24 Hour Film Entry - The Piggy Bank

Chris Messineo

Chris Messineo

Veteran
I recently competed in a 24 hour film festival.

Each team was given the same premise at midnight ("Spare Change") and we then had 24 hours to write, shoot, edit, and score our film.

Here is the link to our finished short: The Piggy Bank

Select the "Film" link in the navigation pane (last link on the left) to watch the film.

We came in 5th place in the competition and I would love to know what you think of it.

Thanks,

Chris
 
I liked it, there was some humour, it was entertaining. The lighting was basic but then what can you do with that many shots in less than 24 hours.
Pretty amazing to come up with a story and do all this in 24 hours. Writing the script itself so fast is estonishing to me. Reading it I see the editing was done up front while writing it.
That might be iteresting to not say it was done in 24 hours and ask people to estimate to production time. I would have said way more.
Do you have the detail of your schedule during these 24 hours?
 
Do you have the detail of your schedule during these 24 hours?
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Midnight: Receive suprise theme/premise ("Spare Change")

12:00 - 1:00: Drive home from NYC to New Jersey while brainstorming

1:00 - 4:00: Write script

4:00: Email script to actors and crew

4:00 - 7:00: Sleep

7:00 - 9:00: Prep (gather props, costumes, dress set, etc.)

9:00 - 10:00: Rehearse

10:00 - 5:00: Shoot

5:00 - 6:00: Capture

6:00 - 7:00: Rough Cut

7:00 - 8:00: Final Cut and Sound Mix

8:00 - 9:00: Titles, Credits, and Score

9:00 - 10:00: Export to Mini DV

10:00 - 11:30: Drive back to NYC and turn in the final tape with 30 minutes to spare.

11:30 - 12:30: Drive back to New Jersey

12:30: Collapse

Chris
 
For a 24 hour project, I though the film was very good. It did seem like mostly master shots, not as much coverage as one might have wanted, but the time constraints likely meant that you had to move on much quicker than would be ideal. The fact that the film was basically a complete story is impressive. The time line was interesting to see, and that fact that you even had some time to sleep, is all the more impressive. How much prep work (in terms of getting locations and cast / crew lined up) went on prior to the event?

I have participated in a 48 hour project before, but never a 24 hour one. When I agreed to participate, 48 hours seemed like an absurdly short period of time but we were lucky and pulled together a full crew (about 35 total cast and crew ) along with a professional writer (development person for Fox) for our team. Seeing what you accomplished, I will certainly consider a 24 hour one should the opportunity arise. Good work.
 
Chris, Awh man, wish you would of reached out to me. I would of loved to help out man! Oh well, I gets no love! lol

Anyway, I like the production. Everything flowed well, especially for a short script being written to filmed to edited and delivered in 24 hrs.... My only concerns were that Ricardo was an absolute horrible actor and the english dude was much, much better... There was an obvious clash because of this. Lighting should of been a bit brighter like in the scene where the english guy presents Ricardo the piggy bank in the kitchen. Oh and in the scene where the english guy throws the silverware (if that's what it was) on the floor, it felt like the scene hung after he delivered his line "What?"..... I think it should of been cut quicker.

Anyway, I know it was a 24 hr gig..... GREAT JOB! My comments are meant to be constructive.

How do you get involved with these contests? I really want to participate in something like this.
 
How much prep work (in terms of getting locations and cast / crew lined up) went on prior to the event?
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We had 2 locations lined up, a dozen actors standing by, and a crew of 6.

And you are right, we realized very early on, that to get this done in 24 hours it would have to be all master shots.

Chris, Awh man, wish you would of reached out to me. I would of loved to help out man! Oh well, I gets no love! lol
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Coffee, we shot this back in early May (I just got around to posting it) so I didn't even know you then to reach out to you.

Thanks for the feedback. There are so many things I would love to change after the fact. I think you are right it could defintiely be cut quicker (most things can).

Chris
 
These type of contests are great. I have found that they expose who can work in a crunch. Hopefully they'll become even more popular.

Good job on the video, by the way!
 
bikefilms,

I totally agree with you.

One of my favorite things about this contest was the deadline. Once the 24 hours was up it was over. There was no second guessing, should I tweak this or that, should I reshoot this, should I colorize that. It was one of the few times in filmmaking where the project had a "hard end."

There is something very freeing in that.

Chris
 
lol..... Good film...... coffee your right, the acting could have been better, but w/ 24 hrs. what can you do.

The rooms were kind of dark and looks like some color correction was needed......... you know...... i don't feel right giving constructive crtisizm....... I'm sure with the needed time Chris, everything would've been different(lighting, editing, etc....)........ A great job for 24 hours.

Chris, you said this placed 5th....... how many 24hr. projects were submitted and judged?
Was there a limit in the length of the film?

I like the concept of the 24 hour film festival............ I would love to see the 1st place down to 6th place entries, would be interesting to see the different ideas other filmakers came up with using the same theme/premise with limited time.

Again, good job,

Chris
 
Great video, I enjoyed it. I really like the first shot of the Ricardo looking through the window. And I see what people see about master shots, sometimes you want to get in closer. But considering the time constraits, it was very impressive.
 
brownhood said:
Chris, you said this placed 5th....... how many 24hr. projects were submitted and judged? Was there a limit in the length of the film?

I would love to see the 1st place down to 6th place entries, would be interesting to see the different ideas other filmakers came up with using the same theme/premise with limited time.
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52 Teams entered the competition and each film was limited to 10 minutes. 12 teams made it to the finals. On Saturday they screened the 40 that didn't make it and on Sunday they screened the 12 finalists. It was fascinating to see the diversity in films.

Chris
 
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