Weekend Distraction #2

Filming an abandoned hotel,
conveniently decorated by "Grimm."

Weekend Distraction #2 took a bigger toll on me, although it was well worth it. I helped on some friends' 48 Hour Film Project submission. And being that the cast and crew involved some very talented professionals in the film industry, it was a very exciting short to work on.

The genre that our team drew was "Time Travel," which really opens the door up to some interesting plots. The competition started at 6pm Friday, and we were already prepping the set at 9pm that evening.

We shot in two floors of the abandoned hotel above Le Bistro Montage in Portland. We had full reign of both floors. However, being that the hotel is no longer used and is a bit rundown (read: A LOT rundown!), there was absolutely no power to the hotel. This meant we had to work by flashlight, which is difficult when carrying film gear. When it came time to shoot, we powered all lights off of a generator. This worked perfectly! And since we shot the project on a RED Epic we were fine using just the practicals that I strung up. (We actually had to turn down the wattage since 100 watts was too much!)

Street scene at 1am in the morning.

Once filming started my responsibility switched from being a grip to essentially being a 2nd AC. It is a role I've done a handful of times, but am still learning. Fortunately, since it was a relatively small project, the 1st AC could easily handle everything dealing with the camera, so I only had to work the slate.

Anyway, principle photography lasted until 9:30am Saturday morning, but because of Weekend Distraction #1 I had to leave at 8am to be at Kylie's place to answer any questions the mud/tape guys had. And being that I was running off of no sleep for the previous 25 hrs, I ended up crashing on Kylie's couch for a reinvigorating 3 hr power nap.