2020 was a crazy year by any measure. Mike and I, the two oldest and curdiest Milk Chunks, were in The Netherlands for Filmapalooza early in the year due to The Chair winning Best Film in Minneapolis 2019. Our flights home occurred a day or so before the international travel bans due to covid-19 were put into effect.
Things got no less weird from there. The 48 Hour Film Project was relegated to online-only challenges, starting with three rounds of #StuckAtHome no-contact moviemaking weekends. We participted in these, resulting in Gentleman's Entertainment, Citizen Whiplash, and Y2K20.
There was an "official" 48 Hour Film Project complete with paid entry, but with no physical screenings, we decided to skip it. We also passed on a couple of additional "Stuck at Home" mini-challenges. Hearing a theatre full of people's reactions, as it turns out, is a big part of what makes these things so rewarding for us.
But we weren't finished with weekend moviemaking just yet! In November, the 48 partnered with a social video platform called Rizzle and held an invitational event for 75 of 2019's city winners. (That's us!) I'd not heard of Rizzle before, and now that I'm more familiar, I can't begin to imagine the appeal, but it got us to try some different things, namely a vertical format and 10 individual minute-or-less "episodes".
It was pretty clear there would be no traditional gather-people-together 48 Hour Film Project during 2020. But, they organized some fun #StuckAtHome challenges anyway.
I don't remember and apparently didn't write down what the requirements were for this challenge! I think it was something like 2-5 minutes, no contact/travel, and any number of a handful of required phrases. Some of those phrases ended up being used in the group text sequence, but I don't remember which ones. :^)
For this challenge we had to pick a movie from column A and column B...
|
|
...and then create a theatrical-style preview/trailer for a new mashup movie which would be the result of combining the two selections. We learned about each other's gaps in film viewership.
This final #StuckAtHome challenge was the closest to a "normal" 48HFP in terms of required elements, and fortunately for my own memory they were baked into the movie's opening sequence! I remember we were allowed to roll dice or just pick our own genres, and I'm pretty sure I just picked them.
This was the third weekend in a row for moviemaking, and we were pretty much ready to be done with them, so when I began carrying on about how the whole thing could just be a thrown-away late-90s netbook still worried about Y2K, nobody objected. :^) So, I finally got to do my single-shot movie, Bob got to record a wonderfully-performed voiceover as soon as I figured out what he needed to say, and as usual Dave gave us so many amazing music options that I still have three versions of the movie I think are equally good.
I also got to be nostalgic for the late 1990s, make some social commentary, and be sarcastic. So that was pretty fun.
The curious Rizzle partnership with the 48 Hour Film Project began (and ended, it seems) with inviting the previous team's city winners to create minute-maximum sliced-up sequences of short movies in obnoxious tallscreen format. I don't get it, but we were allowed to gather in small trusted groups and at least get out of the house and shoot something.
With The News, we have completed our 12-part trilogy of weird crap happening to Mike in my house. :^)
I think Patrick had the idea of news broadcasts becoming more personal and specific, eventually becoming a direct threat to poor confused Mike the listener. I wanted an iconic-looking radio and found one being sold nearby, then immediately took it apart and ran some extra wiring so i could have its light turn on remotely. It now serves its original purpose, with its hacky wiring still spilling out the back, in the garage, allowing me to listen to the news while I tinker.
Bob and Patrick had a lot of fun coming up with very funny headlines and news snippets. I had so many great ones to choose from in editing, and could pepper them in anywhere.
What are these? See here for more info.
Top: all Chunky Milk Productions films