WIT NEWS ITEM | WIT Films Does the Business in Hi-Def

Mike Bass lines up a shot for the HD Filmaker Showdown with Panasonic's new camera.

WIT FILMS DOES THE BUSINESS IN HI-DEF

POSTED 1.19.06

Washington Improv Theater has emerged from their fifth round of 48 Hour Film competition with five minutes of hi-definition video and a mix of pride and relief.

WIT Films was selected from a field of twenty nine winning teams as one of five competitors in the first-ever HD Filmmaker Showdown. The hi-def race against the clock also featured teams from Cincinnati, Des Moines, Nashville and San Francisco and took place over the weekend of January 13-15.

Event sponsor Panasonic provided the HD camera for the weekend and sent a product rep to each city prior to the start of the competition. Co-sponsor Avid supplied HD editing software and their Mojo accelerator to each team.

As with past 48 Hour events, contestants had to incorporate several required elements into their finished films. The HD elements included a line of dialogue ("Life is full of little trade offs"), a character (P. Reginald, an author) and a prop (a shower cap). WIT Films drew fantasy as their genre, and were off and running at 7pm on Friday night.


Members of the team brainstorm ideas late in to Friday night...

"When we saw the word 'fantasy,' I think there was a bit of a collective cringe," recalls Tyler Korba, who directed the film and split shooting and editing responsibilities. "It was the one genre that scared us the most because it was so wide open and something we never really play with.

WIT spends a lot of time drilling a 'truth in comedy' philosophy, so jumping in to the deep end of the fantasy realm is kind of going against the grain for us. We're just not very well practiced at it... I think we knew we were in for a long night."

After nearly five hours of brainstorming, the group arrived at a relatively simple premise: two strangers in an airport (Topher Bellavia and Brian Coleman) daydream about the same girl (Jordan Boughrum) and enter each other's fantasies to fight for her attention. Not everyone on the team, however, was convinced it was the strongest idea.

"I'll confess I felt burned out and checked out after the brainstorming session," says Colin Murchie, who selected music for the piece and created titles and props. "But I fell back in love with the project slowly as we progressed."

"I really was sure it would work," says Zack Phillips, who spent the weekend documenting the project behind the scenes. "Two huge improv truisms we've all learned to be good at would hit this premise out of the park: one, keep the game simple and have fun in the details. Two, let punches land. Heighten the one-upmanship and react to each blow."

The team shot the majority of the film at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which in itself was an accomplishment to the project's director.


Brian Coleman and Tyler Korba take time out to discuss an upcoming scene at the airport.

"I've always had a thing about airports and metro stops and other transportation places visually," says Korba. "And the look of National just seemed perfect for hi-def. I kind of just asked on a whim if someone could get us permission to shoot there, but I thought it would be too big a hassle."

As it turns out, the staff at Reagan National was very accommodating. Several employees even wished the team luck with the competition.

"The entire weekend was a real exercise in people meeting courtesy and friendliness with courtesy and friendliness, and it's nice when that can come together," says Murchie.


Jeff Lofgren gets his audio gear in line... Tyler gets the camera ready for the next shot.

"Hanging out with my friends in National Airport for a day was a surreal feeling, but fun," says Phillips. "Actually, it felt a bit like entering the faculty lounge as a high-schooler. I kept expecting an authority figure to kick us out. It never happened."

"The lighting was all open and natural, and the architecture- cinematically it was awesome," says Mike Bass, who split time shooting and editing the film. "I wish the airport had been a little more crowded, but too few people is better than too many."

Production continued in to Saturday night. Despite the long hours, the team remained positive and kept things light. "We were able to pool all of our resources together to get a great final cut," says actor Jordan Boughrum. "The willingness of all of us to stick our necks out for one another to ensure that we had a good shoot and everything we needed was great."


Team members break from the action to pose for a picture at Michael Kitces' apartment.


Jordan Boughrum and Topher Bellavia share a drink while Mike captures the moment.

Murchie agrees. "I think it bodes well that these are people I still enjoy working with on hour 14, 15, whatever of a project."

Korba and Bass stayed up and edited the piece until morning, when actors returned to shoot one final scene for the film. At that point, cast and crew got their first look at the work in progress.

"The best part for me was getting to see the mostly edited version of the movie on Sunday morning," says Brian Coleman. "I think the actors typically have the least understanding of what their scenes actually look like until they're on the screen, so it's always a surprise to see how things turned out."


Franklin the Guniea Pig gets ready for his big moment while Zack Phillips rolls camera.

There was another surprise in store for the team on Sunday afternoon. Musician Mark Phillips had composed several pieces for WIT to use in the film, but it was a demo track that caught the group's ear and changed everything.

"We'd been playing around with a few songs that were working pretty well," recalls Korba. "Colin and Molly (Woods) had listened to everything Mark wrote and picked a few favorites for us to try. This demo track was one of them.

I'd heard it earlier in the weekend and sort of blew it off... it sounded too quirky and sentimental for what I thought we were trying to do. But then we dropped it in to place and the whole film changed. It sounds silly, but everything just kind of clicked... I think it gives the film a different feeling from anything we've ever done, and in a really cool, emotional way."

"The music just happened to fit perfectly," agrees Bass. "Luckily, Bjorn (Munson) and Jeff (Lofgren) recorded a lot of natural audio at the airport with a boom mic attached to a mini DV camera. That gave us plenty of good airport noises to add to the sequence and really fill in the gaps."

Audiences will soon get the chance to watch the film and take it all in for themselves- the group plans to stage an online premiere in the coming weeks.

"Since there isn't really going to be a screening for all five films because they were all shot in five different cities, we thought we'd post it to our website and make a bit of an event out of it," explains Korba.

Judging is set to take place over the next three weeks, with the winner of the competition keeping the camera Panasonic provided. So what about WIT's odds of winning the big prize?

"You know, we just wanted to try and tell a good story, and I think we're pretty happy with the results," says Korba. "I'm sure there are other teams that will get more out of the camera and really show us up on the production side of things, but we've always tried to let our story take the lead, so we'll have to wait and see.

I personally think someone else will end up winning, but hey- there's only five teams. I guess that means we're in with a shout!"


The team heads out in to the cold to get a few shots in the park.


Actors rehearse a scene outside Michael Kitces' apartment late Saturday.


Jordan, Brian and Topher strike a pose at the end of production on Saturday night.