Eighty-five volunteer filmmaking teams compete in the 2003 National Film Challenge.

By Jeremiah Kipp.

Left: Directors Larry DeMark Jr and Nathaniel Clark; Right: The crew of THE SUCCESSION. Photos: Nicole Sparks/Skeleton Crew Productions.

Washington, D.C.–based filmmakers Mark Ruppert (mark@48hourfilm.com) and Liz Langston (liz@48hourfilm.com) originally conceived the 48 Hour Film Project in May 2001. This two-day film contest invites teams of filmmakers to write, shoot, edit and complete short films within the limited time constraints. It was so successful that Ruppert and Langston took their show on the road, touring from city to city around the United States (New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia) and the world.

Ruppert and Langston expanded their competition by creating the National Film Challenge. Eighty-five volunteer filmmaking teams from across the country have one weekend to complete their project, and to keep them honest each team is assigned the same character, prop, and line of dialogue to appear in each film. But each team is assigned a specific genre unique to themselves (horror, comedy, action, etc.)

If anything, the most appealing quality of the festival is its brevity. Actors and crew members on no-budget indies often feel burned by working on projects that are never finished, whereas the National Film Challenge promises a completed work within a weekend. The question lingers whether any serious filmmaker would want to bother making a movie in only two days, and what possible worth the final product could have.

Then there’s the adrenaline rush of making something on the fly, which encourages spontaneity and quick decision-making. Though that might not necessarily make for great cinema, it could be considered a liberating way of making art — responding to the immediacy of the moment.

At 7 p.m. on Friday, October 17, 2003 the clock started on this year’s National Film Challenge. Of the five teams selected in the New York area, you couldn’t find two more different than Marie Anne Coté’s BonBon Productions, which brought on over a dozen actors and experienced crew members, and the Skeleton Crew Productions bare-bones duo of Nathaniel Clark and Larry DeMark Jr.

Clark and DeMark specifically designed their company two years ago for tackling short films and projects where a massive crew would be counter-productive. Clark says, “We believe that a few flexible, specialized individuals can accomplish the work of many, and create great works as a result. Larry was co-directing, editing, executive producing, directing photography and production coordinating, and I was co-directing, writing, producing, production coordinating, and location scouting.” The two employed a handful of assistants for craft services, lighting, graphic design, and music.

This was the first time Skeleton Crew Productions was tackling the weekend challenge of finishing a short film. On the other hand, Marie Anne Coté is a seasoned veteran, having been script supervisor on two previous 48 Hour Films. “No one from my first team wanted to do this again,” Coté laughs. “They told me I was crazy when I said it was fun! I wouldn't do this if it weren’t fun. But each time we work on them, we get better. This time, there was a sense of confidence that we knew what we were doing. The best advice I can give anyone doing a project like this is to know how to plan for the unexpected.”

Moving up to the role of producer, Coté assembled a team she had worked with on previous projects and left most of the casting to her director, Rachel Gordon. Gordon had already directed a 48 Hour Film, and knew the drill. “A leader is only as good as team that surrounds her [or him],” says Coté. “I don’t want to direct, but I do want to produce and work with the right people. I had the money for this project, and was in a position where I could make a film. It felt important that we be part of a contest, instead of just being a short film trying to make it on its own along the festival circuit.” The National Challenge seemed like a good trial run.

DeMark and Clark shooting THE SUCCESSION with actor Ryan Finnegan. Photos: Nicole Sparks/Skeleton Crew Productions.

On Friday night, Clark and DeMark sat by their computer until they received the e-mails specifying the prop (bicycle), character (Jesse Thomas, Success Coach), and line of dialogue (“Can’t you see I’m working here?”), which were the same for all other teams. Their individual genre was “spy”. The two filmmakers and their screenwriting partner Bree Clare quickly cooked up their story. “It came to us easily, but it took us until 1:30 a.m. to map it out. Nathanial and Bree wrote the majority of the script. I did the shot lists and storyboards. Our film, The Succession, is a comedy about a secret agent who doubles as an accordion teacher. He sets up one of his students as bait to find out the secrets of Jesse Thomas, an unlikely success coach who uses a secret flower to give whoever takes it instant success.” The character of Thomas, with his ’70s Afro and too-tight green jogging shorts, resembles your worst nightmare of a high school gym coach.

If Skeleton Crew Productions crafted a kooky Saturday Night Live sketch, Coté’s writing team (Carl Kelsch and Nadine Graham) drew their inspiration from The Twilight Zone. Having been dealt the fantasy genre, they cooked up an elliptical narrative. Open Shutter follows a self-centered photographer that gains the ability to magically glimpse into other people’s pain after being kissed by a mysterious man. He gains a more empathetic view of the world as a result.

Coté assembled the writers, director and herself at Kelsch’s apartment to map out the scenario. “Having only the writers, producer and director there was Carl’s suggestion,” Coté notes. “The last time we worked together [on a 48 Hour Film], everyone from the cast and crew was present, and he had to field suggestions from all of them. It was chaotic. This time, we kept it simpler and things ran smoother.” The writers worked throughout the night, and had a script ready for the 9 a.m. call time the following day. Coté quickly prepped a schedule, and they were theoretically ready to go.

Clark and DeMark started their shoot even earlier, filming at an abandoned boat yard in Camden, New Jersey at 7 a.m. (Under this sort of time pressure, every hour counts.) Using the Sony DSR-370 DV camera and a Lowell lighting kit, their small team was equipped with only the bare necessities, and consequently fast and mobile. As co-directors, DeMark claims their different techniques mostly complimented each other. “I work very well with Nathanial, though we have very different styles. On the set, we pretty much discuss what we want from the actors and one of us relays it to them. Then I set up my shots and shoot them.” Of course, with two days to make a movie their partnership endured some strain.

Things ran smooth until they arrived at their second location, a college administration building. “It was a nightmare. After fumbling around there for five hours, we realized too late that we had to move on. It was an unfriendly place to shoot.” DeMark bemoans the fact that they had so little pre-production time to adequately scout locations, and had to settle for less within their limited time frame. “All of the rooms were very small and the walls were white. We had to figure out a lighting concept to keep one character in silhouette and see the other character. That’s easy in theory, but try doing that in a tiny office with completely white walls!” Ultimately, they gave up and decided to shoot those scenes somewhere else.

Director Rachel Gordon setting up a shot with actor Tom Reid in OPEN SHUTTER. Photo: Craig Clark/BonBon Productions.

The Open Shutter team scheduled their most elaborate stunt sequence first, only going thirty minutes over schedule. One character crashes into another on his bicycle, and Gordon covered the scene from multiple angles. The actors were game, and without the benefit of stuntmen were running into each other over fifteen times. Writer Carl Kelsch says, “We told them we could make the crash look real by doing some quick close-ups, but each time they’d ignore us and crashed into each other over and over again. I told them they didn’t have to be Jackie Chan, but they wouldn’t listen! I kept imagining how horrible it would be if one of them broke his arm! But they loved it!”

Despite the assistant director sweating over their schedule, the stunt sequence was a cakewalk. It wasn’t until they delivered their first mini-DV master tape to the editor that they realized their problems had just begun. Numerous glitches were reported in the tape, causing the editor and director of photography to become defensive. Not knowing what the problem was and having no time to fix it, director Rachel Gordon says, “My first response was to chain smoke in order to prevent hyper-ventilating. We didn’t know where this crisis was coming from. It ended up being a defective tape, and not the camera or the way my DP was shooting. That was a relief.” An even greater relief was that all their coverage paid off, and the editor was able to cobble a scene together.

“We call it The Happy Accident,” Coté notes. “Usually in a film crew there’s someone on board who is considered the weak link. On our team, we didn’t have one. But it was worse, because our first tape was the weak link!” With no possibility of reshoots without radically shifting the post-production schedule, the team breathed a collective sigh of relief and moved on.

Meanwhile, Skeleton Crew Productions faced more production woes at their next location. “We got to the accordion studio around 6:30 p.m.,” DeMark says. “It was the only location I had not seen prior to filming.” His partner Nathanial Clark found the nostalgic mood of the studio appropriate to the story, but hadn’t taken into account the cinematic aspects. “The hallways were very narrow and the rooms were very small. On top of that, the scene was so loaded with funny improvisation that the crew had a slight case of the giggles. That called for numerous takes.”

Director Rachel Gordon on the set of OPEN SHUTTER. Photos: Craig Clark/BonBon Productions.

One of the more questionable choices of Coté’s team was to have one of the writers present on set at all times, which led to minor confusion for the actors and crew as to who they should follow. The final scene led to an on-set debate between writer Carl Kelsch and director Rachel Gordon, with each of them providing directions to the actor. With no rehearsal time to map out a definitive character arc, the lead actor mostly came up with his own solutions, though he found himself asking both writer and director for advice. The contradictions between writer and director didn’t help the production run any smoother, though the problem was quickly nipped in the bud. 

Gordon recalls, “I think Carl had more of a conceptual idea of what’s going on, whereas I’m taking into account the characters. And there’s our difference in perspective. But ultimately, it’s my film and he agreed with me.” Likewise, Coté shrugs it off, saying, “A writer’s role on set is hard. You want to include him, but it’s the director’s medium. That can be difficult for a writer to accept, but Carl and Rachel handled it well. It didn’t escalate.”

Exhaustion set into both teams at the end of Saturday’s shoot, and they both wrapped around 12 a.m. Skeleton Crew Productions did some pick-up shots on Sunday, while Coté and Gordon worked with their editor and composer on piecing together Open Shutter. DeMark and Clark didn’t actually start their editing until late Sunday (around 5 p.m.) stuck dealing with a missing-in-action disc burner for their DAT sound tapes. As for Coté, she was still reeling from the mini-DV glitches they faced Saturday morning. “I brought six mini-DVs for the final master, which we triple-checked. After the nightmare we faced at the start of production, we wanted to be absolutely sure we had one that was good!”

Both teams sent out their finished films, which were duly received by the National Film Challenge and passed along to a panel of judges. Ten films will be selected for the “Best of the National Film Challenge” DVD, coming out next year, and one will be declared the Grand Prize Winner. The ten selections will also screen at the 2004 South by Southwest Film Festival. The exposure may be helpful to the filmmakers, though it’s doubtful it will open any serious doors to them in the industry — after all, they only had a weekend and the results are inevitably raw.

Filmmakers who praise the 48 Hour Film Festival and National Film Challenge cite it as one of their happiest experiences making a movie, unencumbered by the usual heavy costs, dragged out production-time, and endurance testing post-production. What they lose in production value they make up for in instant gratification, though Coté complains that she misses screening all the 48 Hour Films two days after completion (which is logistically impossible for the National Film Challenge, with films being turned in from all across the country).

“That’s the major drawback this time,” Coté sighs. “I would have loved the ability to screen the movie right away. But there were other benefits this time around. This contest is larger, the competition is steeper, and therefore the rewards are greater. If we achieve recognition this time, it means more because it’s national.”

Clark and DeMark are proud of what they completed in only a weekend, though they admit: “It didn't turn out quite the way we had planned. But on such a tight schedule, it rarely does.” DeMark continues, “We loved working on this and would do it every weekend if we could. I don’t think it should be any less intense even with a longer schedule, and the pressure of this competition brings out one’s creativity and makes the finished product that much better.”

The National Film Challenge was an inspiration to Coté as well, despite the long hours, hassles, and lack of sleep. She feels Open Shutter is a quality project, well lit and photographed with good production sound. More important, they feel the story is strong — and also ambitious in its strange, careening narrative. “It’s funny,” she admits, “If I hadn’t been doing this competition, I would never have made a fantasy film by choice. But I’m proud to have Open Shutter as the first project produced by BonBon Productions. Honestly, the best moment was finding out that our tape was received on time. Now, the only icing on the cake would be to win!”

Jeremiah Kipp is a freelance journalist based in NYC.

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For additional information about the National Film Challenge, visit:
http://www.filmchallenge.com