MotherReader

Other than books and Girl Scouts and writing weak poetry, my other hobby is making short films. Actually it’s my husband’s hobby and I’ve been roped into it over the years. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

This weekend we’re back in the 48 Hour Film Project, the contest where you write, film, edit, and score a short film in two days. It’s madness, but it works for us. Last year we had the incredible Robin Brande to write our script and we produced the terribly sharp piece “You Pay Your Dues.” This year, Robin is in the middle of book writing, but her friend is between revisions. Her friend? Barry Lyga, author of The Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and Boy Toy and all-around cool guy.

To keep the competing teams from coming in with completed scripts, each group picks a genre out of a hat and each city shares certain elements that have to be included in the film. We’ve drawn the Road Movie genre. The required elements are:

Character: Larry or Lori Gardner, designer
Prop: A sauce
Line: “I’ll be glad when he’s gone.”

Bill is on the phone with Barry as I write, and I’m heading out to the store momentarily to buy food for the cast and crew. Tomorrow my job is to prep the actors for the upcoming scenes and make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible. And provide lunch. Think good film-making thoughts for us.