I once again participated in the 48-Hour Film Project. (My first time was A Fool’s Errand three years ago.)

Forty-Eight Hour Film Project

On Friday night, each team draws a genre out of a hat (actually, each drawing has two genres, and the team picks the one they’d like to do). The final film must be 4 to 7 minutes long (credits at the end of the movie don’t count against the maximum time, unless the film would have been too short without them).

On top of randomly drawing a genre, each team has three required ingredients: a line, a prop, and a character. Even though each team gets its own genre, all teams share those same three ingredients. Our (and every team’s) ingredients were:

• Character: Tilden Kefauver, a best-selling author
• Prop: a ticket
• Line: “I’m not sure. Can I call a friend?”

Team OutCast

This year, I was part of Company Outcast, a local theater/comedy company.

Our team included people that I’ve been friends with, like Rachel Allen (who I introduced to the 48HFP), Marcy Ziegler (leader of Company OutCast), Christie Troxell (who I’d met at my first 48HFP), Martin French (who I knew from the Alley Theater), and Victoria Wagner (who I’d met during OutCast‘s “Best Bits” show). Plus a bunch of new really cool people.

We drew Horror or Mockumentary. A mockumentary probably would have been a lot of fun, but we chose horror.

I’ve Got You Covered

Tilden Kefauver might know a thing or two.

Since our character Tilden was an author, and I had run a publishing company for several years, my job for the film was to put together some prop books for him to have at his signing.

All I had to go on was that it was a mystery book, with the title “Double Vision.” And I only had about four hours to design and print the cover, and assemble onto actual books.

By that point, I’d already designed at least a hundred book covers, but I’d never mocked up made a fake cover before – they’ve all been real book covers that were printed at a press to encase actual books. The finished product turned out fairly well.

Bouncing Around

I also ended up helping to block the daylight during a bar scene, by standing in front of the curtain. Since taking up space is one of my many talents, I spent an hour or so denying the sun while the crew filmed several scenes with multiple takes. During one of the shots I ended up in frame, just standing by the door crossing my arms, the company decided to credit me as a “Bouncer.” (Possibly since I already look somewhat horrifying.)

So now I have actual real-world experience as a pretend real bouncer. You’d better watch your step, buddy.

No One Knows

Here’s the film we completed.

(The description says Do Not Share, but now that the screenings, voting, and awards have happened, it’s all good.)