What does a NO BUDGET "Feature Film" made in 72 hours look like?
It *can* look like this.
For the Sick N Wrong Film Festival 72 Hour Film Debacle, which coincided with my 36 birthday, I decided I would do something crazy, impulsive, unreasonable, and mostly insane:
I conceived, wrote, directed, produced, shot, edited, starred, exported, and uploaded a "feature length" mockumentary aka schlockumentary about a fictionalized version of myself in 70 hours.
It was quite the undertaking, I only slept eightish hours combined over the whole weekend. Remember, this had to be edited and sound had to be added on top of the shooting and “acting.”
I guess I wanted to see if I had it in me to achieve such a feat. Good or bad, I was willing to try.
Originally, as far back as September, we were planning to shoot the feature in 24 hours, edit it 24 hours, and then leave 24 hours for compression and upload time.
I had written a detailed treatment for a completely different idea and engineered timed improv segments that would flow into explosive plot points throughout the story and hopefully come out to 70 minutes.
A feature film can technically be as short as an hour long, but most consider feature length to be at least 70 minutes.
As the weeks carried on, between planning to shoot with Black Magic Cinema Cameras in 4K, and trying to schedule rehearsals for the film as well as other snafus, it became clear that this was not going to be feasible. Especially, when it used an idea that I really liked - something that I would eventually want to write a more fleshed-out treatment.
I figured it would be better to just pull the plug and do a fun short. And a part of me wishes we had because it would have been shot on the cinema camera and looked really spectacular.
But then something came over me. It was unexplainable. An impulsive decision was made, to do something unknown and feature-length in 24 hours before the 72 began. I went out with my cell phone and LED light and shot what you see here. I am not sure if it is unwatchable. It might be. I know if I had used the cinema camera, we would likely not have finished.
In addition to the chaos of trying to shoot (on a cellphone) and edit a feature film in 72 hours, we drove to New Jersey to catch the Mourning Noise reunion and try and fold it into the feature. It was a great time and we got a lot of great cameos/crowd cameos including Pat Duncan, Mourning Noise, Marra's Drug, and members of Misfits, Samhain, Danzig, Robby Bloodshed, Mister Monster, See Plus, and more! It was so great to see everyone so soon after the VFW show. Mourning Noise and all the other bands crushed it, and a lot of money was raised for charity - great job, Steve!
The film clocks in at 70 minutes with a lengthy credit sequence ( an old reliable trick utilized all the time).
It was a grand experiment and I am grateful to have done it. But I understand why it is better to not do something for the sake of doing something.
What will become of this thing? I don't know. Myself and Jack (who plays Jack in the movie) have discussed adding some animation and additional footage to make it feel more like a feature.
So except for here and the debacle screening, this cut/version or maybe even the film as a whole will only be available here on Patreon as a special exclusive.