May 29, 2025 • 37 mins
Want to connect with Tj & Plaideau? Send us a text message.
Ever wondered what it takes to create a short film in just 48 hours? Michelle Bousquet talks about her book which details how to do complete a 48 Hour Film Project.
Michele's Book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/iqQKn54
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Support the show
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Michelle Bousquet , the author of how we Do a
48-Hour Film Project, and I havea podcast called how Hacks
Happen, and I am so excited tobe on NOLA Film Scene with TJ
and Plato.
Oh my God, I can't believe Iwas chosen.
All right, I'm okay.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now let's go Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ and
Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'm okay.
Now let's go.
Welcome to NOLA Film Scene withTJ Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
Okay, welcome, michelle.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I am doing great.
I'm so happy to be here.
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, we're good, so glad you're here.
We've got a lot to unpack withhaving you on.
I read your book, bought itlast night.
I read it cover to cover.
I could not put it down.
I think you nailed it.
I'd love it if you would tellthe audience a little bit about
your book, about the 48, and youhave some fantastic advice.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thanks, yeah, the book is called how we Do a
48-Hour Film Project,specifically named that way
because everybody does itdifferently.
Our way is not necessarily thebest way, but I've done oh geez,
I lost track.
I've done a lot of weekendcompetitions, a lot of short
three-day seven-day andcertainly a lot of the 48-hour
(01:15):
contests.
I think I've done five at thispoint and they're just always a
blast.
I always have a great time andlearn so much and meet so many
wonderful people in thenetworking.
Like that's how I met you guyswas because we were both in a 48
earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Separate 48s.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
In separate 48s, that's right.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I think you said something really important in
your book.
If you make it about trying towin awards and trying to be the
best one there, you're going tobe miserable.
But if you have fun whileyou're making it and just try to
learn and have a good time,then you're going to turn out a
good product, and I absolutelyagree with that.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yes, 100%.
Like you, can't be endless towin.
For one thing, judges be judgesand they have their own
opinions about stuff, and thereare times when there was a film
that I thought was so good itwasn't.
Maybe the production valuewasn't great, but it had a lot
of other really great thingsabout it.
Somebody's first time filmmakerand I thought for sure they
(02:15):
would win certain things.
No, not a thing.
And then I often do not agreewith the best film.
I could say that too.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Dun, dun dun.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, self-included.
Sometimes we get nominated forbest film, sometimes we don't.
It has to be about having fun,otherwise people get very tense.
We have to win, we have to win.
People are tired.
They're maybe just eatingwhatever is on the crafty table.
You don't tend to eat terriblyhealthy during the 48-hour
(02:45):
weekend.
You eat whatever's around.
Everybody just gets on eachother's nerves and I've heard of
friendships over the 48, whichI hate to see that happen to
anybody.
It's just, it's a film.
It's a short film.
Why are you fighting with eachother and arguing?
So if you make it about havingfun and learning something, it's
so much fun, so much fun.
Well, you guys' experience.
(03:06):
What was that like.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I wasn't sure what to expect, going into it.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
This was your first one.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
For our listeners.
It was your first one.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
This past one, waiting for Gatoe, was my first
one and I was expecting to getthere and not leave until Sunday
.
No-transcript, nobody wasgrouchy or cranky, everybody got
(03:53):
sleep, everybody ate, but wewere efficient.
We moved from one thing to thenext and then on Sunday, the DP
did the editing.
Brian and I edit for thepodcast, but it's not the same
thing as editing for film.
He does it for a living and hewas just boom, boom, boom.
Very efficient with puttingthings together and the big
(04:13):
thing is making sure you havethat done and you addressed it
in your book.
You got to have a time to stop.
If you're not done by then,you're not going to make it,
because you have to allowyourself time to get it uploaded
.
I personally had a very goodtime on that project.
It was, I don't know.
Everybody involved was great,we got along and we had fun.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And your film.
I remember how much fun it wasand how funny you guys were.
For those who did not attendthis year, it was Waiting for
Gato right.
Which was the requiredcharacter was a postman named
Jake Gato.
These guys played a couple ofcoworkers Like.
To my mind, you guys were likethe two old guys on the Muppet
(04:52):
show that are up in the box andthey're just talking smack the
whole time Sadler.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Waldorf, that's right .
Speaker 1 (04:58):
You guys were outside like, just you know, this job
stinks and I don't like it hereand so-and-so thinks he's going
to win the award again.
You're like, you were just sofunny.
You guys won some stuff though.
Right, you were nominated.
You guys, both were nominatedfor Best Actor.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Best Supporting.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We were Best.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Supporting and we both lost.
They tried to pit NolaFilmstein against each other,
but we didn't let themno-transcript light sound, and
(05:58):
that made it so much better.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
We weren't having to rely on somebody that might drop
out at the last minute to bringthe field recorder and the boom
mic or labs or whatever we'reusing.
He was a self-contained unitand that really made a big
difference.
There's always going to besomebody that drops out last
minute and you just have to beprepared to improvise and use
(06:21):
somebody else.
For us it worked out.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Right.
It was a great streamlinedprocess on our 48 together.
I had done one before, whichwas a nice one too.
That was Contingency.
A couple of years beforethere's hit men looking for
witnesses, you know what I mean.
So I had a prop gun in my faceand my fellow actor who was the
hit man shoved the gun so hardin my face I popped a few blood
vessels.
(06:43):
I wasn't pistol whipped and ithelped me get in the scene.
I'm exaggerating a little bit.
It was all good.
So for me both 48s are plateausin my acting and what I mean is
I reached that next step.
And then when we did our sevenand seven, that was even more so
.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh, that one was off the hook.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Thank, you Ah thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
We did, we were there too.
I don't know if you rememberthis.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I didn't make it to the screening.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Oh OK.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I didn't.
I wasn't able to make it either.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
All right, we did a little film on a boat and I
couldn't participate, so I wrotea script and sent some people
off and it was a new experiencefor DP first time DP and, if I
can interrupt you for a second48 hour film, is you get your
information on Friday and haveto have it done by Sunday and
turned in?
The one we're talking about,the seven and seven, is make a
seven minute film in seven days.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So you had a week we did the seven and seven as well.
We went to the screening and Iwas the film that you guys did.
You guys did for the seven andseven.
I was like, how did that was?
It was phenomenal, it was aWestern for those who have not
seen it, and it was just so.
The sets were like were youguys on somebody's film set?
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Here's how that worked out.
So I live rural and we have arural postal carrier and she's
friendly with everybody on theroute.
I happen to know that she hashorses Her and her family have
rescue horses, so they havearound seven or eight and
they're on about 30 acres.
So she had done actuallybackground and horseback riding
(08:12):
in a previous film in a biggerproduction and I asked her if we
could film there and she waslike yeah, absolutely Hick.
Jeremy and I were the only onesthat had extensive, I would say
, experience riding horses.
We got Brian on a horse.
He didn't fall off.
Matt wasn't experienced withriding, so the lady that owned
(08:33):
the property rode a horse.
She was kind of a stand-in forhim out at a distance.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That was the other thing too.
I'm like how is it that allthese people can ride horses?
Anyway, go on.
It's the magic of movie making.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That's right.
So we filmed those scenes thereon her property.
But then part of the rules, wehad to have something from Abita
Springs, a specific thing, inthe shot, so we filmed the last
part in the middle of AbitaSprings.
They have a pavilion in themuseum.
On the outside looks like itcould be a train platform, so we
(09:05):
use that as both sides of it asa train platform and that's how
we got that requirement in toget the scene from Ibida.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Wow, I did want to speak a little bit to the
preparation stuff because Irealized I haven't really talked
that much about what's in thebook.
You guys know, when I sat downto write this I was like, all
right, let's start with, we'lldo it kind of chronologically
right, what you do before toprepare, then Friday at seven,
what happens Then?
What happens after?
We write the script on Fridaynight, we shoot on Saturday and
(09:35):
we edit Sunday.
That's kind of the basic thing.
There's a little bit ofoverspill.
We might do a couple pickupshots on Sunday, we might start
editing a little bit on Saturday, but that's kind of the flow of
it.
And when I sat down to write itout, I realized I think the
preparation is like half thebook, because once you get to
Friday, it's like write thescript.
Okay, you sit there and you.
(09:55):
You know and I talked a littlebit about our process and the
process of some other teams, Iknow, but there really isn't
much more to say about it.
This isn't I'm not going toteach you how to write a script,
there's other books for thatbut you write the scripts and
then you shoot on Saturday andthat's you shoot.
Like I talked a little bitabout that and about how we
didn't use a slate board thefirst couple of films, and then
someone said, hey, we should usea slate board and it's like so,
(10:29):
stuff like that.
There's a quote from AlfredHitchcock where he said that all
of the creativity and all thegenius and all the work is in
the free production.
And then production is actuallykind of boring because you're
just going through the stepsthat you planned out in the
beginning.
And I was like, wow, so it isthe preparation.
I didn't realize how muchpreparation we do, but, yeah, I
start thinking about it two orthree weeks ahead of time.
I belonged to an improv troupeand I'm still friends with a lot
(10:49):
of these people.
That was how we did.
The first one is I was like,hey, why don't you come over and
we'll make a film, and startedme off on this whole journey.
I say who's available thisweekend, and so we know that we
have these people.
But you're right, people dropout, and we had three people
drop out out of the 15 that wehad, which usually is only one
or two, and all right, we'regoing to write the script.
And so when we sit down towrite the script, we are writing
(11:11):
for those people that we haveavailable and we know for sure
are going to show up.
That's really what it comesdown to, and I also, when you
said locations, for the mostpart I do the locations ahead of
time.
I do not do them on the day.
We tried that once and it waspretty bad.
It's one of the films that isnot on my YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Getting the waiver sign could be an issue if you
wait to the last minute.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And also that's the one that I talked about in the
book that we're one of.
It was a woman who used to comeand do makeup with us.
She's moved away, sounfortunately not part of the
team anymore.
She's one of the team anymore.
She's one of the ones whodropped out in June as well.
She worked at this store down inthe French Quarter and for like
three films in a row she saidyou know, they said we can film
(11:53):
at the store, and she seemed toreally want to film at the store
, and I think that was more herthan the owner of the store.
So she got the form signed andthen we showed up and they said
well, you can only stay for twohours.
There can be only two people inhere.
No hours, there's going to beonly two people in here.
No, we're not going to turn themusic off.
It's like oh plus, that wasalso one where the one of the
lead actors had had a big fightwith the sound person a few days
earlier, so they were just in aterrible mood.
(12:15):
Whenever the person would putthe boom up, the actor would
like clow her and her.
And oh, it's just, it was.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
That was a terrible shoot, shoot did y'all end up
still filming in the store?
How did you handle that withthe music playing with copyright
stuff?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
we finally got them to turn the music off, but the
director of photography on thatfilm, which I'm pointing to
myself I happen to be the onepressing the button on the
camera was so flustered byeverything else going on we
didn't have time to use theclapper.
We just just had to just go on.
I did that thing where you pressrecord and you're really
turning off the recording whenyou think you're turning it on,
(12:51):
and so everything I recorded inthere was like outtakes, and
managed to catch one thing thathappened in the store, so we
just ended up not using it.
I often do these things whereI'll put something in the script
which is like, say, a series ofinterviews, like, say,
interviews after a crime hasoccurred or something has
happened on the news orsomething, and that gives me
(13:13):
what I call the accordion script, where, if more people show up.
We have more actors show up, wehave something for them, they
can have their little line.
And if less people show up,well, there's only two people
interviewed by the news.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
That's brilliant, by the way.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And if less people show up.
Well, there's only two peopleinterviewed by the news.
That's brilliant, by the way.
Well, thank you, it was bornout of necessity.
I wanted all my actor friendswho showed up to have something,
you know, have something thatthey can do.
It was just part of that.
It was an interview type thingand that guy just didn't end up
being in the film for very long.
Just the one take that I got.
(13:50):
That was right.
Or when, after I also signed oneperson who's kind of in charge
of getting everybody to signtheir release forms, then this
person was kind of sittingaround doing nothing and I wish
I had had her start writing upthe credits.
That's another thing is gettingthat nice, perfectly spelled
list and also asking people howthey want to be credited is
another thing, because sometimessomeone they run sound and they
also I don't know their scriptsupervisor too, or something
like that.
It's like all right, what areyou trying to get a future
(14:12):
career in?
I'll list you at.
Whatever that is.
That's another question thatneeds to be asked of people.
Because, yeah, it's just onyour film.
I'm assuming everybody woremore than one hat, right?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
yes, yeah, just an, just an actor.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
When did you guys join your crew stuff?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, so we all took turns holding the boom.
I have a teenage daughter.
She came for part of the day onSaturday to just help PA.
She is an actor, she does playsand musicals and she's in
Nutcracker.
This year For the seven andseven.
She came and stayed the wholetime and PA'd the whole time.
She also did a little bit ofBoone, a little bit of grip,
(14:49):
because he was self-contained.
He's used to filming by himselfour DP for the 48.
So I mean it was mainly justhelping with setups and moving
stuff, right, brian.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
We didn't have script supervised.
We didn't have a lot of themain crew roles assigned, we
just have script supervisor.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
we didn't have a lot of the main crew roles assigned.
We just kind of picked up whatwe needed to do yeah, that's
cool yeah, but you know,technically you ran sound at
least part of the time, so you,you know you couldn't boom.
Operator tj sebastian yeah, sothat's the kind of thing that
I'm saying like usually on ourfilms.
Now dave runs sound, but that'sanother thing about the 48 that
I hope came across in the bookis that even though Dave knows
how to run sound, there's timeswhen there's somebody hanging
(15:30):
out who's not doing anything.
It's like here you want to runsound and they're like no, they
get to do it for a while andit's like it could break or
he'll start taking the footageand renaming it, you know,
naming the files for editing,which makes life a lot easier,
but people get to try new stuffand it's a very low.
Like you know, if you screw upit's not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Low stakes.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Low stakes, there we go.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, that's the.
Everything that I really enjoyseeing is when someone is trying
out a piece of equipment.
They've never gotten to do this, so if they've never been on a
film set, that can be reallyinteresting and fun.
It's usually okay.
But I've had people say thingslike wait a minute, they think
you shoot in sequence, like ifthere's two people talking
you're going to shoot this andthen shoot that and then shoot
this.
(16:15):
It like no, we shoot all ofthis person and then all of this
person.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah yeah, I'm completely fascinated by every
aspect of the filming processand I try to watch and listen
and pay attention to what'sgoing on.
I don't know, I kind of geekout a little bit because I just
like learning that stuff.
I like watching how they do.
How do you know?
How do you know how to set thatup, how do you know where to
place that light?
(16:39):
Well, I mean, it's experience.
I try not to get in the way,but I try to watch and observe
and and pick things up.
Same here.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I was an editor in the 1980s, before we had
non-linear editing like the twolittle dials and if you screwed
it up, you know it's always athing.
So I learned editing back thenand I was eddie editing uh,
court depositions.
It's very boring, which is kindof good because it's like the
subject matter is notinteresting at all.
(17:07):
I was able to focus on themechanics of what I was doing
and from there I edited a lot ofactors reels.
So I had that background and Idon't know.
I made some films when I wasyoung.
I took film class when I was ateenager and made a few films
along the way with my parents'Super 8 camera.
Then I was working in like the2000s.
I was living in New Hampshireand there was a local guy who
(17:29):
would go out and shootcommercials the commercials for
you know he had your majorchannels on TV and then there
were like the three localchannels.
So there were commercials thatwere aired on the local channels
.
So the quality was like andnobody really cared about the
quality.
So the two of us was just showup, we had one camera, he was
the director and I did themakeup and wardrobe and calmed
(17:54):
people down.
I worked with talent a lotbecause they would do things
like I remember shooting acommercial for a gym and they
just decided they would justhave people who usually are at
the gym show up to be in thecommercial.
Well, they're like, oh my God,I'm going to be with camera.
They're nervous and I'm likeyou look great, you look fine.
One woman was worried about herskin and I put foundation on it
.
I guess she had never heard offoundation, I don't know, but
(18:24):
she was so happy that her skinlooked feel like.
I just remember moments likethat.
So there was a lot of workingwith film and stuff.
But, yeah, same way, I wasalways trying to learn more
about different ways of doingthings and I was also trying
things, some of which worked andsome of which didn't.
I tried to green screen for thelongest time and I finally
figured out what I was doingwrong nice, I might hit you up
for some advice on that.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I'm trying to figure it out myself.
It's kind of tricky.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's tricky.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
One of the things is it's got to be pulled really
tight right or be no wrinkles oranything.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yes, and you can't be standing very close to it,
which means that, depending onhow wide a thing you're doing,
you need a pretty big screen.
People have some that's rightbehind their head, but also if
you have a lot of hair on yourface or head.
Tj see, brian would be easierto green screen than you would,
(19:12):
because the little hairs tend toget lost and it looks really
awful, which is why you see somany people in green screen
stuff wearing a hat or somethinglike that.
You have a nice hard edge for itto screen against.
Yeah, there's, and it's still,it's still hard, like I've done
it a few times, but the lightingalso has to be really even on
(19:32):
the green screen.
Do you know how we did ourbackgrounds for the police
station?
I remember hearing that y'allused a screen it was rear
projected interesting wow so wehave a normal projection screen
that you would use to projectfilm that you're watching,
whatever, but it does both frontand rear and we have a high
(19:54):
prosumer and projector, so itdoes a nice resolution and dave
taught himself unreal engine.
So he builds backgrounds.
While we were discussing thefilm, before I wrote the script,
I think he went into his officeand built that set, because
it's very simple, it's just awall and he had some stuff stuck
up on the wall and then helights it kind of nondescriptly,
(20:17):
so you don't have to worryabout matching the lighting too
much.
It it was sort of very basicand then we just projected that
up there.
So there was the one scene thattakes place in the police
station where Jake is gettinginterrogated, which is the first
and last scene in the film, andthen there's another scene
where Jake goes to the policeand is trying to get them to
listen to him, and that was adifferent.
I think Dave found an UnrealEngine game that takes place in
(20:39):
a school or a prison orsomething.
It's just a lot easier thangreen screening.
It's a lot, lot, lot easier.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
It's limited, but it's the job done very first job
the day I turned 16 was workingat a movie theater and the
screens are very expensive.
We used to go to the RockyHorror Picture Show and I've
(21:06):
been to the old school oneswhere you throw stuff because
they've got a sheet or somethingup there that's not going to
damage.
You do that to a real silverscreen, you get anything on it
on the outside and it'scompletely destroyed.
Wow, so you project it frombehind on a silver screen and
then you're filming from thefront.
I guess it has to project itbackwards, right?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
There's a setting.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I'm trying to visualize it in my head.
How big is the screen?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
It's only about it's something that someone with a
big living room might put intheir backyard, or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Ah, okay.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And it came with a frame.
It was like 200 bucks on Amazon.
I tried to get a bigger one.
That is the biggest one theysell and we tried to get that
material and we were going tojust make something larger
because it's very limiting.
You either have somebody fromthe thighs up or you can
actually adjust it so it sits onthe ground or lower.
So we have done ones where wehad people sitting and we had
(22:00):
the backdrop for that, but youcan never capture their entire
body, it just isn't big enoughto do that.
So it's good for certain things,but we were trying to get one
that was like much larger and wewere going to mount it, do
stuff, but the fabric thatsilver fabric, like you were
saying the price went from $200to like I can't remember how
much it was, but it was.
(22:20):
It was like no, we're notpaying that.
I don't remember what it wasbecause we weren't even really
sure if that was going to work.
Because we have this projectorit's also a short throw, which
means it only needs to sit likea couple of feet behind the
screen to project this 10 footimage.
So we needed that as well,because we didn't have enough
space for what would normally bethere and for the rear
(22:42):
projecting.
It's just when you set up theprojector you have a little
remote and under the settingsyou just say we're doing rear
projection and the projectortakes care of it and you can
also flip it upside down on someof them.
On this one, though, we found wecouldn't that one.
No, we had a differentprojector.
We were trying to mount it.
We tried all kinds of stuff.
We like our rear projectionsetup.
We tried mounting it to theceiling, because the other thing
(23:03):
is look at these frontprojections, because it's such a
short throw.
It also projects like itdoesn't project straight ahead.
It projects on an angle awayfrom itself.
So we could do it in the frontand not have people step on it.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But it's easier to have it in the back.
Is it hard to light the subjectwith it being rear projection
like that is it?
Is it complicated to get yourkey light and stuff right with
the screen?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
yes, that's the light spill.
(23:53):
We found that we had to usereally bright lights to light
people to make them match wellenough with the background in
terms of brightness because thebackground was very bright.
So the first few films we didthe lighting was really off.
But it's all part of anexperiment.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So by the time y'all got to the 48, y'all had it.
It seemed like y'all had itdialed in.
I thought it looked fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well, thanks time y'all got to the 48, y'all had
it.
It seemed like y'all had itdialed in.
I thought it looked fantastic.
Well, thanks, this year we did.
You know I was.
I said this in the book toothat whenever I had a shoot that
had a lot of drama, the filmjust isn't good.
It's just it's for whateverreason, it's just because who's
how do you say what a good filmwas like?
I thought butterfly was a goodfilm, but I didn't expect it to
get this response from people,and a lot of people seem to
really have resonated with it orhad had some things that they
noticed about it or whatever.
Whereas I did another thisother film, hair today, gone
(24:42):
tomorrow with the park ranger.
That same year you did yoursthat we had all kinds of weird
drama going on on the set and Istill thought it was a pretty
decent film, but something aboutit was just it fell flat and I
think like nobody remembers thatfilm From the screen.
Not a single person remembers it.
I think it just it felt awkward.
It was an awkward film becausewe were all a little on edge, I
(25:07):
think, with the drama.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And if everybody's synced, even if you miss
something like, hey, what if Ido this?
Or hey, my character would dothat.
Oh yeah, what about if TJ's,you know, like everybody's
thinking the same lines, tryingto create the same story, you
can work off of each other.
If people are trying to gettheir own thing in and worried
about their divaness or whateverthe hell it is, it interrupts
the creative flow.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, that's pretty much sums it up because, yeah,
we did have a, we had a diva onthat one and a lot of other
things.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
I got you.
Well, let's hit with one lastquestion.
While I was reading, lovedevery part of the book, totally
agree with everything, and thisis not a disagreement.
You were telling people to domore 48s to get in practice, to
learn the filming, especiallyediting.
I say for those people go outwith your phone and just make
films every weekend and then goback to the computer and keep
(25:58):
editing.
I mean you don't have to waitfor the 48.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
That's right, so I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I felt like you would , because I believe that's what
you were saying, not like youneed to go fix the book and say
what Brian said.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
But see how we do a 48, not how you do it.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
But you're an excellent teacher and lots of
experience.
So the call to action, whatwould you say to inspire people,
whether they're alreadyfilmmakers, storytellers or
they've never done this and kindof the bugs starting to bite
them like, hey, I could do thistoo.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
What would you say to them to get them off the couch
and into our world?
I would say, just start withsomething.
And you were saying, just goout and shoot something and edit
it.
But if you're doing it aloneyou might give up or you might
start to second guess yourselflike, oh, this isn't any good or
whatever.
But one of the things that I didbefore we did our first 48 is I
held this thing at my housecalled Soap Opera Sundays, where
(26:55):
everybody would come overAnybody who wanted to come over
and we would write, shoot andedit a soap opera episode in
three hours.
So you had to get it done.
We would spend some timespitballing ideas and we would
go shoot.
And this is again.
We were talking about peoplelearning about how film works
and how you shoot things.
You know unseat into time,whatever, and then I would sit
(27:15):
down and edit it.
But I also had everybody who wasin it saying where is it?
Where is it?
I want to see it, when can Ishow it to my family or when can
I see it?
So it made me finish it.
So if you get together with acouple of people and do it, I
think you're more likely tocontinue on and also having that
other person to help you whenyou're second guessing yourself
and thinking that can I says-u-c-k on your mark oh, yeah,
(27:38):
yeah okay when you start tothink that you suck and, believe
me, everybody thinks they suckat some point.
I'm sure some of the films I'vemade I'm like, oh my god, I'm
terrible, this is awful.
So you're gonna feel that way,but you have to keep doing it
anyway, because that's how youget better at it.
And the first thing this is theother thing is the first thing
you make is going to be terrible.
So get it out of the way now,and then the next one will be
(28:01):
better and the next one will bebetter.
That's what.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I have to say to them In your book you even mentioned
starting out you stress usewhat you have, don't spend a
bunch of money.
Film it with an iPhone.
And you're right.
I mean even Apple doescommercials filmed completely
with iPhones.
The quality of them these daysis so incredible.
You don't need all the fancy,expensive, commercial-grade
(28:26):
filming equipment to do this.
You can start with your phoneand upgrade as you go.
Probably the biggest challengeis the lights.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Oh, I was going to say sound.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well, I mean lights.
There's light outside.
That's right, you know it'sfree.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
If you have no money or experience and you want to
learn, this YouTube Universityis a great place to start.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Oh, yes, yes, 100%.
I also think that on YouTubeno-transcript going to be
(29:22):
natural light and the person whoshowed up from our troop, who's
the director of photography Ididn't know this.
He shows up with his Sony I wasgoing to shoot all on my phone,
it's going to be terrible, Ididn't care and he shows up with
his Sony a6500 and he, justlike, shoots commercials.
It's one of his hustles isshooting commercials and music
videos.
So I said we're shootingoutside.
(29:42):
He's like that's a terrible idea.
I'm like I don't have anylights, like what are we going
to do?
And he said I have lights, sohe pulls these lights out.
But anyway, we shot it alloutside and that was one of the
things we ran into.
It's like you can't, you haveto look in the direction of the
sun in order for us to see yourface.
So what we came up with was theactor would sit there with her
eyes closed for until we geteverything set up, and then I go
(30:03):
action and she opened her eyes,say her line and close her eyes
again.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Sorry, I'm rambling on about filming.
No, no, no last question no,that's what it's about.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
But that's you know, we made it work.
She got nominated for BestActress on that one, so that was
really cool, made it allworthwhile.
Because I think when we weredone she was like I know,
because it was hard, it was hot,it was August, she was wearing
a cowgirl outfit, ready to faint, sweating, so it was
uncomfortable.
And then she got nominated forBest Actress and she's like when
are we going to do it again?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
It's wonderful when people ask how do you do what
you do?
I want to do what you do, andthen some people take off and
then other people just even on a48, how much we have to put
ourselves through.
It's not, you know, it's notditch digging, but it can be
strenuous on yourself, or yada,yada, yada.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
It's not easy and that's a great lesson.
I actually started out doing abunch of acting, but then I
realized how much work it is tobe an actor and I was like I'm
going to do directing now, whichI know we might think is crazy,
but I actually feel a lot morecomfortable directing than
acting.
I still do some acting.
Oh, the other thing I wanted tomake sure I mentioned is that I
do mention this in the book aswell is if you want to get
(31:17):
started, a great way is to joinsomebody else's team doing a 48
hour film project, and the wayyou do that is you show up to
one of the mixers they have alot of mixers before the actual
weekend and if you show up, yourclothes are clean and you don't
smell.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And you're reasonably easy to get along with, because
that's the other thing is thatyou're going to be in each
other's pockets for a wholeweekend.
So you want somebody that youknow you're going to be able to
get along with, and everybodyI've seen show up at one of
these it's this I'm looking fora team to join, and I'm in film
school and I'm studying this orI've been making little things
on my phone and I want to join ateam.
(31:56):
They find a team becausethere's always people looking
for someone and they'll be happyto have them.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, don't be the guy that's standing outside with
a sign, like you're scalpingtickets to a concert, looking
for a team Go into the mixer andmeet people and network and see
who you get along with andwho's the right fit.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
If I was at one of these mixtures and somebody came
up to me and kind of bargedinto the conversation and said,
excuse me, I'm trying to find ateam to join, I would not be
offended in the least, becausethat's one of the reasons we're
there, and I might even starttalking to them.
I tend to be a little bitaphedemical of the diva.
I am a little more like picky,I guess you could say, about who
(32:38):
I bring on my team.
Also, with the story team, whenyou guys were talking about how
you all wrote it, we alsodidn't have a good experience
with having everybody there.
It was too much, it was reallyoverwhelming.
So I just ask people who wantsto be on the story team, and we
usually get four or five peopleand that's that works fine.
Some people don't want to showup till Saturday, so that works
okay.
But yeah, just go to the mixer,be a little bit brash.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Be nice.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Be nice, I really want to do a 48.
Like, who's going to argue withthat?
I really want to do a 48.
I want to be on someone's team.
It's like no one is going toget mad at you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Right yeah, and sometimes the administrators can
help you find a team evenbeforehand.
Join the Facebook groups, jointhe, follow the website all that
good stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
The other thing I wanted to say, though, is that
you say I want to join and I'man actor.
For me, that's a hard pass,because everybody does
everything.
If you just want to come andact, yeah that everybody wants
to just come and act.
But if you want to come and saythey're a good cook or it's
like I could be crafty, or saythey really want to learn crew
(33:42):
stuff I'm an actor and I reallywant to learn crew I might pick
that person.
But if they just want to be anactor, I'm going to give all the
acting parts to my friends andmy crew Sorry, not to some
random person who shows up.
So and I think I mentioned thisin the book too when someone
says I want to be an actor onyour team, I say great, what
crew position can you fill ifthey don't have an answer?
if they're not on my team.
(34:02):
Yeah yeah, my podcast is howHacks Happen and this came about
because I was teaching acybersecurity class, which is
another life of mine.
I wanted my students tounderstand more about certain
kinds of hacks and it was easierto make like a nice little
one-hour podcast explaining itand people started listening so
(34:22):
I started doing more of them andnow I've gotten into talking
about scams a lot, Like I knowmuch more about romance scams
and pig butchering scams I don'tknow if you guys know what that
is Lots of different scams.
It's been around for about fouryears and I love doing it and
to come listen to how hackshappen and learn to be safe.
I've actually had people tellme that they were able to avoid
(34:44):
a scam because they listened tomy podcast, which is what makes
me happier than anything in theworld.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Don't get no better than that.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
And what about social media?
Do you want to plug any?
Speaker 3 (34:57):
of your socials.
I am terrible at social media.
It's all good, it's okay.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Well, that was going to be one of the things I tell
you on Friday night.
Get everybody social too, ifnot before, because I'm the guy
I take all the selfies.
I want to tag you in it.
I want to share.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Get permission for behind-the-scenes shots.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Even on the 48.
I always ask the director can Ishare this?
You know, yeah, I remember that.
Actually that is how we met atthe 48 and at one of the mixers
and you're like, let's take apicture together.
I'm like, all right, and thenyou sent it to me.
I think when I said to Dave ohyeah, I'm going to be talking to
Brian Plato, who's that and Ishowed him the picture, he's
like oh, yeah, that guy, the guytaking the pictures.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
The running joke is always that we met somebody in a
circle exercise.
But now the thing is kind of doyou have a picture with Brian
Plato?
And most people are going tosay yes.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, alicia came on.
I think I'm in every one ofyour posts on your site, cause
we had taken classes and workedon films together.
It's, I find it fun.
I grew up, you know, my dad hada darkroom and people are like,
oh, I feel so included when youdo that.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'm like cool, I'm just having fun, but I like that
You're doing it for you, but weall feel good.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I like doing things for other people too.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Well, I did want to say I do have a production
company called Many Worlds Videoand we world's video, and we do
have a youtube channel where Iput up all of the films that I
am willing to have other peoplesee.
I have an instagram, but I amnot very good about updating it.
Yeah, I don't really.
I think I have a facebook page,but I really should be better
at this kind of thing.
But I I do a lot of linkedin,so I'm michelle busque on
(36:28):
linkedin.
That's about it nice michelle.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Thank you so much for joining us.
We really enjoyed it.
Check, check out her book.
Check out her YouTube channel.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
It's called how we Do a 48-Hour Film Project
available on Amazon in paperbackor Kindle.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Now you need to make the audio book.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I might do that.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Just because, well, I'm a janitor, I like listening
to books.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I actually ironically for someone who wrote a book I
don't read books anymore, I onlylisten to them.
Same kind of thing, Except fortechnical books.
You can't really do that.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Right yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
But yes, I should make an audio book out of it.
It has very few pictures in it.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
And if you need some people to read for you, we might
know a couple of guys.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Oh all right.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Might even know somebody that's got a broadcast
booth.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Whoa and his beer doesn't get in the way.
All right, folks, we'll see younext time.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Michelle Bousquet , the author of how we Do a
48-Hour Film Project, and I havea podcast called how Hacks
Happen, and I am so excited tobe on NOLA Film Scene with TJ
and Plato.
Oh my God, I can't believe Iwas chosen.
All right, I'm okay.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now let's go Welcome to NOLA Film Scene with TJ and
Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'm okay.
Now let's go.
Welcome to NOLA Film Scene withTJ Plato.
I'm TJ and, as always, I'mPlato.
Okay, welcome, michelle.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I am doing great.
I'm so happy to be here.
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, we're good, so glad you're here.
We've got a lot to unpack withhaving you on.
I read your book, bought itlast night.
I read it cover to cover.
I could not put it down.
I think you nailed it.
I'd love it if you would tellthe audience a little bit about
your book, about the 48, and youhave some fantastic advice.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thanks, yeah, the book is called how we Do a
48-Hour Film Project,specifically named that way
because everybody does itdifferently.
Our way is not necessarily thebest way, but I've done oh geez,
I lost track.
I've done a lot of weekendcompetitions, a lot of short
three-day seven-day andcertainly a lot of the 48-hour
(01:15):
contests.
I think I've done five at thispoint and they're just always a
blast.
I always have a great time andlearn so much and meet so many
wonderful people in thenetworking.
Like that's how I met you guyswas because we were both in a 48
earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Separate 48s.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
In separate 48s, that's right.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I think you said something really important in
your book.
If you make it about trying towin awards and trying to be the
best one there, you're going tobe miserable.
But if you have fun whileyou're making it and just try to
learn and have a good time,then you're going to turn out a
good product, and I absolutelyagree with that.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yes, 100%.
Like you, can't be endless towin.
For one thing, judges be judgesand they have their own
opinions about stuff, and thereare times when there was a film
that I thought was so good itwasn't.
Maybe the production valuewasn't great, but it had a lot
of other really great thingsabout it.
Somebody's first time filmmakerand I thought for sure they
(02:15):
would win certain things.
No, not a thing.
And then I often do not agreewith the best film.
I could say that too.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Dun, dun dun.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, self-included.
Sometimes we get nominated forbest film, sometimes we don't.
It has to be about having fun,otherwise people get very tense.
We have to win, we have to win.
People are tired.
They're maybe just eatingwhatever is on the crafty table.
You don't tend to eat terriblyhealthy during the 48-hour
(02:45):
weekend.
You eat whatever's around.
Everybody just gets on eachother's nerves and I've heard of
friendships over the 48, whichI hate to see that happen to
anybody.
It's just, it's a film.
It's a short film.
Why are you fighting with eachother and arguing?
So if you make it about havingfun and learning something, it's
so much fun, so much fun.
Well, you guys' experience.
(03:06):
What was that like.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I wasn't sure what to expect, going into it.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
This was your first one.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
For our listeners.
It was your first one.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
This past one, waiting for Gatoe, was my first
one and I was expecting to getthere and not leave until Sunday
.
No-transcript, nobody wasgrouchy or cranky, everybody got
(03:53):
sleep, everybody ate, but wewere efficient.
We moved from one thing to thenext and then on Sunday, the DP
did the editing.
Brian and I edit for thepodcast, but it's not the same
thing as editing for film.
He does it for a living and hewas just boom, boom, boom.
Very efficient with puttingthings together and the big
(04:13):
thing is making sure you havethat done and you addressed it
in your book.
You got to have a time to stop.
If you're not done by then,you're not going to make it,
because you have to allowyourself time to get it uploaded
.
I personally had a very goodtime on that project.
It was, I don't know.
Everybody involved was great,we got along and we had fun.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And your film.
I remember how much fun it wasand how funny you guys were.
For those who did not attendthis year, it was Waiting for
Gato right.
Which was the requiredcharacter was a postman named
Jake Gato.
These guys played a couple ofcoworkers Like.
To my mind, you guys were likethe two old guys on the Muppet
(04:52):
show that are up in the box andthey're just talking smack the
whole time Sadler.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Waldorf, that's right .
Speaker 1 (04:58):
You guys were outside like, just you know, this job
stinks and I don't like it hereand so-and-so thinks he's going
to win the award again.
You're like, you were just sofunny.
You guys won some stuff though.
Right, you were nominated.
You guys, both were nominatedfor Best Actor.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Best Supporting.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We were Best.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Supporting and we both lost.
They tried to pit NolaFilmstein against each other,
but we didn't let themno-transcript light sound, and
(05:58):
that made it so much better.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
We weren't having to rely on somebody that might drop
out at the last minute to bringthe field recorder and the boom
mic or labs or whatever we'reusing.
He was a self-contained unitand that really made a big
difference.
There's always going to besomebody that drops out last
minute and you just have to beprepared to improvise and use
(06:21):
somebody else.
For us it worked out.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Right.
It was a great streamlinedprocess on our 48 together.
I had done one before, whichwas a nice one too.
That was Contingency.
A couple of years beforethere's hit men looking for
witnesses, you know what I mean.
So I had a prop gun in my faceand my fellow actor who was the
hit man shoved the gun so hardin my face I popped a few blood
vessels.
(06:43):
I wasn't pistol whipped and ithelped me get in the scene.
I'm exaggerating a little bit.
It was all good.
So for me both 48s are plateausin my acting and what I mean is
I reached that next step.
And then when we did our sevenand seven, that was even more so
.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh, that one was off the hook.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Thank, you Ah thank you.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
We did, we were there too.
I don't know if you rememberthis.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I didn't make it to the screening.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Oh OK.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I didn't.
I wasn't able to make it either.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
All right, we did a little film on a boat and I
couldn't participate, so I wrotea script and sent some people
off and it was a new experiencefor DP first time DP and, if I
can interrupt you for a second48 hour film, is you get your
information on Friday and haveto have it done by Sunday and
turned in?
The one we're talking about,the seven and seven, is make a
seven minute film in seven days.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So you had a week we did the seven and seven as well.
We went to the screening and Iwas the film that you guys did.
You guys did for the seven andseven.
I was like, how did that was?
It was phenomenal, it was aWestern for those who have not
seen it, and it was just so.
The sets were like were youguys on somebody's film set?
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Here's how that worked out.
So I live rural and we have arural postal carrier and she's
friendly with everybody on theroute.
I happen to know that she hashorses Her and her family have
rescue horses, so they havearound seven or eight and
they're on about 30 acres.
So she had done actuallybackground and horseback riding
(08:12):
in a previous film in a biggerproduction and I asked her if we
could film there and she waslike yeah, absolutely Hick.
Jeremy and I were the only onesthat had extensive, I would say
, experience riding horses.
We got Brian on a horse.
He didn't fall off.
Matt wasn't experienced withriding, so the lady that owned
(08:33):
the property rode a horse.
She was kind of a stand-in forhim out at a distance.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That was the other thing too.
I'm like how is it that allthese people can ride horses?
Anyway, go on.
It's the magic of movie making.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That's right.
So we filmed those scenes thereon her property.
But then part of the rules, wehad to have something from Abita
Springs, a specific thing, inthe shot, so we filmed the last
part in the middle of AbitaSprings.
They have a pavilion in themuseum.
On the outside looks like itcould be a train platform, so we
(09:05):
use that as both sides of it asa train platform and that's how
we got that requirement in toget the scene from Ibida.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Wow, I did want to speak a little bit to the
preparation stuff because Irealized I haven't really talked
that much about what's in thebook.
You guys know, when I sat downto write this I was like, all
right, let's start with, we'lldo it kind of chronologically
right, what you do before toprepare, then Friday at seven,
what happens Then?
What happens after?
We write the script on Fridaynight, we shoot on Saturday and
(09:35):
we edit Sunday.
That's kind of the basic thing.
There's a little bit ofoverspill.
We might do a couple pickupshots on Sunday, we might start
editing a little bit on Saturday, but that's kind of the flow of
it.
And when I sat down to write itout, I realized I think the
preparation is like half thebook, because once you get to
Friday, it's like write thescript.
Okay, you sit there and you.
(09:55):
You know and I talked a littlebit about our process and the
process of some other teams, Iknow, but there really isn't
much more to say about it.
This isn't I'm not going toteach you how to write a script,
there's other books for thatbut you write the scripts and
then you shoot on Saturday andthat's you shoot.
Like I talked a little bitabout that and about how we
didn't use a slate board thefirst couple of films, and then
someone said, hey, we should usea slate board and it's like so,
(10:29):
stuff like that.
There's a quote from AlfredHitchcock where he said that all
of the creativity and all thegenius and all the work is in
the free production.
And then production is actuallykind of boring because you're
just going through the stepsthat you planned out in the
beginning.
And I was like, wow, so it isthe preparation.
I didn't realize how muchpreparation we do, but, yeah, I
start thinking about it two orthree weeks ahead of time.
I belonged to an improv troupeand I'm still friends with a lot
(10:49):
of these people.
That was how we did.
The first one is I was like,hey, why don't you come over and
we'll make a film, and startedme off on this whole journey.
I say who's available thisweekend, and so we know that we
have these people.
But you're right, people dropout, and we had three people
drop out out of the 15 that wehad, which usually is only one
or two, and all right, we'regoing to write the script.
And so when we sit down towrite the script, we are writing
(11:11):
for those people that we haveavailable and we know for sure
are going to show up.
That's really what it comesdown to, and I also, when you
said locations, for the mostpart I do the locations ahead of
time.
I do not do them on the day.
We tried that once and it waspretty bad.
It's one of the films that isnot on my YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Getting the waiver sign could be an issue if you
wait to the last minute.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And also that's the one that I talked about in the
book that we're one of.
It was a woman who used to comeand do makeup with us.
She's moved away, sounfortunately not part of the
team anymore.
She's one of the team anymore.
She's one of the ones whodropped out in June as well.
She worked at this store down inthe French Quarter and for like
three films in a row she saidyou know, they said we can film
(11:53):
at the store, and she seemed toreally want to film at the store
, and I think that was more herthan the owner of the store.
So she got the form signed andthen we showed up and they said
well, you can only stay for twohours.
There can be only two people inhere.
No hours, there's going to beonly two people in here.
No, we're not going to turn themusic off.
It's like oh plus, that wasalso one where the one of the
lead actors had had a big fightwith the sound person a few days
earlier, so they were just in aterrible mood.
(12:15):
Whenever the person would putthe boom up, the actor would
like clow her and her.
And oh, it's just, it was.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
That was a terrible shoot, shoot did y'all end up
still filming in the store?
How did you handle that withthe music playing with copyright
stuff?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
we finally got them to turn the music off, but the
director of photography on thatfilm, which I'm pointing to
myself I happen to be the onepressing the button on the
camera was so flustered byeverything else going on we
didn't have time to use theclapper.
We just just had to just go on.
I did that thing where you pressrecord and you're really
turning off the recording whenyou think you're turning it on,
(12:51):
and so everything I recorded inthere was like outtakes, and
managed to catch one thing thathappened in the store, so we
just ended up not using it.
I often do these things whereI'll put something in the script
which is like, say, a series ofinterviews, like, say,
interviews after a crime hasoccurred or something has
happened on the news orsomething, and that gives me
(13:13):
what I call the accordion script, where, if more people show up.
We have more actors show up, wehave something for them, they
can have their little line.
And if less people show up,well, there's only two people
interviewed by the news.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
That's brilliant, by the way.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And if less people show up.
Well, there's only two peopleinterviewed by the news.
That's brilliant, by the way.
Well, thank you, it was bornout of necessity.
I wanted all my actor friendswho showed up to have something,
you know, have something thatthey can do.
It was just part of that.
It was an interview type thingand that guy just didn't end up
being in the film for very long.
Just the one take that I got.
(13:50):
That was right.
Or when, after I also signed oneperson who's kind of in charge
of getting everybody to signtheir release forms, then this
person was kind of sittingaround doing nothing and I wish
I had had her start writing upthe credits.
That's another thing is gettingthat nice, perfectly spelled
list and also asking people howthey want to be credited is
another thing, because sometimessomeone they run sound and they
also I don't know their scriptsupervisor too, or something
like that.
It's like all right, what areyou trying to get a future
(14:12):
career in?
I'll list you at.
Whatever that is.
That's another question thatneeds to be asked of people.
Because, yeah, it's just onyour film.
I'm assuming everybody woremore than one hat, right?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
yes, yeah, just an, just an actor.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
When did you guys join your crew stuff?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, so we all took turns holding the boom.
I have a teenage daughter.
She came for part of the day onSaturday to just help PA.
She is an actor, she does playsand musicals and she's in
Nutcracker.
This year For the seven andseven.
She came and stayed the wholetime and PA'd the whole time.
She also did a little bit ofBoone, a little bit of grip,
(14:49):
because he was self-contained.
He's used to filming by himselfour DP for the 48.
So I mean it was mainly justhelping with setups and moving
stuff, right, brian.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
We didn't have script supervised.
We didn't have a lot of themain crew roles assigned, we
just have script supervisor.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
we didn't have a lot of the main crew roles assigned.
We just kind of picked up whatwe needed to do yeah, that's
cool yeah, but you know,technically you ran sound at
least part of the time, so you,you know you couldn't boom.
Operator tj sebastian yeah, sothat's the kind of thing that
I'm saying like usually on ourfilms.
Now dave runs sound, but that'sanother thing about the 48 that
I hope came across in the bookis that even though Dave knows
how to run sound, there's timeswhen there's somebody hanging
(15:30):
out who's not doing anything.
It's like here you want to runsound and they're like no, they
get to do it for a while andit's like it could break or
he'll start taking the footageand renaming it, you know,
naming the files for editing,which makes life a lot easier,
but people get to try new stuffand it's a very low.
Like you know, if you screw upit's not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Low stakes.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Low stakes, there we go.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, that's the.
Everything that I really enjoyseeing is when someone is trying
out a piece of equipment.
They've never gotten to do this, so if they've never been on a
film set, that can be reallyinteresting and fun.
It's usually okay.
But I've had people say thingslike wait a minute, they think
you shoot in sequence, like ifthere's two people talking
you're going to shoot this andthen shoot that and then shoot
this.
(16:15):
It like no, we shoot all ofthis person and then all of this
person.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah yeah, I'm completely fascinated by every
aspect of the filming processand I try to watch and listen
and pay attention to what'sgoing on.
I don't know, I kind of geekout a little bit because I just
like learning that stuff.
I like watching how they do.
How do you know?
How do you know how to set thatup, how do you know where to
place that light?
(16:39):
Well, I mean, it's experience.
I try not to get in the way,but I try to watch and observe
and and pick things up.
Same here.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I was an editor in the 1980s, before we had
non-linear editing like the twolittle dials and if you screwed
it up, you know it's always athing.
So I learned editing back thenand I was eddie editing uh,
court depositions.
It's very boring, which is kindof good because it's like the
subject matter is notinteresting at all.
(17:07):
I was able to focus on themechanics of what I was doing
and from there I edited a lot ofactors reels.
So I had that background and Idon't know.
I made some films when I wasyoung.
I took film class when I was ateenager and made a few films
along the way with my parents'Super 8 camera.
Then I was working in like the2000s.
I was living in New Hampshireand there was a local guy who
(17:29):
would go out and shootcommercials the commercials for
you know he had your majorchannels on TV and then there
were like the three localchannels.
So there were commercials thatwere aired on the local channels
.
So the quality was like andnobody really cared about the
quality.
So the two of us was just showup, we had one camera, he was
the director and I did themakeup and wardrobe and calmed
(17:54):
people down.
I worked with talent a lotbecause they would do things
like I remember shooting acommercial for a gym and they
just decided they would justhave people who usually are at
the gym show up to be in thecommercial.
Well, they're like, oh my God,I'm going to be with camera.
They're nervous and I'm likeyou look great, you look fine.
One woman was worried about herskin and I put foundation on it
.
I guess she had never heard offoundation, I don't know, but
(18:24):
she was so happy that her skinlooked feel like.
I just remember moments likethat.
So there was a lot of workingwith film and stuff.
But, yeah, same way, I wasalways trying to learn more
about different ways of doingthings and I was also trying
things, some of which worked andsome of which didn't.
I tried to green screen for thelongest time and I finally
figured out what I was doingwrong nice, I might hit you up
for some advice on that.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I'm trying to figure it out myself.
It's kind of tricky.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
It's tricky.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
One of the things is it's got to be pulled really
tight right or be no wrinkles oranything.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yes, and you can't be standing very close to it,
which means that, depending onhow wide a thing you're doing,
you need a pretty big screen.
People have some that's rightbehind their head, but also if
you have a lot of hair on yourface or head.
Tj see, brian would be easierto green screen than you would,
(19:12):
because the little hairs tend toget lost and it looks really
awful, which is why you see somany people in green screen
stuff wearing a hat or somethinglike that.
You have a nice hard edge for itto screen against.
Yeah, there's, and it's still,it's still hard, like I've done
it a few times, but the lightingalso has to be really even on
(19:32):
the green screen.
Do you know how we did ourbackgrounds for the police
station?
I remember hearing that y'allused a screen it was rear
projected interesting wow so wehave a normal projection screen
that you would use to projectfilm that you're watching,
whatever, but it does both frontand rear and we have a high
(19:54):
prosumer and projector, so itdoes a nice resolution and dave
taught himself unreal engine.
So he builds backgrounds.
While we were discussing thefilm, before I wrote the script,
I think he went into his officeand built that set, because
it's very simple, it's just awall and he had some stuff stuck
up on the wall and then helights it kind of nondescriptly,
(20:17):
so you don't have to worryabout matching the lighting too
much.
It it was sort of very basicand then we just projected that
up there.
So there was the one scene thattakes place in the police
station where Jake is gettinginterrogated, which is the first
and last scene in the film, andthen there's another scene
where Jake goes to the policeand is trying to get them to
listen to him, and that was adifferent.
I think Dave found an UnrealEngine game that takes place in
(20:39):
a school or a prison orsomething.
It's just a lot easier thangreen screening.
It's a lot, lot, lot easier.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
It's limited, but it's the job done very first job
the day I turned 16 was workingat a movie theater and the
screens are very expensive.
We used to go to the RockyHorror Picture Show and I've
(21:06):
been to the old school oneswhere you throw stuff because
they've got a sheet or somethingup there that's not going to
damage.
You do that to a real silverscreen, you get anything on it
on the outside and it'scompletely destroyed.
Wow, so you project it frombehind on a silver screen and
then you're filming from thefront.
I guess it has to project itbackwards, right?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
There's a setting.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I'm trying to visualize it in my head.
How big is the screen?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
It's only about it's something that someone with a
big living room might put intheir backyard, or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Ah, okay.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And it came with a frame.
It was like 200 bucks on Amazon.
I tried to get a bigger one.
That is the biggest one theysell and we tried to get that
material and we were going tojust make something larger
because it's very limiting.
You either have somebody fromthe thighs up or you can
actually adjust it so it sits onthe ground or lower.
So we have done ones where wehad people sitting and we had
(22:00):
the backdrop for that, but youcan never capture their entire
body, it just isn't big enoughto do that.
So it's good for certain things,but we were trying to get one
that was like much larger and wewere going to mount it, do
stuff, but the fabric thatsilver fabric, like you were
saying the price went from $200to like I can't remember how
much it was, but it was.
(22:20):
It was like no, we're notpaying that.
I don't remember what it wasbecause we weren't even really
sure if that was going to work.
Because we have this projectorit's also a short throw, which
means it only needs to sit likea couple of feet behind the
screen to project this 10 footimage.
So we needed that as well,because we didn't have enough
space for what would normally bethere and for the rear
(22:42):
projecting.
It's just when you set up theprojector you have a little
remote and under the settingsyou just say we're doing rear
projection and the projectortakes care of it and you can
also flip it upside down on someof them.
On this one, though, we found wecouldn't that one.
No, we had a differentprojector.
We were trying to mount it.
We tried all kinds of stuff.
We like our rear projectionsetup.
We tried mounting it to theceiling, because the other thing
(23:03):
is look at these frontprojections, because it's such a
short throw.
It also projects like itdoesn't project straight ahead.
It projects on an angle awayfrom itself.
So we could do it in the frontand not have people step on it.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
But it's easier to have it in the back.
Is it hard to light the subjectwith it being rear projection
like that is it?
Is it complicated to get yourkey light and stuff right with
the screen?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
yes, that's the light spill.
(23:53):
We found that we had to usereally bright lights to light
people to make them match wellenough with the background in
terms of brightness because thebackground was very bright.
So the first few films we didthe lighting was really off.
But it's all part of anexperiment.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So by the time y'all got to the 48, y'all had it.
It seemed like y'all had itdialed in.
I thought it looked fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well, thanks time y'all got to the 48, y'all had
it.
It seemed like y'all had itdialed in.
I thought it looked fantastic.
Well, thanks, this year we did.
You know I was.
I said this in the book toothat whenever I had a shoot that
had a lot of drama, the filmjust isn't good.
It's just it's for whateverreason, it's just because who's
how do you say what a good filmwas like?
I thought butterfly was a goodfilm, but I didn't expect it to
get this response from people,and a lot of people seem to
really have resonated with it orhad had some things that they
noticed about it or whatever.
Whereas I did another thisother film, hair today, gone
(24:42):
tomorrow with the park ranger.
That same year you did yoursthat we had all kinds of weird
drama going on on the set and Istill thought it was a pretty
decent film, but something aboutit was just it fell flat and I
think like nobody remembers thatfilm From the screen.
Not a single person remembers it.
I think it just it felt awkward.
It was an awkward film becausewe were all a little on edge, I
(25:07):
think, with the drama.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And if everybody's synced, even if you miss
something like, hey, what if Ido this?
Or hey, my character would dothat.
Oh yeah, what about if TJ's,you know, like everybody's
thinking the same lines, tryingto create the same story, you
can work off of each other.
If people are trying to gettheir own thing in and worried
about their divaness or whateverthe hell it is, it interrupts
the creative flow.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, that's pretty much sums it up because, yeah,
we did have a, we had a diva onthat one and a lot of other
things.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
I got you.
Well, let's hit with one lastquestion.
While I was reading, lovedevery part of the book, totally
agree with everything, and thisis not a disagreement.
You were telling people to domore 48s to get in practice, to
learn the filming, especiallyediting.
I say for those people go outwith your phone and just make
films every weekend and then goback to the computer and keep
(25:58):
editing.
I mean you don't have to waitfor the 48.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
That's right, so I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I felt like you would , because I believe that's what
you were saying, not like youneed to go fix the book and say
what Brian said.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
But see how we do a 48, not how you do it.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
But you're an excellent teacher and lots of
experience.
So the call to action, whatwould you say to inspire people,
whether they're alreadyfilmmakers, storytellers or
they've never done this and kindof the bugs starting to bite
them like, hey, I could do thistoo.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
What would you say to them to get them off the couch
and into our world?
I would say, just start withsomething.
And you were saying, just goout and shoot something and edit
it.
But if you're doing it aloneyou might give up or you might
start to second guess yourselflike, oh, this isn't any good or
whatever.
But one of the things that I didbefore we did our first 48 is I
held this thing at my housecalled Soap Opera Sundays, where
(26:55):
everybody would come overAnybody who wanted to come over
and we would write, shoot andedit a soap opera episode in
three hours.
So you had to get it done.
We would spend some timespitballing ideas and we would
go shoot.
And this is again.
We were talking about peoplelearning about how film works
and how you shoot things.
You know unseat into time,whatever, and then I would sit
(27:15):
down and edit it.
But I also had everybody who wasin it saying where is it?
Where is it?
I want to see it, when can Ishow it to my family or when can
I see it?
So it made me finish it.
So if you get together with acouple of people and do it, I
think you're more likely tocontinue on and also having that
other person to help you whenyou're second guessing yourself
and thinking that can I says-u-c-k on your mark oh, yeah,
(27:38):
yeah okay when you start tothink that you suck and, believe
me, everybody thinks they suckat some point.
I'm sure some of the films I'vemade I'm like, oh my god, I'm
terrible, this is awful.
So you're gonna feel that way,but you have to keep doing it
anyway, because that's how youget better at it.
And the first thing this is theother thing is the first thing
you make is going to be terrible.
So get it out of the way now,and then the next one will be
(28:01):
better and the next one will bebetter.
That's what.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I have to say to them In your book you even mentioned
starting out you stress usewhat you have, don't spend a
bunch of money.
Film it with an iPhone.
And you're right.
I mean even Apple doescommercials filmed completely
with iPhones.
The quality of them these daysis so incredible.
You don't need all the fancy,expensive, commercial-grade
(28:26):
filming equipment to do this.
You can start with your phoneand upgrade as you go.
Probably the biggest challengeis the lights.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Oh, I was going to say sound.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Well, I mean lights.
There's light outside.
That's right, you know it'sfree.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
If you have no money or experience and you want to
learn, this YouTube Universityis a great place to start.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Oh, yes, yes, 100%.
I also think that on YouTubeno-transcript going to be
(29:22):
natural light and the person whoshowed up from our troop, who's
the director of photography Ididn't know this.
He shows up with his Sony I wasgoing to shoot all on my phone,
it's going to be terrible, Ididn't care and he shows up with
his Sony a6500 and he, justlike, shoots commercials.
It's one of his hustles isshooting commercials and music
videos.
So I said we're shootingoutside.
(29:42):
He's like that's a terrible idea.
I'm like I don't have anylights, like what are we going
to do?
And he said I have lights, sohe pulls these lights out.
But anyway, we shot it alloutside and that was one of the
things we ran into.
It's like you can't, you haveto look in the direction of the
sun in order for us to see yourface.
So what we came up with was theactor would sit there with her
eyes closed for until we geteverything set up, and then I go
(30:03):
action and she opened her eyes,say her line and close her eyes
again.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Sorry, I'm rambling on about filming.
No, no, no last question no,that's what it's about.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
But that's you know, we made it work.
She got nominated for BestActress on that one, so that was
really cool, made it allworthwhile.
Because I think when we weredone she was like I know,
because it was hard, it was hot,it was August, she was wearing
a cowgirl outfit, ready to faint, sweating, so it was
uncomfortable.
And then she got nominated forBest Actress and she's like when
are we going to do it again?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
It's wonderful when people ask how do you do what
you do?
I want to do what you do, andthen some people take off and
then other people just even on a48, how much we have to put
ourselves through.
It's not, you know, it's notditch digging, but it can be
strenuous on yourself, or yada,yada, yada.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
It's not easy and that's a great lesson.
I actually started out doing abunch of acting, but then I
realized how much work it is tobe an actor and I was like I'm
going to do directing now, whichI know we might think is crazy,
but I actually feel a lot morecomfortable directing than
acting.
I still do some acting.
Oh, the other thing I wanted tomake sure I mentioned is that I
do mention this in the book aswell is if you want to get
(31:17):
started, a great way is to joinsomebody else's team doing a 48
hour film project, and the wayyou do that is you show up to
one of the mixers they have alot of mixers before the actual
weekend and if you show up, yourclothes are clean and you don't
smell.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And you're reasonably easy to get along with, because
that's the other thing is thatyou're going to be in each
other's pockets for a wholeweekend.
So you want somebody that youknow you're going to be able to
get along with, and everybodyI've seen show up at one of
these it's this I'm looking fora team to join, and I'm in film
school and I'm studying this orI've been making little things
on my phone and I want to join ateam.
(31:56):
They find a team becausethere's always people looking
for someone and they'll be happyto have them.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Yeah, don't be the guy that's standing outside with
a sign, like you're scalpingtickets to a concert, looking
for a team Go into the mixer andmeet people and network and see
who you get along with andwho's the right fit.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
If I was at one of these mixtures and somebody came
up to me and kind of bargedinto the conversation and said,
excuse me, I'm trying to find ateam to join, I would not be
offended in the least, becausethat's one of the reasons we're
there, and I might even starttalking to them.
I tend to be a little bitaphedemical of the diva.
I am a little more like picky,I guess you could say, about who
(32:38):
I bring on my team.
Also, with the story team, whenyou guys were talking about how
you all wrote it, we alsodidn't have a good experience
with having everybody there.
It was too much, it was reallyoverwhelming.
So I just ask people who wantsto be on the story team, and we
usually get four or five peopleand that's that works fine.
Some people don't want to showup till Saturday, so that works
okay.
But yeah, just go to the mixer,be a little bit brash.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Be nice.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Be nice, I really want to do a 48.
Like, who's going to argue withthat?
I really want to do a 48.
I want to be on someone's team.
It's like no one is going toget mad at you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Right yeah, and sometimes the administrators can
help you find a team evenbeforehand.
Join the Facebook groups, jointhe, follow the website all that
good stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
The other thing I wanted to say, though, is that
you say I want to join and I'man actor.
For me, that's a hard pass,because everybody does
everything.
If you just want to come andact, yeah that everybody wants
to just come and act.
But if you want to come and saythey're a good cook or it's
like I could be crafty, or saythey really want to learn crew
(33:42):
stuff I'm an actor and I reallywant to learn crew I might pick
that person.
But if they just want to be anactor, I'm going to give all the
acting parts to my friends andmy crew Sorry, not to some
random person who shows up.
So and I think I mentioned thisin the book too when someone
says I want to be an actor onyour team, I say great, what
crew position can you fill ifthey don't have an answer?
if they're not on my team.
(34:02):
Yeah yeah, my podcast is howHacks Happen and this came about
because I was teaching acybersecurity class, which is
another life of mine.
I wanted my students tounderstand more about certain
kinds of hacks and it was easierto make like a nice little
one-hour podcast explaining itand people started listening so
(34:22):
I started doing more of them andnow I've gotten into talking
about scams a lot, Like I knowmuch more about romance scams
and pig butchering scams I don'tknow if you guys know what that
is Lots of different scams.
It's been around for about fouryears and I love doing it and
to come listen to how hackshappen and learn to be safe.
I've actually had people tellme that they were able to avoid
(34:44):
a scam because they listened tomy podcast, which is what makes
me happier than anything in theworld.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Don't get no better than that.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
And what about social media?
Do you want to plug any?
Speaker 3 (34:57):
of your socials.
I am terrible at social media.
It's all good, it's okay.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Well, that was going to be one of the things I tell
you on Friday night.
Get everybody social too, ifnot before, because I'm the guy
I take all the selfies.
I want to tag you in it.
I want to share.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Get permission for behind-the-scenes shots.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Even on the 48.
I always ask the director can Ishare this?
You know, yeah, I remember that.
Actually that is how we met atthe 48 and at one of the mixers
and you're like, let's take apicture together.
I'm like, all right, and thenyou sent it to me.
I think when I said to Dave ohyeah, I'm going to be talking to
Brian Plato, who's that and Ishowed him the picture, he's
like oh, yeah, that guy, the guytaking the pictures.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
The running joke is always that we met somebody in a
circle exercise.
But now the thing is kind of doyou have a picture with Brian
Plato?
And most people are going tosay yes.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, alicia came on.
I think I'm in every one ofyour posts on your site, cause
we had taken classes and workedon films together.
It's, I find it fun.
I grew up, you know, my dad hada darkroom and people are like,
oh, I feel so included when youdo that.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'm like cool, I'm just having fun, but I like that
You're doing it for you, but weall feel good.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I like doing things for other people too.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Well, I did want to say I do have a production
company called Many Worlds Videoand we world's video, and we do
have a youtube channel where Iput up all of the films that I
am willing to have other peoplesee.
I have an instagram, but I amnot very good about updating it.
Yeah, I don't really.
I think I have a facebook page,but I really should be better
at this kind of thing.
But I I do a lot of linkedin,so I'm michelle busque on
(36:28):
linkedin.
That's about it nice michelle.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Thank you so much for joining us.
We really enjoyed it.
Check, check out her book.
Check out her YouTube channel.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
It's called how we Do a 48-Hour Film Project
available on Amazon in paperbackor Kindle.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Now you need to make the audio book.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I might do that.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Just because, well, I'm a janitor, I like listening
to books.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I actually ironically for someone who wrote a book I
don't read books anymore, I onlylisten to them.
Same kind of thing, Except fortechnical books.
You can't really do that.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Right yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
But yes, I should make an audio book out of it.
It has very few pictures in it.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
And if you need some people to read for you, we might
know a couple of guys.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Oh all right.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Might even know somebody that's got a broadcast
booth.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Whoa and his beer doesn't get in the way.
All right, folks, we'll see younext time.
Thanks for joining us.
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