Bad blogger

I'm a bad blogger. It's not that I don't have any more to say. In fact, there are quite a few things that I would like to talk about but alas my life has taken a bit of a crazy turn and today is in all actuality the first time since the last post I have been able to even visit my blog!
I wish I could say that I was cast in an amazing play or a major motion picture but my current insane business revolves mostly around minding babies (which is great!) and trying to make a living (not so great). On the acting front there have been three different evening classes, the V48Hours Furious Filmmaking competition, auditions, including my first professional one, and and a whole lot of nothing regarding preparations for my drama school audition.

In light of tonights grand final, let me share my 48Hours experience. V48Hours is a shortfilm competition in which the participating teams make a shortfilm in, you might have guessed it, 48 hours. From a Friday at 7pm in seven locations all across New Zealand films up to seven minutes long are written, shot, edited and (hopefully) handed in on Sunday by 7pm. Crazy? Just wait! Before the furious filmmaking can begin teams are allocated one of ten genres, in my team's case that was 'femme fatale'. All teams are also given the name of a character and his/her trade (Syndey Manson, a fabricator), a prop (a broken toy), a line of dialogue ("When you look at it that way.") and for the first time this year a camera shot (the dolly zoom) that they have to incorporate into their film.

All films that are handed in on time are then screen in a movie theatre in heats of 12 films each. The audience votes for their favourite film in each heat and an expert jury selects the city finalists in this year 23 categories to be screened again and awarded prizes after the heats have finished. The city winners in each category go on to the grand final which takes place in Auckland later tonight. The best films in each genre were also screened by C4 on the telly and the grand final will be a 90 minute special on the same channel.

Until Thursday night before the start of the competition I didn't even know that I would be participating. On Friday after the announcement of genres etc the whole team got together for a two hour brain storming session on femme fatale, film noir, love and betrayal, sex and violence, the aesthetics of film and the rudiments of a storyline. By Saturday midday my furious filmmaking experience was in full swing. Wardrobe, make-up, learning a couple of lines and then mainly waiting around in a rediculously short skirt and high heels, and watching the creatives and tech people at work until my scenes were shot in a very dark and cold warehouse. I LOVED it!

Due to technical problems my team was unable to hand our short on time to be eligible for judging but handing it in before the extended deadline (Sunday 11pm) meant that the film was still screened at the cinema during the Wellington heats. Despite sinking very low into my seat and decorating my team mate's arm with five small round bruises, it was an awesome, slightly surreal experience watching myself on the big screen. After an awful experience two years ago, our film, Femme Noir, far surpassed my expectations and I am actually really really proud. Going out afterwards for my first pint since my son's birth was the perfect icing on the cake.

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Check out finalists and other entrants at the Screening Room!