My 48 Hour Musical

[Barry Gribble]

Hey all,

This is the 48 Hour Film Project entry from the Spring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baD6ux8eW1U

We had decided ahead of time that we would do a full-on musical in combination with whatever genre we drew. We had a really tight workflow in place to make it happen, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

I wrote the script and all the songs Friday night (all night). We shot on saturday with the cast singing along to my scratch track and while we did that a different group was orchestrating the songs. Sunday morning we picked up one more scene and then recorded the final vocals over the orchestration.

The camera belonged to the DP, and it was an Ikegama ENG DV cam.

Let me know what yout think.

Crew:
Barry Gribble, Writer/Director
Joan Biren, Production Manager
Babu Aryankalayil, DP
Steve Steckler, Music Arranger
Fritz StolzenbAch, Music Arranger
Michael Lovett, Editor
Lee Perna, Gaffer
Soren Juul, Grip
Chris Fotopulos, PA
Amy Hissrich, PA
Anna Rappaport, PA
Rhiana Santorineos, PA

Cast:
Jocelyn Steiner
Joy Haynes
Nicholas Freilich
Edward Daniels
Chinwe Enu
Kristen Emmons
Jim D. Gallagher
Mark D'Arrigo
true haynes

[Willis Petti]

I loved it!!

Very catchy tunes, held my interest and I would watch it again, so i say it was a good movie.

Willis

[Gabriel Yeager]

Thanks Barry! Great film! Like Willis said, very catchy. I liked the bubbles that you used in the credits.

Thanks for sharing!
~Gabriel~

[Barry Gribble]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you liked it.

Gabriel - the bubbles were the genius of the editor, who did all of the graphics as well. Got lucky there.

[Cal Johnson]

I hate musicals, and yet, I really enjoyed this piece. I really think the directing/writing far surpassed the production quality. While some of the lighting could have been a little better, and it would have been nice to have a dolly shot for the graveyard scene, the story was tight, well paced, and kept me watching. I think that's a far greater achievement than something that looks super slick but there is just no story.
A thing I really liked was that you didn't over do the musical part. Even shows like "The Simpsons" tend to just flog some stupid song to death before moving on, but here the songs were short and really well done. I love the part where he's sitting down in the office, humming the "I want" tune, and trails off, "I want my father to be proud". It was funny, but very clever, as its a) something money can't buy and b) his father turns out to be dead. The only thing I would have changed would be to add some sort of sound effect for the stock market graphic, especially when it just plummets to and past the bottom. Something like a stuka dive bomber sound would have been great.
Fun piece though, I'm glad I watched it, it made me laugh! ("I'm sorry...no I'm sorry, I cashed out six months ago"... ha ha!).

[Hawood Giles]

Barry;

Succinctly put, I'm impressed with your video/musical production! I have to believe that you, and others in the production are part of a theater group? Otherwise, I can't imagine where you found all the participants/actors, and how you convinced them to participate?

I enjoyed the music, and the catchy tune is still playing in my head, as I finish this reply.

VM

[Barry Gribble]

Cal,

Great feedback, thanks a bunch. I'm really glad you enjoyed it, particularly the writing and directing.

I would have loved to have a dolly for both the opening shot and the graveyard scene. The opener we did with a regular construction cart, and it was almost tougher to nail than the choreography. The grave scene the DP was actually sitting in the passenger side of my bug and I dollied the shot using the gas. I am actually amazed it was as smooth as it turned out. We hadn't anticipated needing a dolly, but just found that we needed dolly shots.

Had it been a 49 hour film fest, we would have done the exact sound effects you were looking for. But the editor was also doing the graphics, so we just hit the bottle neck. We were going to have a whistle going up, then a whistle going down, and breaking glass when it drops through the bottom. Good call.

The lighting is just what happens, I think, when you have 5 setups to do in a day with no prep and no professional gaffer. It could definitely be better, but for the time we had I was definitely satisfied.

Thanks again.

[Barry Gribble]

Hawood,

Thanks so much for the kind words.

Good call also. Most of the actors, except the boyfriend, had worked together at various times at the Gilbert and Sullivan society of a Georgetown Law School. They were musical theater people. I love musical theater, and had done some musical direction in college, but had never much written it. The audio production quality lays on Steve and Fritz who had all day to do the instrumentations while we shot. Steve owns a recording studio, so that worked out well.

On a more general not, though, actors are not nearly as hard to find as you make it sound. I am doing a web sitcom (rolling out soon) and between advertising in craigslist and a local actor newsletter I had 45 people come out for parts over three nights. Actors love to act, and they don't get the chance often enough.

[Cal Johnson]

Barry, I completely spaced that this was a 48 hour film fest project. Now I'm really impressed!

[Barry Gribble]

Cal,

Yeah, it does make a difference :). Thanks again.