning, going BACK to get the hard drive and hour later because the guy had a PC and couldn’t work on the Mac formatted files, then Hilary, Justin and I sitting on the sidewalk waiting to get into the apartment of my friend who has final cut pro 7 for over an hour because HE HAD LEFT HIS PHONE IN HIS CARE AND WAS SLEEPING. How did this thing ever get finished?
You were amazing. Thanks again for making it happen. xo
It was my pleasure working with you all! Thanks for sharing the post details…