48 Hour Film Project

First let me say that if you're reading this, then I totally don't deserve you as a friend. My blog posts have been few and far between and I won't blame anybody who has chosen to abandon me and my life experiences as they're told on this blog.

That said, I should point out that I've been fairly busy lately. If you're a member of Facebook, then you should be pretty up-to-date on what's been going on with me (unless you've chosen to "hide" me in your news feed).

I've decided to post this blog entry so that all of my readers (both of you) who aren't also members of Facebook can be made aware of my most recent adventure.

John and I signed up for the 48 hour Film Project. This is a national competition that is done every year all across the country and around the world. This is not a "movie marathon". This is a competition where they give each team a list of criteria that must be incorporated within their respective films. Then each team has a total of 48 hours to script, find actors, find locations, round up a crew, film, and edit an 8 minute movie.

There were 45 (ish) entries this year in the Salt Lake competition alone. If we win the Salt Lake competition, then our movie is judged against the winners of dozens of other cities. If our movie wins the national competition, then our movie will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival next year. You might be asking, "Yeah, Cameron, but do you really think your movie is good enough to win it all?" My answer: "If the entries this year are of the same caliber of entries in years past, then I think we will win it all."

Some of you might be curious as to how it all works. Let me give you a brief overview of the Kickoff Event last Friday Night. All of the teams arrived between 6 and 6:30. We all sat in chairs that were set up outside of Jordan Commons. Pay Attention Now: They split the 45 teams into groups of 11 or 12.
Group A, B, C, and D. They called the groups up to the stage one at a time and had them reach into a bag that contained different genres written on pieces of paper. This way, no one Group had duplicate genres. Genres ranged from Fantasy to Comedy to Holiday Film. John and I were petrified that we'd draw Western or Musical. When John reached his hand into the bag, he drew out Sci-Fi. Good enough.

After everyone had drawn their genre's, they pulled out a sealed envelope. Inside the envelope were the 3 other criteria that EVERYONE had to incorporate (convincingly) into their movies.

The first item was a prop: A certificate.

The second item was a character: Dan (or Danielle) Bridges, Roommate.

The third and final item was a line of dialog: "Whoa. I didn't see that coming."

These 3 things EVERYONE has to use in their movie, regardless of genre or group.

Immediately after this announcement was made, the teams scattered. John and I began writing our Sci-Fi script on Friday night. We had told everyone we knew to be "on-call" just in case we needed them to act, or come up with locations, or drive us somewhere... anything. Throughout the writing of the script, John was making calls and sending texts trying to arrange and finalize locations as well as securing our actors and actresses. By 4am on Saturday, our script was done and emailed out to the crew and actors. We had our first location lined up for Saturday morning at 10am (thanks, mom), as well.

We shot at three different locations throughout Saturday and didn't shoot our final scene until 2am Sunday morning. Luckily we had an amazing editor who was in a trailer (provided by someone equally cool) and was editing each scene as we shot it from his laptop inside the trailer. It was like pieces of a puzzle were falling into place all day long.

We slept Sunday morning from 4 to about 8, then we met our Director of Photography slash second editor at his studio for more editing and finalizing. Somehow, we were able to arrange an awesome sound guy to be working on a score and sound effects to match our visual effects. He was working from his own house and emailing stuff to us to plug into our movie.

At about 4pm, I started getting really nervous. We were still editing in Ogden and we had to drop off two DVD/Mini DV copies to the 48 Hour people by 7:30pm in Sandy. We hadn't plugged in the soundtrack or audio effects and we still had to burn the finished movie onto 2 DVD's.

Somehow, our audio guru was able to choose exactly what we wanted and when we received it, it was as easy as plugging it right in over the top of the video (at least it looked easy enough while our editor was doing it). The only problem was, it was 6pm.

John and I hopped into the car and started driving to Sandy. I had a laptop and external hard drive on my lap and 3 blank DVD's. We burned 3 copies while we were driving to Sandy... just in case.

Even though the entire process was rushed and extremely chaotic, I'm having a hard time remembering the last time I had so much fun. I loved every second of it. Even though I only spent 16 hours with our cast and most of our crew, I feel like I know them all so much better than I did before. There are a couple of them that I still wouldn't let babysit my kids, but I still enjoyed their company immensely.

I know this post has been long. I hope I've kept your interest. I'm really hoping by now that you really want to see this movie we've made. I think I've adequately built it up in your mind that you won't be able to have a good nights rest until you see it.

Lucky for you, it's playing Thursday night on the BIG SCREEN at Jordan Commons in Sandy. Our group (Group D) is on from 8 to 10pm. Tickets to our group are $8 each. Here's the catch: They're only selling the advance tickets tomorrow (Wed) at 4pm in front of Theatre 12. Otherwise, you have to take your chances buying them at the door. Lucky for you, John and I will be there at 4pm tomorrow with a list of people who want tickets. We can buy them for you so long as you pay us back. All you have to do is send me a text at (801) 690-820 three. Tell me who you are and how many tickets you want. Don't text me again if you've already told me or John.

Thanks and we hope to see you there.

The Cinematic Experience, Yo!

Chia Head

So a neighbor hooked me up with this sweet Chia Head. I've joked about them for years but never owned one. I admit I was pretty excited. I was going to get to plant seeds on the top of a clay scalp, water it, and watch it grow into a bushy hairdo. I actually entertained the possibility of trimming up his hair once it was all grown. Maybe hone my hair braiding skills since I'll probably need to know what I'm doing when my daughter grows up.

I read the instructions for the first time in my life. I studied them. I soaked the seeds overnight. I soaked the head in water overnight. I carefully spread the seeds onto the top, sides and back of the head. I placed the head in a sunny room and patiently waited.
See the photo on the box at the beginning of this post? Well, look how my Chia turned out. What the crud!?!? Apparently the clay is porous and this Chia Head needs to be refilled every 15 minutes, otherwise this happens. The water level drops too low and the seeds on the top of the head dry out and don't grow. Plus, his hair is pretty thin. I guess my Chia is a 60-year-old balding sex offender.

I guess I'll be able to practice a comb over.

Got a Plunger?

Last night I was perusing KSL and stumbled across a story about how this guy had been charged with 10 counts of Rape of a Child. My wife saw the headline over my shoulder and gasped. Tyton and Boston overheard her profane, muffled exclamations and asked what we were reading. We explained how this guy was a really really bad guy. So bad, in fact, that other bad guys in jail would probably beat him up.

Tyton started asking follow up questions about what he'd done that was so bad. I sat down on the kitchen floor and told my boys that he'd done very mean things to children. I also explained how if he'd done anything to MY kids I'd cut off his ears and shove them in his mouth. My boys started laughing hysterically and then started trying to come up with more creative punishments... which wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

We ended up deciding that the worst punishment of all would be if we all went poo and pee in our upstairs toilet and then we could put him into the toilet head first and all take turns flushing the toilet and jumping on him until he was completely flushed. Boston laughed and said, "But he's too big." Then Tyton said, in all seriousness, "He'd clog it up for sure. Then we'd have to use the downstairs toilet." Good point, buddy. Good point.

Live Animal Trap

Ever since we've gotten rid of our dog, we've had a wild cat infestation in our backyard. I've seen 3 cats at the same time in our backyard. My wife thinks they're cute for the most part, but I step in poo a couple times a week. For a while I thought it was raccoon poo. Then someone told me that wild cats don't bury their poo cause that's how they mark their territory. I don't know why they can't just pee. Obviously, no wild cat has ever moved into a rental property where the previous owner had cats. If they had... they'd know how strong and offensive their own pee really is and maybe they'd decide that was good enough.

I went to Smith and Edwards and asked the lady working in Sporting Goods if they had a Cat Trap I could purchase. With a look of shocked disgust, she replied, "A CAT trap? Um... no. But we DO have a Raccoon Trap right over there." I was a little confused over why she'd respond with such disgust. I figured she was simply a cat lover. When I saw the device, I noticed it was actually called a Live Animal Trap. Funny enough, there were three animal photos on the side of the box. A photo of a raccoon. A photo of a cat. And a photo of an armadillo or aardvark or something. I'm actually not sure what the difference is between an armadillo and aardvark. So apparently, the name of the trap changes depending on what it is you're looking to trap. The lady didn't want to think about the raccoon trap accidentally catching a cat... even though that's exactly what I was trying to catch. And since the makers of the trap decided to include the photo of the armadillo, I suppose those animals are a nuisance somewhere in the world.

So over the last three weeks I've put out this cat trap just to see if any animal would be stupid enough to walk into a metal cage just to get a chunk of hot dog. So far, 12 cats and 2 raccoons have been dumb enough. I heard two cats fighting earlier today so I know there are still at least two more up there in my trees.

Yes. It is.

Telephone conversation I had three minutes ago:

Offender: Hey Daley. I'm gonna be a few minutes late for our appointment.

Me: Did you talk with that detective then?

Offender: Yeah. I just got done.

Me: So he didn't arrest you, I take it. Are they still gonna charge you with Rape?

Offender: I don't know. He said it sounded like it was consensual.

Me: But she was your half-sister. They might charge you with Incest.

Offender: Is that a crime?

Me: (pause) Yes. It is.

Offender: Well, I guess they could then.

Me: How about you come into my office and talk with me.

Anomaly?

I worked for Layton City Police Department for a little while about seven years ago. Ultimately, I quit and came back to work for Adult Probation and Parole, but I learned several valuable lessons while I was employed there and I learned a lot about myself, as well. The biggest thing I learned about myself is that I have absolutely no idea (nor do I care to learn) what the makes and/or models of cars look like.

At the end of my first month with Layton PD, I was driving around with my trainer and he started to quiz me on makes and models of cars. I honestly had no idea. The best I could do was tell him the color and how many doors the cars had. That was the extent of my vehicular knowledge.

My trainer seemed surprised at the time... especially when I showed him how awesome I was at The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. He kept telling me to forget all the useless crap about actors and actresses and replace it with car information. I kept trying to explain to him that I felt like car info was "useless". I mean, honestly, who else besides law enforcement people even CARE about the makes and models of cars?

The answer to that question, according to my friend, John... is "everyone". John seems to think that 90% of guys between the ages of 18 and 35 could look at five cars lined up and be able to tell you the make of the vehicle... and in most cases... even the model.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I even knew the difference between "make" and "model". I'm so extremely ignorant about cars that I have a hard time believing that 90% of men would care as much as John seems to think they do. I think a more accurate number would be 50-60%. I think it's fair to say I'm not as much of an anomaly as John claims. There's no way I'm a 1 in 10. I'm more like a 1 in 3.

I've been asked this question a lot as well: "If you could own any car in the world, what would you want?" My answer is a Honda Element. Why? Cause they look pretty cool, I guess. The funny thing is, if you were to line up a Honda Element with 4 other similar looking SUV's... I'm only KINDA sure I could pick it out.

By the way, John... I may not be able to tell you what the make or model of a car is, but I'll always be right more often than you if the question comes down to the color of the car.