Every year, USC hosts a 24 hour film contest called the Ed Wood Film Festival. It sets out to prove that students can make a better film in 24 hours than Ed Wood could in his career. Quality aside, 24 hour filmmaking competitions are a great chance to test run ideas, experiment with special effects, and learn how much coffee it takes to pull a productive all-nighter. (Answer: four cups MINIMUM.)
This year, I worked with Jen Enfield-Kane, Conner Sorensen, Bryce Sorensen, and Rahne Avant to create a film called TRIGGER about a schizophrenic facing his past. Bryce was our DP and also did spectacular special effects makeup on Rahne — you can see her in full burn makeup below. We also had other advanced special effects that were difficult to pull off but we managed to fit everything into twenty four hours. [Read more…]