Between my motion graphics experience, photoshop experience, acting experience, I knew I could make a movie, but it is one thing to know it in one’s head, VS to prove it with actions. I have the film, Blood Stone, which I am saving up for, but having a short film produced is proof to others that I can make a movie. It also may help stir up crowd funded donations. So with that in mind, I decided my first short film would be in the 48 Hour Film competition.

Here is a walkthrough of my personal experience of this competition:

Preparation

I was encouraged by 2 actor friends to sign up; ironically, neither of them ended up being in the film by their choice (family, busy). I was able to recruit other people: some actors I knew from other filmings, some random people off of Facebook. 

I considered possible locations. I thought about city parks or the missions, but the paperwork aspect did not seem easy. I thought Castroville might be more lax, but it was worse, so I decided I had to find a private property. My dad has a friend with a nice pool, and I thought the pool would lend itself to various storylines pretty well. Could be a office retreat, spa, family reunion, etc. I asked my dad to see if his friend would agree, and he did. It was a bit risky with an outdoor shoot, but it also was free. I expected heat, but what we got was some rain in the end.

I used my planning from Blood Stone, like to find the cheapest high quality foods, and put in a catering order for the cast and crew. Between the entry fee and food, it was about $600 for the film. I was trying to hold off on buying prop weapons for Blood Stone until later, but then I realized they might be useful in this contest, so I bought those, but I don’t count those as an expense to this short film, just an overall long term movie props expense. I also bought the prop blood I wanted for Blood Stone because I could either save it for that movie, or use it for this 48 Hour movie if the need came up. I also bought a clapper, some FX makeup, and a new SD card.

It took some herding around to get the cast/crew to sign the waivers, and towards the end, I figured if someone did not sign after so many reminders, I was not going to remind them again and take that as their declination of the team. Also, when one of the team members said he would have to leave to work at 1pm, plus take a bus out there, I knew he would not show up (the bus does not go to the film location). I did know the actress who said she was putting in PTO for the day would for sure show up. It is difficult to gauge whether people will or won’t show up, until they do!

I know some teams have high standards of their make-up, but for me, my top goal was for (1) me to have fun, (2) my team to have fun, (3) the movie to be submitted successfully, on time. Other teams might have awards as their motivating factor.  I wanted to give everyone who put energy into the movie their worthwhile and for me, If I am paying for it all, I wanted to enjoy the experience most of all. I know women tend to put themselves last, and I wanted to make sure to not do that here for such a voluntary event.

Leading up to the kick off, one man was very eager to be the director of photography (DP) and use his fancy boom. I did not think he could do both, so in one of the group emails, I asked the team members to keep an eye out for any boom operators. The DP was insistent that we use his boom, so I settled on that. The guy seemed great at first, but as we got closer to the kick-off, I got more worried about him.

• He made creepy joke about willing to be my boyfriend to live in a house I was inheriting.
• He said even though he had no money, he quit a minimum wage job.
• The guy even had the gall to tell me his advice, which I did not ask for, that I should sell my cinema camera and I’d be better off with the cash, and using him as my exclusive videographer; I knew that was bad advice and I did not want to be dependent on a man like that.
• He really pushed to get design work from me, when I was not seeking to hire a designer, and had not landed my prospect to sign the design contract even yet.
• He also pushed to do repairs at my inherited house, even though he has no car to get there and I did not say I needed help.
• He told me I was up tight, but in all reality, I was making a movie. I had to be organized.

The guy kept wanting to meet in person before the kick-off, but I did not need to talk to him. I was busy doing the administrative prep for the contest. I listed all the things I needed to do, and one of them was important, but simple: buy drinks for the cast/crew. He offered to buy the drinks and water for the team, after I insisted I would do it 3 times, I accepted his offer; a day before the kick-off, I followed up with him and he said he forgot to buy the drinks. I really did not want to be a mom to an irresponsible man, as I had my fill of that in this life, but I did ask him if he had a ride for tomorrow. He said no and seemed to hint at me wanting to drive him. In the beginning, I told him my car would be too full of gear to take anyone. That made me worry more, so I went to go buy an emergency lapel mic pair off of Craigslist that afternoon, in addition to the drinks. I also recommended he charge everything and line all his gear up near his front door, so he is not thinking of what to pack in the morning, he is simply lifting the pre-thought, pre-packaged gear in the morning. I even checked, Uber costs $20 and some pennies to drive from his house to the location, but that option did not cross his mind; I did not want to mom him and I wanted him to figure his ride out… after all, he was the one who fervently volunteered. The guy said he would take a bus, with his gear, if he could not get a ride, but I did tell him the bus did not go out there.

I had 2 other DPs that wanted in on the team, but reaching out to them the night before kickoff was too late, understandably. I was not sure if the DP would show up at all, and felt some security knowing I had my Sony cinema camera with shot gun mic and those emergency lapel mics. I know the guy wanted more power, but each time he failed to do something, I had to pull back. I know I wanted to write the script, and I was open to letting him contribute, but when he said he was nervous about having to write a script in one night, plus knowing his coarse style, I wanted to keep that responsibility to myself, or just not him. I’d rather he focus on testing his equipment and getting there on time; I had no reason to think he could carry any more weight than that. The guy even complained that 9:30am was early for a call time; I thought that was a kind call time for a shoot, but I needed people to show up on time to do the filming early and have time for editing.

Kick-off

A few of the team members showed up to the kick-off event, and were willing to brain storm with me at a nearby park. Some of the actresses paid drivers to get out there, so I drove them from the kick-off event to the brainstorm session, and back home for the ones that were on my way home. A last minute person joined the team and wanted to help with the script. I had called and vetted all the other team members, but I had not vetted this new girl, but I figured I would see how she is, in person.

At the brainstorming session, I was considering themes like:

• mean girls,
• love triangle
• work dispute
• kill cult leader
• kill CEO
• kill abusive man

All ideas I scribbled down after getting the topic of revenge. I mean, a movie with revenge and no killing, that’d be boring. People want escape from the daily rut of life.

I showed the team the photos of the approved location, and read a list of all the props I owned and heard everyone’s ideas. The music guy played a few songs from his library, and one of the songs fit extremely well for a love revenge movie, so I was set on love-revenge. I then firmly decided on an outline and verbalized it with the team:

• Susie would be a hard working plumber, supporting her husband.
• Her husband would be mooching off her labour, and using her employee discount at the pool
• Susie would go to the pool for a plumbing gig, and run into her husband. He would pretend to not know her well, gas light, and brush her off.
• As she toils away in the heat, we see her husband talking to women near the pool.
• After she finishes her plumbing work, she would start looking for her husband, but every woman she asks says they only say their boyfriend / fiance / etc.
• Susie would discover her husband making out with a woman, all of the women get upset thinking they were the special one, and then they all see red and kill him, and his wing man friend.

I was almost not sure what to cast the older woman on my team as, but then it dawned on my that the husband in the story would have to bounds, and he would have been dating an older woman too in his harem. I told the actresses to dress a certain way, and the music guy was going cut the song to 60 seconds.

I gave that outline to the script writer. She put forth ideas that involved a church or an apartment, but I did explain to her that I did not know anyone who would let me use a church to film at last minute, same for the apartment. I think her ideas were more safe and gender traditional too. I like bold ideas. I thought she understood the outline enough, and I knew I would be busy with the DPs last minute friends’ paperwork, packing my car with gear, and the call sheet, so I thought I would delegate that task to the woman.

She did deliver me a script at about 1am and I was genuinely wanting to use it out of the box, but it was not the outline that I asked for, involved locations that did not exist, a road permit I did not have, and roles that the actresses were not dressed for, so I decided to re-write the script towards the outline I had prepared the actresses/ors for and would work on the signed/scouted location. She also made the man the plumber, and I wanted the female to be the plumber. I remembered at the brainstorming session, she kept trying to introduce locations that were not in the scope, so maybe I failed to explain that the location needed to be the scouted location that was already approved. I did use 2 of her lines in the final script, so hopefully she didn’t feel too mad. I do feel in the right though, since I gave an outline and the outline was not followed, and my money funded this, that script did not meet my vision so I did not use it..

For a 48 hour movie, you only want 1 location if you can get away with it, and a close location. Driving to another city burns time. Driving to multiple location burns time. When there is only 48 hours to write, film, and edit the movie, literally every movie counts.

It was about 4am when I emailed out the script and printed out copies. I laid in bed, but had tangible adrenaline pumping through my whole body. It was impossible to sleep. I kept thinking of ideas for the movie and jotting notes in my phone.

Filming Day

At about 7am, I got out of bed, ate breakfast and moved the stuff that I could not fit into my car, to the edge of the garage, and awaited my dad to put the stuff into his car. My dad did show up 20 minutes late, which made me 5 minutes late to the call time, which I really hate; lol, next time I will have to ask my dad 25 minutes earlier than needed.

My dad and I, in separate cars, arrived at the location. One or 2 actors were already there. They were kind enough to start unloading the car with gear. One actor paid $80 to Uber out to the location; that guy was dedicated.

The DP wanted some of his buddies to handle his gear. I was not happy with it, because I did not vet them at all, but I felt pigeon holed since he only wanted his friend to touch his gear. One of his friends showed up on time to the call time. He said if he had been informed, he would have brought his camera and gear. I told him if he is ever invited to any 48 again, to just bring any gear… it can’t hurt. I was coordinating the crew setting up the equipment and props, and we did one read through of the script. About 2 hours past, and the DP was not there still. I was starting to bust out my lapel mics and planning on filming with the one camera op that I did have, and then finally the DP showed up. I don’t know if it was a power play or incompetence to show up late to a shoot known weeks in advanced. On top of being late, he had broken equipment, dead batteries, and seemed angry about not seeing the script yet (even though I emailed it to everyone at 4am, and he could have read it while waiting for his ride). We used my headset to connect to his boom. My dad has some spare batteries in his car. It was astonishing how the guy did not test his gear 2 weeks and the night before the filming. 

The DP was all high and mighty about his boom, so I put away my lapel mics.

Someone, I don’t know who, broke the rubber band which sealed the shotgun mic to my camera, off my camera. I did not notice until later.

I had told the DP previously, he could not be behind the camera and in front of the camera, but he really wanted some footage, so I made a scene for him, and we filmed that first. We got the shot, but then it turned out the boom operator did not record any audio, so at 1pm, we were re-recording this one optional scene, before getting to the meat of the movie. We got the shot again, and the audio was confirmed by the DP (his gear, his friend). I really wanted the film to be for female empowerment and strength and the DP was a male.

We continued to film other scenes. 

At some point, it started raining, so we broke for lunch. When we finished lunch, the camera operator said he needed another battery for my camera, so I ran to get it. I found that the shotgun mic was laying in the case, detached from my camera, without authorization. I told the guy to attach it and he did.

I did not like how the push-down scene was shot before the break, so we re-did that with my camera and it’s shotgun mic after lunch. It started raining again, so we broke for the rain. The DP did not want his gear getting wet understandably. The rain kept going on for an hour, so I then wanted to keep filming with my camera only, and have someone hold an umbrella over the camera. We lost some continuity of the blood spatters that way; I actually wanted to redo the shots later, but since we started filming late, I had to accept it as is.

I actually prefer the shots from when it was just me and the camera operator, as he gave me the shots I exactly asked for. When the DP was involved, he kept giving me weird far shots. I wanted more focus on people faces, not their crotch or the trees.

I did get annoyed how the DP was trying to director over me. It was weird how he would try to tell people to start acting, and say, “go for it,” but I would say a clear, “action” anyways. I even had to enforce the process of telling sound to roll, camera to roll, slate, and then say action. I guess the DP was not used to working on a team or something, but these steps make it clear to actors when to start, and clear for the editor what is going on. There were some scenes where I wanted the camera to spin around full circle, so I hid behind a bush and hoped the camera operator would get the shot I asked for, but I think the DP re-directed him to a lesser shot, which I did not know until editing. There were also times where the DP did the slate, but instead of putting anything useful on the slate, or verbalizing the scene and take, he just said, “this take” which made it frustrating and useless when trying to sync the audio to the video files when editing the clips.

We wrapped, everyone helped pack, and I left to go edit at my home. I know cast/crew were still lingering, but I needed to edit, not chitchat.

I was speeding away at editing at home with the footage from my camera. The audio was synced to the video, so it was easy. I was angry about the shots on my camera where the shotgun mic was detached, but awaited for the files from the DP’s camera and mic. The guy gave me the files at some point during the night, and I listened to the audio files 3 times over and it was not all the audio. I told the guy, but he did not believe me. I decided I would have no choice but to make part of the film as a silent film, and hope it passed with the audience.

Final Day

I tried to go to sleep around 8am for 2 hours, and I did get some sleep, but I woke up and emailed the actors with a request to record their lines on their phones, and email me what they could. I thought I could try overlaying it on the video. It did not vibe right, so I left most of those overlays off.

The DP’s friend was tasked to sending an audio file, and I did not ask to involve the DP at all, but he did. Instead of sending me the rough audio from his phone, he did a 2 hour detour to meet with his buddy and record his one line on his fancy boom. It was quite agonizing that he would not just give me a rough audio clip fast as a safety net, and then the “better” audio later, if there was time. Only when the DP realized his buddy’s line was not in the audio files, did he admit that not all the audio was recorded. The DP’s buddy thought the power button was the record button, so most of the audio was not recorded. The primary source of audio of the film is from my shot gun mic, and the one scene that the DP was in where he checked the audio. The fancy boom was useful to me since it had no audio. The DP wanted to help his friends get film experience, at the expense of my movie. It was basically what I was worried about happening with all the red flags leading up to the contest.

I had to accept some of the story dialog, like the husband being a mooch and gas lighter, would not be heard. I think the body language in some of the silent clips said enough non-verbally, although not 100% of what I had wanted. It was kind of ironic that my story about a man mooching off of women was happening in the crew.

Anyways, I had one first rough cut together, exported that and uploaded that. Then I did another pass with some colour corrections. My camera seemed to capture the colours accurately, but the DP’s footage looked greenish-blush, so it needed extra balancing. After one pass of colour corrections, I exported and uploaded that cut. I then did a few transition and more colour corrections, and uploaded the final cut I was going to be able to push out. With each pass, as it was uploading to the website, I was already working on the next round of edits.

I thought I would have a clear 30 minute buffer margin before the close of the contest. I thought, “okay, the film is uploaded, that was easy and that was done,” but then I realized there was quite a bit of close-out questions I had to fill out, like asking for the camera model number, having to itemize each person on the team and their duties, and suggestions for future genres. With 4 minutes left, I hit the final submit button and downloaded my confirmation PDF.

Conclusion

I did find some of the actors/actress were above and beyond useful, and I would re-cast them again in another movie. They brought useful props, ice, drinks, gathered team photos, packed gear, and cleaned the location.

I know in the future, to trust my gut and not let people who feel off, on to my crews. I do wish I put my foot down more and not let myself get pushed around by the DP, or rather, I should have filmed it without him. But, it happened the way it happened, so I will remember that.I  think in some ways, I was scared to be too bossy, or to un-open to help, which made me not want to hurt people’s feelings. I think I had gotten it down towards the end. I did not expect I would have to inspect the camera and the crew. I mean, who pulls off a shotfun mic? Having an extra audio source can’t hurt? I was only expecting to direct the actors. 

It was my gear that saved the day and got some audio. Hopefully it is enough to satisfy an audience.

I will also remember to screen people for having a car or the funds to hire a car to a shoot.

I know there are teams that did not turn in anything, so at least I did that much. Really, all films submitted with the required elements, on time, are a success.

Finally, I felt more alive that weekend than I have in a very long time. My uncle died on July 19, 2025, and that was hard enough, but my grandpa also made outrageous claims against me to try to throw out my uncle’s will, making it so I have emotionally lost the rest of my paternal family as they side with my grandpa. Even before my uncle’s death, I was scrapping by financially, just living pay check to pay check, including other challenges like a cat breaking it’s femur, my OS corrupting, my aunt dying, getting hard COVID. It had been a rough time stretch, so going from such heavy burdens to directing a short film, that felt great.

Anyways, you can see the formal movie page here, with the film, cast/crew line-up: Seven Minutes in Heaven