Spring Break Has Begun!

Rachel, in her...interesting...outfit. :)

It really began about a year ago. No, not Spring Break - I mean that what I'm about to tell you about began a year ago. To be completely honest, I don't remember all the particulars. Was it that Emily had been looking at joining a Christian flimmakers group, or that Ben had just completed the soundtrack for a friend's movie? Maybe it was simply that we were being, as always, incredibly over-ambitious in the discussion of creating a full-length film (have you noticed that ignorance can often appear as arrogance?).


Either way, Daddy overheard our conversations at one point, and came up with a challenge: Project Spring Break. At 6 am one morning during our week off school, we were handed an envelope containing a theme-word, a deadline (6pm the same day), and a $26 budget. Our goal? Plan, film, and edit a 5-minute music video.


We. Had. A. Blast.


So much so, in fact, that we decided to hold a 'Family Film Festival' that summer, with remarkably similar guidelines. All participants were given a 12-hour time frame, beginning when I posted the word and ending when they were required to show up at our front door, DVDs in hand. It was...an adventure. Each family had their unique story of catastrophe, and no one made the deadline exactly (in fact, two of us holed up in the bonus room for the final minutes of burning). Actually, I take that back. One family had impeccable timing, but that doesn't make quite as good of a story. Anyway, adventures are rarely anything but fun, and we decided a repeat of the experience was definitely in order.


So here we are, at Spring Break one year later, and the second Family Film Festival has just concluded. We tweaked a couple of the rules this year, just for fun. Instead of a "skin-of-the-teeth" twelve hours, we were given nearly 60 (that is to say, the weekend) for this film! In addition, 'music video' was not the required format, though it maintained the 'format of choice' status for most entries.


Despite these o-so-cushy guidelines, however, we the Coders managed to still not finish our DVD until the last minute (*ahem*, that is to say, after guests had arrived). 'How could you be so negligent?' you may ask. Well, I blame it entirely on circumstances "beyond my control" (does anyone know that movie quote?? :). You see, we diligently planned, costumed, stage-propped, and filmed all day Saturday and all afternoon Sunday - we were, bluntly, done with all but editing (and one scene, but that hardly counts, you know).


Then, the unthinkable happened.


And all the filming was worth...


Worth nothing, strictly speaking.


You see, at 12:30 last night - or this morning, or, something - I had just finished uploading all our footage and was doing a quick play-through to make sure it had transferred correctly, when I noticed the most curious lack of sound on the footage! O dear, our in-camera mic had decided to take a holiday - or move away, or, something - and all we had to show for the last two days of work was a silent movie, minus the black-and-white and o-so-dramatic music. So, I roused the house (after going to bed for a couple hours, of course), borrowed a friend's video camera, and the movie you now see before you was filmed, uploaded, transferred between computers, edited, and burned between 9:45am and 5:30...ish...pm today. Enjoy! - or cringe, or, something - :)

I hope to have the other entries posted on Shutterfly by the weekend. Happy Spring Break!