Saturday, January 29, 2011

Movies pt1: Gauntlet

In our spare time, my friends and I make short films. I don't often get to discuss what I liked/hated about each one, or what it actually took to put them together. This string of articles will likely be a 'why the fuck not' section more than anything else. 

Gauntlet

The goal of this film was to enter the Klondike Bar Challenge to find a creative way to get a ping pong ball into a solo cup. A lot of confusion and quick effort was put into getting this done (we were already close to the deadline by the time we started), but it got submitted on time. Disqualified a full 5 minutes later.

Nick wrote this film while we were under the influence. I got so excited, I immediately called Nate (guy running the Gauntlet) and asked him if he would mind being pelted by hundreds of ping pong balls for no money. Of course, he was down. I ordered something around 670 ping pong balls, all of which were thrown down a hill after I donated them to my fratnerity. Nothing like literally having my money thrown down a hill...

Nate's costume was hurriedly constructed out of cardboard, solo cups, and duct tape (he wore tight fitting underarmor underneath). Most of the balls were thrown or heaved by the people who showed up. The vacuum/money shot was devised by more than a few of my frat brothers. They experimented with different extensions to the vacuum until something like 150 balls could be shoved inside. Greg turned on the vacuum and cupped the entrance with his hand so the balls were ready to fire out the moment he pulled away. The 'flying' shot was of Nate riding on my back as we inched forward.

Lessons Learned
- don't leave your construction shit in the background (shot with Greg blowing his load)
- whenever you miss out on free shots, you end up having to enlarge a shot to get what you need (destroys quality)

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