blog.grubmeyer

It’s starting to get colder here in Alaska and the snow has fallen just enough times to make the roads a horrible mess. Every day we dress for school, checking to make sure we have hats, gloves, jackets, etc… You’d be surprised how many different places you can find little gloves and boots hidden. That’s neither here nor there however, this story involves a certain “addiction” of ours.

When I picked my daughter up from school earlier this week, I noticed that she wasn’t wearing any of her cold weather gear. Her hat, gloves, boots and snow pants were all neatly packed (read:shoved haphazardly) into her backpack. When we arrived at my car, she complained that her feet were cold. I explained to her that it’s very important that she wear her boots everyday when leaving school so her feet wouldn’t be cold if she had to walk through snow.

She argued, “But you don’t wear any boots Dad!”

I replied, “I don’t have any yet, but I’ll be buying some soon.”

To which she asked, “Online or in a store?!?”

Oh how these times have changed!

I don’t know how it happened, but my wife was finally able to get the best of me! I was trying to sneak up on her and give a little startle…

…then she got me good!

Opposite Day

This was our entry into the 48-Hour Film Challenge. In 48-hours we wrote, shot, edited, and submitted this film. A week later we got to watch it on the silverscreen at the Alaska Experience Theatre. It’s one thing to share your hard work with others around the world via the intergoogles, but it’s another thing entirely to see something that you’ve poured your heart and soul into displayed on a HUGE screen.

Matthew O’Neal, Richard Smith, and I are all new to this thing they call filmmaking. Matt is not an actor or at least he wasn’t before Opposite Day. Rich has lots of stories to tell, but we’ve neglected to turn them into anything we’d like to share. And me, well I’ve never really shot, edited, or uploaded much more than silly videos of my family. We are nothing more than a merry band of misfits, but together we were able to make magic!

I had tossed around the idea of participating this year but didn’t really know if I was going to be able to pull it off. I would need the time off work, time off the family, and the help of others. After a gentle push from my wonderful wife I was on my way to competing in my first film challenge. Pulling some strings at work, I was able to get the weekend off (most of it anyway). Next I called on Rich and Matt. Not only did they also have the weekend off, but they were as eager and excited as myself to complete this project.

At 6:30pm on Friday October 5th, 2012 we received our prompts. The title of our film would be Opposite Day, we’d have to include a black t-shirt as some sort of prop, and we’d need to use the line “This is heavy” somewhere in the film. While driving to the prompt pick-up location, it was decided that sometime during the film we would need to include “naked man ass” because “naked man ass makes anything funny.” So when we arrived back at my house, that’s all we had decided. Somewhere during the film there would be naked man ass.

This is where things start getting really crazy.

Warning: If you ever participate in a 48-hour film challenge(or any time limited film contest) of any kind, I would not recommend this approach to anyone.

We arrived back at my house and consumed a fair amount of beer. At the time it sounded like a good idea and we did get some fantastic quotes and ideas for the film. The next day however when our alcohol induced delirium set in we determined next time that beer consumption would need to wait for the wrap party and not during pre-production get together.

After 7 hours of filming we were done. We were spent. We didn’t really want to go forward with the project. But my 20bux was on the line and I really didn’t have a choice. It was do or die time. I was going to pull through and get this finished.

After I get back from my j.o.b. of course. That’s right, I had a scheduled shift right in the middle of the challenge. All we had left was the editing and that fell on my shoulders. Long story short, I finished up with work and started working on the edit. After an hour I was too spent to finish, but I had about a third of the editing complete.

After a good nights sleep, the rest of the editing was a breeze. I’m still new at it but I’ve got enough experience that helped me get through it fairly quickly. With morale support and suggestions from Matt and a viewing from Rich, I got the go ahead to turn it in. Racing down to the turn in location I arrived with 2 hours to spare. Ours was the 5th submission. We had done it!

A week later we got to watch in on the big screen and people laughed. We had gotten what we wanted from our film. We got to entertain people. It’s pretty rewarding when you get to see a large group of people enjoying something that you’ve created. I can’t wait for next years challenge, or any other project that might come in the meantime.

Around the Web

Photo featured on the Alaska Dispatch slideshow

48-Hour Film Challenge Screenings

Mentioned on the Anchorage Press Blog

Oliver is having fun learning how to swim. I think his favorite part so far is the DUNK!