In October of 2024 I had the pleasure of working as a 2nd Assistant Camera on a 48 Hour Film project. I was reunited with several friends and got to work with several new faces as well.
Pre-Production
This was my very first 48 Project, and as such there are some learning curves. In terms of pre-production all you really can do is gather a team together, find a location, and hope the prompts turn out good.
As it was October the genres were to be Horror or Sci-fi related.
We drew Escape room / liminal horror and dystopian or utopian sci-fi. Our writers somewhat combined the genres.
Production:
The Location
Our award winning location was also one of our first big hurdles. The House we were filming in and around was completely cut off from land. Lucky for us our location contact was kind enough to loan his boat to ferry our gear across and taught our AD how to drive it.
The first hour and a half was devoted to just getting things set up. It was one of my first times working with a cinema camera instead of my standard mirrorless and DSLRs I have worked with and took a little getting used to. All the youtube and articles in the world can never quite prepare you for it.
This was also my first time working with real cinema lenses. Our DP Michael Gregory had done extensive research into the Zeiss CP3s and was determined to give them a try and I'm glad we did.
Here's me with our DP Michael Gregory adjusting the monitor so he can better see it on the shoulder mount.
The initial set up took some time as people settled into roles and as we got equipment set up, but 48 hours is not a lot of time so we had to hustle.
A Still from the project: A low angle shot featuring Lanier Karpeh, playing Alex, wearing a gas mask.
After this shot our first scene went by relatively quickly and we moved on the interior scenes.
The interiors were often cramped with so many people inside so Michael and our Gaffer, Drew Benton, set up lights outside and shined them through a large window to simulate the setting sun, but as the shoot wore on, we had to block out the sunset to keep our shots consistent.
Full cast and most of the crew of Safehouse No. 256 during our lunch break.
Night shoots bring all sorts of problems. The lack of light can sometimes bring frustration as set ups get more complicated in an effort to look motivated.
From left to right: Drew Benton, David Favorito, Michael Gregory, Gabby Zanin (below), Madison Shook, Kyle Nenadovich, Braelyn Turek (below), Sophia Bruno, Rebecca Balistreri (below), and Nick Ditz. Taken by me on Harmon Phoenix 200
All in all it was a project I was very glad and lucky to be a part of. In just 48 short hours we were able to take a grab bag of prompts and create something. It was a great chance to reconnect with friends and work new people that I hope to work with again.