WIT NEWS ITEM | WIT Films Goes Femme for Sixth 48

Project director Tyler Korba reviews footage on the set. See more pics from the weekend here.

WIT FILMS GOES FEMME FOR SIXTH 48

POSTED 5.16.06

Washington Improv Theater has emerged from the sleepless haze of their sixth 48 Hour Film Project in five years. Their entry in to the 2006 competition, Unfrightening, screened at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring on Wednesday, May 10th to an enthusiastic crowd of fellow filmmakers, and the judges are set to reveal their Best Of selections over the next few days.

"I'm anxious," says witfilms director and onesixtyone player Tyler Korba. "I always am when it comes to this part. I'm a nervous watcher of our films and an even worse waiter when it comes to the Best Of announcement."

WIT's team was among one hundred participants in this year's 48, a turn-out which set a new record for the event. "Every year the numbers go up," says Korba. "And every year the bar gets raised a little higher.

We won last year's competition with our Buddy Film, Occupational Hazard, but from what we've seen so far this year, we'll be thrilled just to make the next cut."


Casey Korba, Ken Hays, Mark Chalfant and Brian Coleman brainstorm on Friday night.

WIT drew Film de Femme as their required genre, which meant their story needed to feature a strong female character and put the pressure on Jackie's Molly Woods to deliver the goods. After a long brainstorm on Friday, the team settled on a simple story about a house haunting gone wrong. Woods would play the lead, and her two antagonist spirits would be voiced by onesixtyone members Brian Coleman and Colin Murchie. Asked about the film and the weekend in general, Woods says she's happy with the way it all came together.

"The weekend was surprisingly smooth. Since we were working with a smaller group than usual and an improvised script, there wasn't soul-crushing stress. Of course, Tyler probably felt different when he was editing at 5AM.

I think our final product is awesome. It looks great, and the story is simple but compelling. Also, it's funny. So overall, I'm extremely pleased to have been a part of it."


Colin Murchie experiments with different vocal effects on Saturday afternoon.

Actor Coleman agrees. "I'm pretty happy with it," he says. "Though the material may not be as groundbreaking as stuff we've done previously, I think the production value is top-notch. Every time we do one of these things it looks more professional than the last."

The witfilms team was aided this time around by the Panasonic HVX200 hi-definition camera they won in January as a part of the HD Filmmaker Challenge. Working with the new camera not only added new elements to their visual arsenal, but also saved a considerable amount of time when editing the film.


Topher Bellavia bravely mans the mic, Molly Woods prepares to climb the attic stairs.

"The camera works with a P2 card format," says Korba, "which means that everything is shot tapeless and captured directly on to memory cards. So when we sit down to edit after shooting all day, there's no capturing footage... it's all right there on our hard drive with thumbnails from each shot. We just drag and drop and we're editing. Done."

As a result, Korba surprised the team and himself by finishing a full rough cut of the film by 9AM on Sunday morning.

"Yeah. That was a first," he laughs. "I even got to take a quick twenty minute power nap before Brian came over and woke me up."


Topher takes some time between shots on Saturday to treat Molly to a quick massage.

The time saved overnight was quickly reinvested in to the following morning. Actors were called back and given a look at the work in progress before wrapping up their final scenes. "My favorite part was getting to see the mostly-edited version played on Sunday morning," says Coleman. "Things never look exactly as you imagine them if you're not looking through the camera, and there are always some fun surprises when you get to see it."

Asked which part of the finished film they liked best, team members each come up with a different moment.

"My favorite moment is during the first argument between the haunters," says Coleman. "When we look out the window and clearly see Molly not running but walking down the street. That always tickles me."


Colin and Brian sit down with Sunday's rough cut to record their voice-overs.

"The boner joke," says actor Colin Murchie without hesitation. "Actually Brian's voiceover for the boner joke, which you wouldn't expect to necessarily be so decisive, really made it for me."

"My favorite part of the film is when my character says, 'Oh, now I have to close these,' and shuts all of the cabinets in the kitchen," laughs Woods. "It's just so funny to me that the ghosts in our movie- as well as those in The Sixth Sense- come on, dude... think that opening cabinets is terrifying."


Tyler pops the champagne for the final scene while Molly tries not to move any bubbles.

And what about the pressure to follow up on last year's winning entry?

"I did feel some extra pressure to make a really good film," says Woods, "but I don't feel any pressure to win. There are something like 78 teams competing this go-round, and to expect to win a second year in a row is ludicrous. But since people know we won last year, I want them to think we made another entertaining, well-done film and live up to our previous standard of quality."

Korba agrees. "There's definitely a question of pride. One of the high school teams this year said they were gunning for us... on the one hand, there's pressure to put something strong out there because people are looking at you. But on the other hand it's awesome that a bunch of high school kids even know who we are!

I'd truly love to be able to make it in to the Best Of screening this year. I'd feel like job well done if we could do that. There's an insane amount of competition out there, though, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm personally just proud of the way everyone on the team came together and got it done again. There were some real challenges that probably could have tripped us up on any other given weekend, but everyone rose to the task and got it right."

DC's Best Of films will screen Thursday, May 25th at the AFI Silver Theatre. While witfilms hopes to be among the entries selected, fans who would rather not take that chance can watch the film here.

To view more pictures from the weekend's production, click here.