There is a competition held every year, sacred among young, western Canadian filmmakers, called the Mulgrave ZOOM Film Festival, or as it is better known, Zoomfest. This forty-eight hour film festival puts young artists to the test, challenging teams of students to write, film, and produce a short film in the time equivalent of two full earthly rotations around the sun. Everything, from the acting to the cinematography and music, must be originally created by the students themselves. This was to be my second Zoomfest and my first time leading the team - I shall refer to them simply as S, C, and V. I knew that it would be a mental and physical challenge to lead them, a group as awesome and varied as it gets, to a glorious finished project that we could all be proud of. I never suspected that I would have to accomplish the same thing in only thirty-six hours.
I messed up. Normally the weekend of Zoomfest starts on the Friday at five pm but this year, to accommodate for a Pro-D day, it was switched to the Thursday at five pm. I, being the over-confident bulldozer I am, didn't think to check this. Imagine my surprise when I woke up Friday morning to discover that the contest had already been running for twelve hours and I was on my own at home, with my teammates scattered across the valley in different places. I will admit I panicked, wrote a bad script in twenty minutes, and had a massive melt down. There was a moment when I thought; Forget this, it isn't worth the stress. I was ready to call my three long-suffering teammates and call the whole thing off. I was totally ready to do that.
But of course I didn't. I am a filmmaker. I am one part dangerous creativity and three parts infuriating but well-intentioned stubbornness. I have a hard time letting things go. It was not a deep breath per se, more of a frustrated growl as I picked up my phone and started to text the trio; Code red, zoomfest has been moved up a day. Can you be here before four-thirty?
I'm working all day, C responded.
Fuck, was S's simple reply.
But with V, there was hope. Can you pick me up at two?
Alright, I thought. This is my life now. And in the hours between ten and two I sat down and wrote another, hopefully better script. At two I picked up V and we returned to my labyrinth of coffee and darkness to gather together props and costumes as we were the only two actors. On our to-do list, we needed to find a bedroom set that could easily be transformed into a college dorm room - hopefully within a fifteen minute drive. Though we made several calls, the closest place we could find was my aunt's guest room an hour away. Did we despair? A little.
Aright, I thought. So we bring the coffee with us. S got off work at four-thirty and we decided that she would be our director and cinematographer since she was the only one who had been trained in that area. I think she was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to act, but she rose to the task with grace and and a collected sort of calm I could only envy. We made arrangements to meet at Starbuck's to go over the script before heading to my aunt's so that S wasn't going into the project totally blind. C was working until ten-thirty so nothing we could do there, she would meet up with us after her shift.
A huge thank-you to my aunt who let myself and two strangers into her house at such short notice and didn't say anything when we started putting stickers and wall decals up in her guest bedroom. It took us almost a half an hour to dress our set and actually get set up to film. Anyone familiar with night shoots will know how it went - you're really upbeat and productive the first couple of hours. The three of us were laughing and joking throughout all of the first scene. No surprise to anyone, S was a natural born leader, although she had a little too much fun ordering V and me around. As soon as we took a break for dinner, something magical happened and we mysteriously lost all of our energy and most of our resolve, but we had come this far and it seemed only right to finish it. By the time eleven pm rolled around, C had joined us bearing welcome chocolate bars, and everyone was ready for sleep, but we still had to film a scene that involved me getting hit by a car. And that is how I ended up in the Costco parking lot at midnight screaming like a banshee while my mother flicked the high beams.
It was one am when we returned to my home and after all that, did we get to sleep for a thousand years like the well-deserving champions we are? No of course not, now it was time to watch our video clips copy to my computer for an hour and then spend another six cutting them into some semblance of a film. V fell asleep quickly which was alright because she'd put in a full day, and C had to go home at about two-thirty. S stayed up with me for a couple of hours and the video was half cut by the time she finally fell asleep. I stayed up by myself and edited as the light outside my window changed, slowly going from pitch black, to greyish blue, to pinky sunrise. at seven-thirty am the film was edited together sans music but at that point I'd been awake for twenty-two hours and desperately needed sleep.
I woke up at nine am and thought I was dying; too much coffee and chocolate bars, and only an hour and a half of sleep. It took a while before I started to feel human again.
Other than the fact that I had to compose music for the film, finish it, and upload to zoomfest's dropbox, the rest of that day was pretty laid back. V was there for most of it and C made an appearance to give some last minute input on the film. S decided to stay another night which was awesome because she lives two hours away and we don't see each other a lot. We ended up finishing with two hours to spare, and we were all pretty proud of what we'd accomplished.
So, yeah, I messed up the dates. And amazingly the world didn't end, I wasn't ostracized by my friends and family, and we even managed to finish the film with time to spare. If nothing else, it turned out to be a very memorable Zoomfest experience and I learned a couple things as well.
1.) It is absolutely okay to listen to sad indie pop music when you're working under a deadline, no matter how much your friends beg you to put on "better" music. They will win that battle anyways. Also, coffee is a magical potion that makes you still like them after experiences like this! Seriously though, they will end up surprising you in the most beautiful ways and I couldn't be happier that I got to do this with three of the most talented, creative ladies I can think of. Plus they put up with a day and a half of crazy-Katie and they don't hate me! S, C, V you know who you are and I love all of you. ;)
2.) My family is awesome and they are (somewhat) unfazed when I need them to drive me places or film in their house. They will also drive their car around a Costco parking lot at high speeds for half an hour in the middle of the night. If that's not love, I don't know what is. Even my siblings know when it is time to call a 36 hour truce in the name of film. Sometimes I worry about not having connections in the art world, but you can't beat a family that's supportive and I would not have managed to follow through with Zoomfest if it hadn't been for them.
3.) Being an artist is many things, but it is not easy. A lot of the time, being an artist doesn't even feel like being an artist because you're equipment is thrifted and not top of the line, your script is not the bitingly clever social commentary you wanted it to be, and you created your project on adrenaline and will power not beneath a cozy blanket with a cup of tea. It doesn't matter how confident or organized you are, art never goes smoothly. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong, you'll probably cry a lot, and you might end up with something cool; not revolutionary or totally life-changing, but pretty goddam cool.
