48 Hours

Don't worry, this isn't a post about Nick Nolte... and before you ask, no he's not trending as he's got Coronavirus!

Yep, that old chestnut hit us with a thump didn't it. Who would have thought some flu-like bug would get us all locked up in the nut house ready to bludgeon our respective others and strangle the kids with the nearest available toilet roll.

Hang on. There's no toilet roll. Damn. Bring back the strigil!

Right, 48 hours was the time frame for the 48 hour 'stuck in' film challenge that I was encouraged to join by Fraser Coull of Silly Wee Films. Yes, that's he same Fraser on my blog who created the web-episodes of 'Cops and Monsters'.

And what exactly is a 48 hour stuck in film challenge you ask?

Well, with all of us self-isolating, fed up with cleaning and with no more room to hide the bodies and/or ironing, it seemed like the perfect time to join together to make an original short movie.

The remit was we had to make a film between 2 and 7 minutes which included a Famous Movie Line from a given selection and one line associated with the project group. With this in mind, Fraser put out a request for volunteers, did a Skype call at about 8pm on Friday and a group - that largely didn't know each other - met up on line to discuss what we planned to create.

Once we had a few ideas flowing and the group were happy with a basic concept (namely of an unconventional family and a business away to be taken over), Fraser and I then brainstormed character names and a rough plot. Then came the challenge, both of us went off to write our idea of the script remotely. Weirdly, after two/three hours and within about ten minutes of each other, we both had scripts to swap.

With the scripts read, we then amalgamated the best bits to give us a cohesive and hopefully, funny whole. Fraser had the super idea of framing it with a video from the owner and we had a decent script by midnight. Although, it wasn't until about 2am and getting up for the cat, I realised we'd forgotten one of the set lines! With that added, it was ready for the cast.

With one of the group hard at work on a poster, Fraser then sent the script to the cast assembled from; Falkirk, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Orlando!

We all met on-line at 1pm and while I lurked with my camera and audio off, I got to watch the cast rehearse on line which was fab especially as we had one character who was a depressed German and one arrogant swine with 'strigil envy'.

After two, or three run throughs where Fraser gave direction and was kind enough to include me on any questions, with the audio on and we were ready to shoot. It must have been odd for the cast as they were on different areas in the Skype screens and all in different locations, yet they managed to bring it all together and I was really proud of what they achieved.

Having a cast member in Orlando was also a boost as we could have our American 'rich bitch' character get more Scottish as she got more irate and be a contrast to the sweet character who wins her sort-of-step-relation's heart.

With all that done it came down to editing and music and the result was the movie was completed and submitted in a weekend.

You can watch it via the attached link below and I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.