WIT NEWS ITEM | witfilms' Holiday Weekend

Tyler Korba takes a hand-off from Mike Bass during one of many rehearsals for witfilms' latest 48. All pictures courtesy of Ellie Lee... to see more shots from the weekend, click here!

WITFILMS' HOLIDAY WEEKEND

POSTED 5.9.07

Another 48 Hour Film Project has come and gone in DC, and the team from witfilms has emerged from the weekend's chaos having completed their most ambitious effort to date.

One hundred teams swarmed the nation's capital over the May 4th weekend for a two-day burst of on-the-run filmmaking. As usual, competitors gathered at the Warehouse Theatre on Friday night to learn what they would be doing- WIT drew Holiday Film as their genre to go along with the required character (Roosevelt or Rosie Adams, president of something), prop (a bracelet) and line of dialogue ("That's what I'm talking about") that all of the teams would need to incorporate before Sunday.

This was WIT's seventh time competing in the 48, but it became obvious during Friday night's team brainstorming session that this year's project would be very different from anything they'd ever attempted.


Topher Bellavia and Catherine Deadman during Friday night's brainstorming session.

"Topher (Bellavia) and I had talked a few years ago about the possibility of doing an entire 48 hour film in one shot," says project director and onesixtyone player Tyler Korba. "It was an idea that sort of wouldn't go away, but we'd never really put more thought in to it than 'wouldn't that be cool.' We knew we didn't want to just force-fit any story in to that mold or it would feel like we were just trying to show off... the one-shot would need to be the right way to tell a story we were already excited about.

We started brainstorming on Friday night, and someone suggested we use a holiday party as our setting. Once that idea was out there, the one-take thing just started to fall together."

"Filming the movie in one shot completely transformed our normal creative process," says fellow onesixtyone player Bellavia, who returned as producer for the team (read his weekend timeline here)."Friday started pretty much the same as always: gather a huge group of super creative people and brainstorm until we have an idea. But this time, once we decided on the film's format we just came up with characters instead of a story line."

The team was enthusiastic, but the challenge was daunting. "Molly (Woods, from Jackie) looked over at me when we were packing up to go home on Friday night and told me she was scared," says Korba. "But she was laughing, and I could tell it was a good scared. Kind of an excited scared. Hopefully."


Alice Walkup and Molly Woods help to turn May in to December on Saturday morning.

The plan was simple: spend Saturday morning putting the story together and blocking out the camera moves, spend Saturday afternoon rehearsing and spend Saturday night shooting. If all went well, the bulk of the weekend's work would be finished before Sunday.

Because the team was larger than in previous years, the group agreed they would approach the story with an ensemble cast in mind. JINX's Alice Walkup and Jackie member Jason Saenz would play a couple who had just moved in to a new neighborhood, and the rest of the cast would be their new neighbors. The premise was simple; the fun would come from the details.

"On Saturday morning we took note cards and wrote our individual story arcs' beginning, middle and end," says Bellavia. "Then we meshed them all together into a cohesive tale. The afternoon was all rehearsing, cutting and refining."


Alice Walkup and Annie Drinkard practice one of their scenes together with Mike Bass.

"The creative process was incredible," says first-time team member and JINX player Alice Walkup. "From coming up to the concept, figuring out characters, placing them throughout the house, determining interactions that would work to get the camera moving through the house- it was amazing."

"When we were writing and casting this thing, we had these elaborate characters and back stories in mind," says Jackie's Zack Phillips. "But with the time limit, everything got cut way down and no one ended up with more than a couple lines of dialogue. But the cool thing was that our cast is so talented that everyone really delivered his or her whole character in that one or two lines of dialogue. That made me feel really proud of the whole thing."

Synchronizing the action and getting the timing for each individual move right took a lot of support and concentration.

"I felt like we were rehearsing a dance or a play," says Saenz. "We had just as much action happening behind the camera (in real time) as was happening in front of the camera. No one had a break, even when the camera left them. There was always some other task that needed to happen before the camera swung back around. Doing it all in one take made it even more exhilarating. "


Tyler Korba, Colin Murchie and others take the glass out of Mike Bass's front door...

Camera man and onesixtyoner Mike Bass agrees. "This was perhaps the most enjoyable 48 Hour Film Project for me personally. Not only did we shoot it in a fun way, but we made it a true ensemble effort."

By late afternoon, hours of practice were paying off. "I like the fact that we gave ourselves room to breathe and improvise within the structure of the story," says Korba. "Nobody had any 'lines' exactly... just a sense of what they needed to say or a joke they knew they needed to hit. For the most part, everyone got to write their own script and the rest of the team helped dial it in. When we broke for dinner and ended the rehearsal part of things, people had more or less arrived at the stuff that was working best through the process of just trying out different ideas."

"I had great fun during the shoot because my character got to interact with everyone," says Saenz. "Going from person to person and riffing with each one was awesome and definitely highlighted to me what great actors we really have."


Tyler Korba records a run-through with Jason Saenz and Mike Bass.

The team worked until after midnight, aided by the late arrival of several more friends and family members to help fill out the room. Despite the grueling schedule, there were few complaints and even fewer mistakes.

"We shot several takes, and everybody nailed it every time," says Bass with a laugh. "It was only some camera flubs on our part."

Veteran team member and onesixtyone player Brian Coleman agrees. "I think we're incredibly lucky to have so many improvisers on our team. We get very high quality acting as a result.

Also, shooting a film about a party rocks, because for a good portion of the time, it's just like a party."


Colin Murchie and Brian Coleman steel themselves for their drinking game confrontation.

Shooting all of the action in one take had an added bonus at the end of the night- the entire cast got to see the mostly-finished film as soon as the cameras stopped rolling.

"That was cool," smiles Korba. "That was probably my favorite part. After watching everyone work so hard for so long, that was a great payoff. There was a real sense of accomplishment, and rightly so."

"Everyone did an amazing job," says Walkup. " I really felt a part of something outstanding- it was the sum of everyone's input and creativity."

After grabbing some background audio and a few behind the scense shots, production officially ended at 12:51am. "Tyler and I knew that we'd save tons of time on the editing (with the one-shot) and we all actually got to sleep Saturday night," says Bass.

"Yeah, that was a first for me" laughs Korba. "Seven projects and we finally figured out how to go to bed for a while. I couldn't have been happier about that."


Mark Chalfant, Catherine Deadman and Alice Walkup at work in the kitchen.

With Saturday's all-night session no longer necessary, Bass and Korba reunited Sunday morning to tackle the credits and audio work. Despite having less to do and more time to do it in, the day slipped by quickly, and the team was nearly reminded just how short 48 hours can be.

"The audio mix was a little more time-consuming than we thought," says Bass sheepishly."We just barely got it finished in time."

The team's finished film, Seasonal Disorder, will screen at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring on Thursday May 10th at 9:30pm. Regardless of whether or not their entry makes it beyond the first round of the competition, the group is satisfied with the results.

"After winning some awards with this thing in the past, it feels like we're at a place where we really just want to challenge ourselves and make a film that we find exciting and funny," says Phillips. "That's a good place to be."

"I have been involved in professionally produced television programs that do not measure up to the professionalism, dedication, and production values that the entire WIT team showed this past weekend," says JINX's Sean Murphy. "I can't wait to do it again."

"I look forward to the 48HFP all year," says onesixtyone's Colin Murchie. "16 hours of hugely repetitive work in a confined space and it feels like a party the whole time. I'm sure nuclear sub maintenance techs feel the same way."

Fellow player Natasha Rothwell sums it up a little differently. "Every once in a while, I'm confronted by the ridiculous amount of talent this company holds," she says.

"This was one of those times."



Team members watch playback from the last of Saturday afternoon's run-throughs...


...and like what they're seeing. Check out more of Ellie Lee's pictures here!