RESET
This film was made for the 2013 Chicago 48 Hour Film Project. On the Friday night at 7 p.m., you get four things -- in our case, the character of Mike Madigan, who's a chemist; a prop (remote control); a line of dialogue ("Why didn't I think of that?"); and a genre (suspense/thriller). You have to work those four things into your film as seamlessly as possible. We completely improvised and shot this within a span of ~2.5 hours on Saturday morning, August 10, in Chicago. Finished editing, color correcting and sound designing by ~1 a.m. August 11. Rob Conrad, Director/Writer/Actor/Editor; Ryan Johnson, Writer/Actor; Grace Pisula, Director of Photography; Justin Leyba, Sound Recordist/Color Correction; Jeremy Marder, Actor/Production Manager; Matt McCorry, Extra/Production Assistant. Nothing was scripted, and there was no shot list. From a concept by Rob, Ryan and Rob figured out the beats of the narrative and then we ran lines and filmed until it flowed and made sense. We shot some masters, then closeups, and were done with principal photography within a couple of hours. Grace and Justin were incredible as a team who worked together, shooting dogme style (no lights, no reflector boards) and on the fly, very fluidly and professionally. You should know that Michelle was hired at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, for a 9 a.m. set call. Unbelievable. These seven people had never worked on anything together as a group, so it was all new. Everything came together in a nice way. Check out the 48 Hour Film Project: www.48hourfilm.com/
