I entered my first film festival this past weekend by a local newspaper and numerous local businesses. The idea of this film festival was to make a movie that was ten minutes or less and made within a 24-hour time frame.

I am going to school become a horror movie screenwriter and thought this would be the best place to get my feet wet. I was fortunate enough to work with a few good men and women and am honored to bring to you how our 24-hour movie making went.

At 2 a.m. some friends and I went over the storyboard and brainstormed ideas.

At 3:20 a.m. we went to the Comanche Plant. We shot the plant because the smoke coming out of the plant caused people to be narcoleptic. It was caused by a disgruntled employee who put something in the smoke towers to make everyone narcoleptic. By the time we shot the plant, it was approaching 4 a.m.

At 4:30 a.m. we shot some scenes at my old house.

At 4:54 a.m. we went out to the prairie by my new house and shot another scene with fireworks.

At 5:34 a.m. we arrived at the chapel at Parkview hospital. We shot a church scene. No questions were asked by the staff.

At 6:31 a.m. Erica and I arrived at the location. We parked next to a hill by a church. We climbed the hill and we saw the Arkansas River flowing beneath us. We crossed a silver pipe with graffiti on it. We went around a fence beside it, climbed a wooden part and we walked the train tracks on the bridge. This was our next location for our next scene. I shot her as she was walking away.

At 7:10 a.m. the sun was about to rise. The sky was purple, orange, blue, yellow and pink. Erica had a great idea. She said let’s record the sunrise. We’ll time lapse it. We also made the word “FIN” out of rocks on a board on the train tracks. The sun was about to come up and we recorded the sunrise. It took all but ten minutes. We continued to record the sunrise and the tape cut off as soon as a cloud covered the sun.

It was approaching 8 a.m., we decided to call it a night…or should I say morning.

At 12:57 p.m. We had to get this video done.  I was becoming impatient. We had less than five hours to shoot more scenes and edit our movie.

At 2:06 p.m. Erica and I arrived at the same location by the hill, river and bridge. We recorded a home-made mannequin getting run over from different angles. I also captured her reaction from inside the car and we poured fake blood from the decapitation. We all made our way onto the bridge. I recorded “FIN” from the night before. I finally had natural light. I proceeded to walk forward.  We didn’t have much time.

At 2:45 p.m. I shot Erica walking a dirt road along the river.

At 3 p.m. we arrived in the tunnel. We shot another scene of Erica drinking something that was supposed to be the cure for narcolepsy.

At 3:25 p.m. I shot Erica with a gas mask on as she was walking towards the camera.

At 3:45 p.m. we arrived at my cousin’s house to edit our movie. It turns out that we didn’t have the wire to hook up the camera to the computer, no one knew how to work any of the software and we called anyone and everyone to see if they had a cable or knew how to work editing software.

At 4:15 p.m. we arrived at CSU-Pueblo. The lab was open. There was no wire to hook up the camera to the computers. No one was there. We arrived at my car and I forgot to log off of my computer. I drove up to the door, I ran in and I logged off of my computer.

At 4:30 p.m. we freaked out. We only had an hour and a half to edit this. I came up with a plan to record over the stuff we don’t need and turn in whatever we had.
It was genius. We recorded the opening credits after the Comanche Plant.

At 4:45 p.m. we fast forward the tape. We recorded a radio. It was for the newsflash for a widespread narcoleptic pandemic.

At 4:47 p.m. we fast forward it again and shot a painting with fire and a windmill for another narration.

At 4:50 p.m. we shot a scene in the basement. I showed off my acting skills.

At 5:45 p.m. we arrived at The Downtown Bar. We had to enter our movie before 6 p.m. We made it. However, our movie was made in HD. It wouldn’t work with their system. All of a sudden, one of the men in charge brought in Tupperware full of cables. He had the S-cable we desperately needed. The volume wasn’t working. It was the projector. The volume wasn’t turned up and our movie worked like a charm. Keep in mind that he never watched the final product. We didn’t have time to.

At 6:20 p.m. the judges asked if a late entry could come in. It defeated the purpose of a 24-hour film festival. Everyone said yes because they understood what we went through.

At 8:20 p.m. the film festival started. We were up first. It was quiet. Everyone laughed hysterically. I went back to my seat and was congratulated many times along the way. It was awesome. We were outside while the judges were tallying up the scores.
We won one award for, “Best Movie to Watch While Stoned”. In my eyes, it was the award of the night.