With Angela, Liz & Mark at the finish line.
After hours of work, it was 5am and we decided to take a short break from editing. We agreed to reengage at 7am. My boots never came off for those two hours of sleep because I was worried I wouldn’t get them back on.
Noel was a machine, he informed us finally that he went out Friday night and was now really paying the price of two all nighters, but he still killed it. Not only did he cut a great piece, he added the coolest effect between scene 1 & 2, cleaned up the sound, color corrected and around 2:45pm added the music. WE STILL NEED TO OUTPUT! Southwest waits for no one. Did I mention the film needed to be delivered in Vegas? I needed to make a 4:30pm flight at LAX, so instead of a 7pm deadline, we had a 4:30pm deadline…
We started outputting at 3pm. I was bummed out that I hadn’t even reviewed the footage from the shoot and that I’d stopped making decisions a long time ago. It had been survival since 11am and we had agreed on a schedule, just like the 48hr guys recommended (www.48hourfilm.com) and at each deadline, it felt like we were letting down the film every time. Any other way and we’d never finish. I made a final run to Staples to make a copy of ALL the paperwork that needed to be turned in with the film and at 3:30pm Noel hands me a MiniDV, a DataDVD and a DVD and without much celebration I was out the door with another deadline.
We pulled up at LAX at 4pm. If I missed this 4:30pm flight, it was over, fuck I was tired…In the security line, I started thinking, why didn’t I throw the editor in a RV this morning and let him edit all the way to The Palms Hotel… We would have gained almost four more hours. I made the flight with sixty seconds to spare…
We landed on-time, dulling the excitement… The taxi line changed that… I’d only seen lines like that at Disneyland and that’s probably the reason people don’t go back. I was really starting to feel goofy at this point. I checked my watch and I acknowledged the time I’d lost by flying, but relishing in the fact I was done. The first thing I did when I got to The Palm Hotel was order a beer, it was cold and wet and just what I needed for the final inch of this experience. I found the movie theatre and a small table. I turned in the work at 6:45pm.
Time isn’t your friend and I don’t know why, you realize that so late in the game. The best way to describe this exercise is: It’s this amazingly creative experience that, at some point just turns to survival…
There was Deli with tongs for everything and it was good. I finally met Angela and she was alive with excitement. This is a passion for her and you can tell. I felt lucky and grateful to have her there at the finish line… Man I was dead. I met Mark, the creator of this craziness and I thanked him. I told him about my brother and he totally remembered his film from seven years ago… Will he remember ours? I grabbed a picture with them both to prove to myself I did it. Then they excused themselves, because the deadline was quickly approaching. For the next ten minutes, the teams that ran through the door made it and after that they didn’t. For those who didn’t, it was heartbreaking, because I knew what they just put themselves through. I couldn’t watch. I had time for one more beer and then I headed back to the airport.
I got home at midnight. I’d been up for the better part of 72 hours. I passed out.