After seeing DVMISSION regular Tippers Pritchard post a thread on Twitter offering advice on how to succeed at doing a 48 hour film challenge. We asked if he would turn it into a blog post for us and what follows is part 1 of 5 part series that we will be releasing over the coming weeks.
You can follow Tippers’ original Twitter thread HERE!
Don’t forget this year’s challenge is currently open to team registration and you can enter your team by following THIS link to Filmfreeway. Just submit to DVMISSION and name your project as your team name.
Read Part 1 HERE!
Part 2: Write!
When you hear “48 hours”, you tend to panic. But slow down and take your time. There’s honestly more than enough time to film 2 minutes on the Saturday, so don’t panic. Use Friday evening to perfect your story. Make sure you introduce characters and give some backstory. The essence of a character can be established in just a few lines – I reference this in the thread I posted. You can build character backgrounds with just a few words.
Work around the locations, costumes, people and ideas you already have. Work out ways to play with your audience – send them down one road and then pull the rug out, sending them somewhere else. Get an early twist in if you can. In 2 minutes, you have to be brave and almost throw the rule book out the window. If you want to break the fourth wall, do it.
Get an early twist in, changing the entire feel of the film. Ideally, within the first 20-25 seconds. I’ve added time counters so you can see where we are in each sample. Here are some examples of early twists.
Don’t ignore the stuff going on behind the main dialogue – even character names and background things can tell a story or be part of the comedy (if that’s your angle). In “Dragon’s Shadow” – we had the “Producer” of the film acting as a green screen table, and the hammer horror film was loaded with little mini jokes.
In the Hammer house of Horror film, we had a severed foot in the background, whilst talking about foot fetish rumours (also referencing Tarantino).
Don’t forget background characters – they can play a huge part of the comedy, albeit subtle. This bit where the runner downs the drink was improvised, but was specifically mentioned by the judges.
And talking of Subtle… Not everything has to be obvious, throw away bits help build a bigger complete piece. In Deception Point, Todd walks off whistling “Lincolnshire Poacher” – a famous “spy” numbers station signal.
You can build character backgrounds with just a few words. Here we see the leading lady getting jealous of her *actually* successful “agent”. We see a knife shadow on the wall, which she’s then polishing in the next scene. A complex backstory in under 20 seconds.
In Dragons Shadow, just one line “how come I’m not being paid?” says all we need to know about the hapless support actor – rounded out by the question “Have you thought about doing an Indian accent?”
With Deception Point it was all about the fast pace of Todd’s character – the two spies don’t have a chance to get a word in as he blabbers on with nonsense stories (my favourite is the egg salad) He’s not exactly James Bond, but his methods of deception work!
Two Minutes isn’t too short to get some nice callbacks in. In Dragons, the baby gets mentioned and then brought back up at the end for a final laugh.
This one is a lesson in not being afraid to hit things head on (Hammer horror!), break the fourth wall, be daft or be subtle. A comedy masterclass from @volvi rounds out with “archive” footage showing the actor using the hammer in an earlier project.
That clip is my favourite bit from any DVMission I’ve made… made even better with @misscharliebond‘s “space surgeon” and the fact that the archive footage for this actor is from a high school film project (as shown on the watermark).
Once you have your script and ideas sorted, make sure everyone knows their roles, plan out your Saturday and get a good rest. You’ll be starting early!
By Tippers Pritchard
If anyone wants to collaborate outside of DVMISSION drop me a DM on Twitter @talktotippers.
