22 Days Until the 48

June must have risen from volcanic ash, as it was the hottest May of my Greensboro memory. It reminds me that Summer is here, and as I sit here, 22 days away from the next 48 Hour Film Project, I marvel on how busy the last two weeks have been. When I last signed off, I was anticipating a 4 day film shoot to bring Hot Pink Jesus 3 to light. That proved to be an ambitious workload, and an incredibly tiring 4 days of shooting. However, I have to hand it to our cast and crew. Everyone showed up, did their jobs, and had great attitudes. We got some amazing footage, and minus one technical glitch that has necessitated a "re-shoot" on June 12th, the weekend went without a hitch. The "Max Diablo's Tits-n-TacoRama" footage was incredibly fun to shoot, and looks excellent so far. Our boy Mikey Cordes (who is directing the StumbleMuse 48 for 2011) has already pieced together a 3 to 4 minute teaser trailer that we'll unveil this weekend at ConCarolinas. Excellent!

So, we wrapped about 85% of HPJ3 in one four day weekend, and have pickup shots scheduled for June 12th. We could make a 24 minute polished movie out of the current footage. We'll still need to do some flashback footage in July sometime, but the Inmates will be putting their karate chops on the footage. Jaysen and I are both very excited to see the newest installment of his obsession. With 1 part of the trilody "done" and 1 "in the can" awaiting editing, we are about 50% done with production of a feature length "grindhouse" movie. No matter what comes of my aspirations in cinema, even if I never make a dime, I'll always be proud of the Mad Ones. We are the ultimate grassroots film-making group. Tomorrow we go to Con Carolinas to screen the Missionary Man, and will also screen "Krampus" as part of the Film Fest. With a reshoot pending and the 48 scheduled later this month, the month of June is going to be Crazy.

I'm Ready for the 48, minus getting signatures for my music and location releases. Early bird registration ended last night, and there were 31 teams registered by then. That's a nice turnout, and there are always a few straggler teams who register closer to the competition. There's a ton of great film makers in Greensboro and someone invariably comes out of nowhere to charm the crowd. I would love for that to be us this year. I'm really excited for what I have dialed up with music, locations, actors, and crew. Hopefully, we'll draw some meaty genre that utilizes these ingredients nicely. If that happens, my crew will bust their ass, and we'll make a film that we're all proud of. If we do that within 48 hours, the rest will take care of itself.