After working hard to put a film together in 48 hours, tonight was the night to see our film Saving Super along with 10 other teams' films on the big screen at Fleur Cinema. Our theater was sold out! After watching them all, I'd say three or four of them were pretty great, a handful were well done (including our's) and the rest, well, better luck next year.
It was awesome to see so many people support local talent, but it wasn't that surprising. In the three years I've lived here, I've seen this support time and time again: 80/35 concert, Des Moines Arts Festival, Farmers Market, etc. People in the metro really enjoy celebrating local artists, bands, food, restaurants, teams and events. I know I do. The 48 Hour Film Project organizers should soon be revealing the top 12 films. There will be another screening for those films coming up in August. If I can, I'd love to be able to attend. Seeing the best of the best, will
0 Comments
This was the 9th year for Des Moines to host the international competition The 48 Hour Film Project. At the kickoff party, teams from each city are told a character (Jim or Jana Davis, a prop (toy stuffed animal), and a line of dialogue ("Let's call it a day") they must use in their 4-7 minute short film. Each team also draws a genre out of a hat (western, dark comedy, fantasy, romance...) If you don't like your genre, you can pull a wild card (found footage, operetta, martial arts...). This was a record-setting year in Des Moines with 51 teams participating. It was also my first time. I joined a team of co-workers who put together a film last year. We met a few times leading up to the weekend to bat around some plot ideas for each genre. What genre did we end up pulling? Superhero!
So at 7pm, the organizers told us all get the hell outta there and get to work. Our team, Continental Shift, spent Friday night deciding on an idea and writing a preliminary script. We called it a day around 11pm and headed home to get some sleep. We'd start filming at 9am Saturday morning. In my past life as a TV reporter, I'm used to shooting my own video, writing the story, and being completely in charge. Well, since I was acting in the film, I couldn't be behind the camera. It was a very different feeling to work as a team and come to consensus and trust other peoples talents. We finished shooting by 5pm and two of us started reviewing the footage and editing. I was back in my comfort zone with editing. It was very cool seeing the film come together. One of our teammates is a killer blues guitar/harmonica/singing musician. He recorded some music to help the film flow together wonderfully. We worked up until midnight and had a very rough draft completed. Sunday morning, we got back at editing around 9am. We tweaked this and that, and cut this and added that, until at 3pm it was the best it was going to get. Teams had between 5:30-7:30pm to turn the films in. I dropped our's off at 6:42pm. All in all, it was a very cool experience. I'm hopeful to do it again next year. Haters gonna hate. You may not believe this, but there are some people who actually thing Des Moines is boring. They clearly don't read my blog or the blog Des Moines is not Boring.
Point in case, free flicks at the Des Moines Art Center. Once a month, the museum busts out a massive inflatable screen and invite one and all to bring a blanket and bottle of wine to enjoy a movie under the stars. Lucas and I went with another couple making for a great little double date. We even commented that we didn't feel like we were in Des Moines. The weather was beyond perfect for July and the lawn was the perfect setting for the 1940s classic The Philadelphia Story starring Kathryn Hepburn and Carey Grant. I would guess about 150-200 people joined us for the black and white movie taking us into a messy love pentagon. So if you're in the mood to get out n about, don't use Des Moines is boring as an excuse. Be open to new things and keep your eyes open. (Juice is a great place to check out events.) Fried butter on a stick and a cow made out of butter can only mean one thing: the Iowa State Fair. The movie "Butter" is a comedy based on the tradition Iowa is so well known for. It's set in Iowa City where the 15-time butter carving winner's wife takes on a 10-year-old orphan in the Johnson County Mastery in Butter competition. The movie is by no means amazing. However, I did laugh out loud a few times. The one thing that really didn't set well with me was how Jennifer Gardner talked. It was like she was half Sarah Palin and half Minnesotan. Few Iowans, especially in Iowa City, would have that accent. It was made no sense, except to poke fun, to have the 10-year-old biking home from school down a dirt road past miles of cornfields to get to her adopted parents preppy, cookie cutter home, most likely in North Liberty. Cheers to a lovely Friday night. Lucas and I had been wanting to have a nice dinner at Bonefish Grill for months. Tonight was the night. Two friends joined us and we enjoyed the great ambiance, food, drinks and conversation., Lucas and I ordered the calamari for an appetizer. He ordered the sea bass with mango salsa while I ordered the shrimp and scallops dinner with a pan-Asian sauce. The food was outstanding. The white zinfandel was sweet but refreshing on a beautiful night. That was both of our first times eating there. The next time we want to have an expensive night out, this place will be a top the list.
After dinner, we headed over to the Jordan Creek theater. The girls went into The Great Gatsby while the boys gravitated their attention to Iron Man 3. I rarely, rarely go to the movie theater, but I really wanted to see The Great Gatsby. I didn't know much about the plot though. I started reading the book freshman year of high school and never finished. Anyway, I think the movie was well done. I had to wait a bit before I understood the plot. While things seemed happy and optimistic for Gatsby for awhile, that was not the case.... I won't say anything more in case you, like me, don't know the plot and plan to see the film. Was it worth $10, meh, sure. Will I watch it again, doubtful. I dont like jumping on the bandwagon. I really don't. When the next big movie or must-read book comes out, I usually avoid it. I'm sure they're great, I just like to think I'm more of an individual and don't need to read/watch the same thing as 10 million other people. Anyway, while flipping through Nexflix one night, Hunger Games popped up. It was the most appealing movie available so I said sure, why not. I think the premise is absolutely stupid. I find it hard to believe that society offers up 24 young people to watch all but one die as a way to pay tribute and thank the government for their freedom. On the other hand, some people believe in abortions so maybe that's not too far fetched. That being said, the movie was very interesting and entertaining. I have no plans of reading the books or running out to the theater to see the next one, but I'm sure if it pops up on Netflix, I'll say yes. What little I've seen of Jennifer Lawrence on talk shows and awards shows, she seems quite the same personality as her character Katniss. That reminds me of Kristen Stewart who is the same person as her famed character Bella Swan. I have higher hopes fro
Just another piece of evidence of how domestic I've become in my three short weeks of marriage: baking cookies. I haven't baked cookies from scratch since.. umm... ever. The only time cookies get baked from scratch are with my grandma. These peanut butter chocolate chip cookies turned out pretty good. I may have a future as a trophy wife. Today was my first day behind a computer editing video in nearly a month. When you're used to editing 5 days a week, it's a little hard to let it go. In just one evening I created a 9.5 minute wedding highlight reel. However, once I watched it full screen and put my glasses on (and Lucas pointed out) it was very grainy. Since I'm editing in iMovie, I had to convert the files to work in the program causing the video to lose a LOT of quality. That sucks. iMovie also sucks in general. It's not a very intuitive program and all the auto settings made no sense. Took me a while to figure it out and get the hang of it. What I'll probably do is download a free 30-day trial for Adobe Premiere or Final Cut to make sure the video is the highest quality possible. I'll keep you posted.
Who needs to see the first movie in order to watch the sequel? Not me. While that is clearly the preferred way to go about things, but that was not an option Friday night. Lucas' friends already had this movie picked out. They gave us a quick three sentence recap of the first movie and let us fend for ourselves. I was able to follow for the most part. I didn't exactly know the relationship between Lisbeth and Micke. So in one question, they were able to clear that up for me.
As for the actual movie, poor Lisbeth. What a sad, violent, lonely life she's had. On the other hand, I wish I was a computer-hacking, kick-boxing bad ass with a photographic memory. I thought it was really well done and don't know why some director in America re-did it. Doubt I'll get around to watching that one to compare it to, but watching it once was probably enough for me. I made Lucas' dreams come true today: I watched Star Wars. I'm actually surprised he married me before I saw any of the movies. Shortly after we first started dating he found out I hadn't seen any of them and assured me he'd correct that. It's taken him quite some time, but now he has accomplished at least phase 1 of the 6-phase plan.
Luke Skywalker was super annoying with his high-pitched, puberty-stricken, overly-excited voice. Han Solo was annoying because he was sooooo tough. Chewy was annoying because he just purrs all the time. Princess Leia is a bad ass. They could all benefit greatly and reduce the movie by 20 minutes if they would take a shooting class. Their aim was unnecessarily terrible. That being said, I am willing to watch the other 5 movies. Not all at once, but with a cup of froyo, I'll manage. After a productive morning, Lucas and I decided to chill away the afternoon with a movie. Being too productive and then too lazy, going out to the Redbox was not an option. Unfortunately, our Netflix streaming options are pretty limited. So instead of watching a new release, we went for a 14-year-old throwback For Love of the Game. It was a pretty good movie that got me choked up. To be fair though, I cry very easily in movies. Watching Mufasa die gets me every time. I liked the story line and flow of the film. However, Kevin Kostner's character, pitcher Billy Chapel, was a bit of a jerk to his love interest Jane Aubrey. If I were her, I wouldn't have played games for five years. I don't know many woman who would. It really shows the passion Chapel has for baseball and makes you think about what's important in your life. What is your passion? What could you not live without?
|