Our Mel can beat up your Mel

May 14, 2007 23:25

It took us nearly all of the 72 hours of the contest to make our little, six minute film noir. We told the tragic story of a prostitute duped into turning her thought-to-be-dead friend over to death at the hands of a murderous thug. We wrote for nearly 7 hours. We filmed for 36. Built sets, curled hair, ran lines, shot, shot and shot. Then, while some of us slept, our truly amazing director, Mrs. Melanie “Bloody Stumps” Jones, headed over to our editor’s house to finish the grueling task of watching, rewatching, then trimming and rewatching every second of the film a million times over. By the end of it Mel had been going for so long there were meth addicts who wanted to free-base her plasma.

As the screening and gala approached, we grew nervous. This had been our first attempt at anything like this. How would we rank? Surely, FSTOP would profit from a good showing. But we would suffer even greater for a bad one... and don't call me Shirley. This was our chance to check our standing in the pre-professional (read: amateur) film scene.

For most of us, the mid-morning screening would be our first glimpse of any of the footage we had shot - let alone the actual movie. Once all the credits had rolled we left the theater fairly content that we had done a good job. Maybe we would even win a prize that evening.

When the nominations came in we were 5 for 5. The judges thought we had something to offer in every category. Best editing, cinematography, actor, directing and best film. Sitting in the packed Caprice and seeing clips of our films play during the nomination announcements was truly exciting. For some reason, take a ten second clip for a 6 minute short you made over three days, show it on a big screen... and you feel like Hollywood (at least, we did).
The results were better than we could have imagined.
Best Actor : Jennifer Wright
Best Director: Melanie Jones
And the loudest cheers in the house (yes, from our own table, that’s totally not the point).

We lost best picture to a group lead by a girl from Emily Carr. They were a powerhouse. Clearly connected with amazing sets, awesome actors, and a few friends with equipment to lend - everything we hope to be by the next competition. They certainly deserved the award this year, and I hope they enjoy it. It’ll give them a fond memory to look back on next year when we crush them so bad they actually start crying, and then they all have to run out of the room because they realize they’re crying in front of a theater full of people and it’s really embarrassing. Prom night all over again, sweetie. I’ll bring you a corsage of bitter sadness to match your flowing dress of salty, salty tears.

All-in-all, a great time. I love FSTOP.
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