Working on Adrenaline 25'

Endless script writing, fake body bags, and large amounts of coffee were just some of the things that contributed to my team's and my success in completing the 72-hour Light House Adrenaline Film festival. A true initiation to the film community here in Charlottesville, the experience gathers filmmakers, actors, and scriptwriters of all ages to compete in an energy-intensive environment. My team and I were lucky to receive feedback from professionals in the entertainment industry to curate a new twist on dark comedy: Oh my Heavenly Father!

The Process

The Adrenaline film festival consisted of 4 main checkpoints: Pitch, Script writing, Filming, and Editing In which we would receive feedback and green lights from our mentors to continue onto the next process. The kick off started at 5 pm on Thursday and ended with a screening of all of the films on Sunday Night.

Pitching

The Pitches began right as the 72-hours started, each group was given their genre, prop, and line of dialogue they had to include in their films, and with that started brainstorming their ideas and pitching them to a panel that would either approve it or tell them to go back to the drawing board. Our group managed to slide by with two pitches, one in which we had to tweak down to fit the PG13 required rating.

Script Writing

After a successful pitch, we went straight into scriptwriting. My group and I went back to the "Gutter", the name of the art studio on our university campus, where our professor provided us with the essential fuel to get us through the night (pizza and caffeine). Script writing lasted through the early hours of the morning, mapping out characters, plot lines, and locations. Before we knew it we were back at the lighthouse for our 8 am review with our mentors. The majority of Friday was spent finalizing scripts and starting to think about actors, location, and set design.

Filming

Normally Filming is done Friday night (for any night scene you are planning to shoot) and Saturday morning/ afternoon (for day scenes). A series of unfortunate events led to 2 of our actors dropping at the last minute. This meant our group had to find 2 last minute replacements and shift all of our filming to Saturday. Saturday turned into a close to 15-hour film day as we shot everything we could from sunup to sundown. We filmed through Saturday night and, with perseverance, finished shooting before 12 am.

Editing

Editing normally takes place during the afternoon/night on Saturday and early morning Sunday. Because of our slight setback with our actors, our editing time was cut in half. Editing then took place through the entire night to meet the 10 am deadline for a rough cut. Final cut was used in this process along with two 1-terabyte drives. With the help of editing through the night time we were able to make the rough cut deadline and get our cuts reviewed once again by our mentors. After a lot of help and creative direction, we submitted our final film at exactly 5 pm.

Take Aways

Adrenaline was an amazing experience as a young filmmaker. Learning how to use equipment on the day of filming, how to edit dialogue and audio, as well as creating a coherent story was some of the very valuable skills my teammates and I learned in this high-pressure environment. We learned how to work our way around obstacles and keep the moment and energy going. Our group and I were fortunate enough to win the mentor award for our film, which meant a lot to us as they helped with many aspects of our creative process. I am excited to see what the competition brings next year!