For PAH Fest Motown 2010, I decided to focus in the Mobiflick category. For a Mobiflick, teams have to write, cast, shoot, and edit their entire six minute film within the week of PAH. There are many challenges which can come from this, but my team was ready and willingly to meet those challenges.
I wrote my six minute film treatment and submitted it to PAH's website before the deadline ended was for submissions. My film treatment was accepted, and I was ready to assembly my team. I reached out to a fellow student named Walid Jaward, whom is a great and creative person to have behind the camera. I recruited a couple more students to help me produce the film. My film only needed 3 actors, and I knew right away I wanted another student, Hannah Welch, to appear in the film. With my team assembled, we were ready for PAH to start.
The first day of PAH thankfully was the only stressful day. Since my film needed 3 actors, and I already had Hannah, I needed to cast the two male leads. I needed a young male actor and an older male actor. I was outside the TV Studio at Madonna eyeing the different actors that were there, wishing to be in someone's film. But, no one was catching my eye for my vision. I knew I had to act fast because time was an issue and I really wanted to get started on shooting. I separated myself from the crowd and started to make phone calls to relatives, seeing if they would be available. While I was on the phone, I noticed a young male came in, and I motioned to Walid to grab him right away. Walid and this young male named Stephen Douglas Wright, approached me and with only talking to him for mere seconds, I knew this was my guy. 3 roles, 2 down. 1 more actor needed.
I knew the older male actor would be obstacle. I made some more phone calls to relatives, but no one was answering. I didn't realize that was a blessing in disguise because minutes after speaking with Stephen, an older actor came through Madonna's doors right where I was standing. His name was Warren Timothy Beam, and I made sure I grabbed him quickly. The cast was complete.
My completed went out and shot the next 3 days, which were truly the hottest days in the Michigan July 2010 sun. Unfortunately, due to the extreme heat, Hannah got sick and had to miss one of the days we were shooting. My team was ready to counter this minor obstacle, and shot around Hannah's scenes, and shot Hannah's scenes the following day. I couldn't have asked for a more confident team.
After the shoot was done, Walid and I returned to Madonna on a Friday at 3 PM. Walid, along with being my director of photography, was my editor because I did not have any experience with Final Cut Pro. But Walid taught me the program very well and both him and I were editing together within mere hours. We edited throughout the rest of Friday, and finally finished editing at 8 AM the following Saturday. I remember sitting in the chair that felt like a second home for all those straight hours of editing, and after finishing the final viewing of the film, I smiled so big because the film hit home on so many levels for me. From my initial vision, to Walid's camera work, to Hannah/Stephen/Warren's acting, I couldn't have had a better film than what I envisioned when I wrote the first word for the treatment.
On Sunday, the awards event was held. There were 3 other Mobiflick teams that were competing with my team for first place. When the night ended, we won first place. Our hardwork, dedication, and overall teamwork were all factors in making us winner.
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