Try not to get your expectations of awesomeness in check – we didn’t win anything in the audience or best of voting. But still, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the process, and I think it turned out pretty well overall. Thanks to everyone who helped or hung out!

Preface: I’ma testing something out here today. I don’t think this post is not going to work if you read this site through RSS, so check back around midnight for the final version.

12:25pm: Our screening for the 48 hours film project is tonight! My enthusiasm is starting to build – if you want a ticket they’re still available here for $11 (we’re at 7pm).

1:11pm: My motivations in encouraging you to come tonight are mostly selfish – as half our production team is from New Jersey the standard ‘have the cast/crew stuff the ballot box’ strategy will fail. And as the backup plan (‘actually produce something good that will appeal to a broader audience’) seems a bit too optimistic I’m hoping Plan C (‘guilt friends into coming and making obligatory votes’) will win the day.

5:03pm: Nominal work day over, now it’s time to start getting nervous. Two of the four principal members of EP are telling me they’re going to be late. This does not help.

5:24pm: My unwillingness to go up for the Q&A combined with the imperfect nature of text message communication has managed to piss of our director. Sorry yo!

5:47pm: Some historical perspective – when I did my first one of these back in 2004 I got so nervous at the Q&A that I up and ran out of the Somerville Theater where our screening was back when. I just ditched, out into the rain, completely leaving my girlfriend at the time hanging out to dry (as she was forced to go up and made some lame/witty remarks). Somerville Theater really was a much better venue than Kendall Square is (though Kendall has better movies in the regular world).

6:46pm: Here and it’s still pretty empty inside, disappointing. Still tickets available, enjoy that $3 screw you surcharge, Landmark. The other 3/4 of my production team are MIA but some of the groupies are here.

6:52pm: It looks like improper use of the iPhone WordPress app means I whacked my last few updates, great.

6:59pm: Ok, it’s time. I have more than my fair share of ballots, some of the scragglers are here. We are #4 of 12. Will report back post-apocalypse.

7:15pm: Our starring actor sneaks in late just in friggin time.

7:28pm: Success!!! Some laughs. Very good technical appearance & sound. Overall am pleased. The sad scene (post ice-cream) got a solid response. A few small video glitches but I’m ok with that. Biggest concern is my cartoon fish didn’t swing in time with the live action backdrop.

8:38pm: “I didn’t really touch dog crap, that was movie magic”

8:54pm: CP makes a pretty decent joke about our complete and utter lack of dialog. Which is feature of this film I rather liked.

9:07pm: Good grief this Q&A is never-ending. Some highly self-important folks talking. Gimme Friendly Toast!!!

11:31pm: Arrive home, realizing I’ve forgotten to file taxes by the extended deadline of today. Ah, you win some, you lose some.

I seem to have failed to mention that we wrapped on “The Man Who Had Too Much To Lose” late last Saturday and submitted a semi-reasonable cut later yet Sunday, with six solid minutes to spare. Our short will be screening along with a bunch-ton of other short films on Tuesday, 5/11 at Kendall Square. This was our first time shooting in high definition and it turns out using three different HD cameras with three different file formats leads to all sorts of fun, unexpected problems in post. More of that please!

And yes, to preemptively clarify the post-screening question that I know we’ll be getting from everyone, it is a comedy.

(You can get tickets here. 5/11, 7pm.)

The 48 Hour Film Project Boston starts tonight at 7pm. This will mark the 7th consecutive year some variant of Team Echoplanar has entered this competition. Our earliest film predates the existence of youtube, and those first three are possibly lost for all time (a case could be made* that this is best for all those involved).

2004: Aiden & Aoife
2005: Kombat Kitchen
2006: Jelly and Creme
2007: This Is Knot Love
2008: It’s OK to be Afraid
2009: The Most Dangerous Games

So that brings us to 2010. Right now everything is tabula rasa but we should have a pretty idea of what’s what in twelve hours or so. If you have ideas about locations or animatronic props, this would be a good time to stand up & be counted.

*But not by me! If I find ‘em I’m gonna spread ‘em to the winds!

Thanks to all cast & crew. I really hope it all went well at the screening tonight.

A core member of our team is stuck in Japan. Does this portend the end to echoplanar’s 48hr hopes? FEEL THE FEAR.

On Saturday, quarantine offices at Narita and two other international airports began using more temperature-measuring devices to detect passengers with a fever. So far no passengers at the three airports have been intercepted by quarantine officers. Japan’s international airports began using the devices in 2003 after the SARS outbreak in China the previous year.

PS. It’s in San Francisco. Or was, before it flew off to Hong Kong.

UPDATE: I’ve been told it’s a spider attack rather than swine flu that’s causing the quarantine situation.

Our screening information for the 2009 48 Hour Film Festival (Boston). Are we still Echoplanar? Yes, yes we are.

Group E, Screening on Thursday, May 7th, at 7pm
Battleground State, Dave Poole
Echoplanar, Nathanael Hevelone
FRED-TV, Pauline McGrath
Harvard Square Scriptwriters, Andrew Hall
High School in The Throp, Jason Bonneau
In The Car Media, Dan Stevens
LTJFilms, Daniel Lee White
Moose Films, David Canfield
Team Bait Shop/Burt Wood, Andrew Osborne
Weston Cats, Ted Garland
WinCAM Wonders, Stephen Gay

Once more? This will make six years straight for Team Echoplanar in the Boston 48 Hour Film Competition. But 2009 is special in that since I’m no longer in Boston it’ll be our first bicoastal production. Or, maybe we’ll make use of the aeroports between here and there I’ll come into town the morning of. I’m not sure if taking the red-eye is best use of available energy or if shooting in both locations then remote editing is the way to go. We’ve got a month or so to decide.

Congratulations!

Your team, “ECHOPLANAR“, is officially registered for the Boston 48 Hour Film Project scheduled to begin May 1, 2009.

So there it is. Additonally, I believe we’ve opted to be in the PG-13 category this time round so keep your HIGHLY PERVY suggestions for next year, Palo Alto residents.

It was a good first week, both for me at the new job and the quasify diaspora out there in the real world. The hetero-normative half of Team Echoplanar is getting hitched, and JP passed her quals with (I quote) ‘the highest recorded score in UT history’. I finally signed a lease here bringing a timely end to my homelessness experiment and so was relaxed enough to spend the rest of the morning on the shoreline playing tourist. Which, for all practical purposes, I am. Some new (snap)shots in my San Francisco set.

Thanks to the cast (Christopher Player, Nathanael Hevelone, VK, Le Nguyen, Khoa Nguyen, Julie Kong, Troy Turick, Mai-Khuyen Nguyen & Allison Stevens); and crew (Allison Stevens who produced, Nathanael Hevelone who directed and Christopher Player who did foley work & assistant editing; also to the others who worked tirelessly on this but prefer their anonymity). Lastly, we’re extremely grateful to the musicians – Mediafriend and Action Set.