48 Hour Film Festival

This is a blog I wrote at 3 a.m. this morning after having led our team to near defeat! Learn about the project and watch the movie.

Have you ever been too tired to go to sleep? I'm experiencing a version of that. We were the last ones to hand in our movie on-time, about about 30 seconds before they stopped taking qualifying entries. (I'm the one who ran like a demon from the car to the Brew and View.)

The last ten minutes as we rushed to the finish line (in NORTH Asheville) from our editor's house in SOUTH Asheville were about the most insane of my life. I had our DP drive my Subaru (he didn't trust his trusty minivan) as: A) I finished filling out the paperwork; and B) as my laptop in the backseat burned a data DVD with the movie file. I chose 8x fast-burn, but it didn't seem to go fast enough! I was appalled at how long my G4 was taking, not only to burn, but to verify the burn. "If we get to the View and Brew and it's not done verifying, should I cancel verifying?" I asked Pat. I'd never tried such a thing. "Better not," he said.

It was utter hell. Five minutes from end-time (which clock do we trust? Cell phone? Watches? Car clock? They all said something different). I was sure we were not going to be on time. We had taken a loop around downtown and were coming into town from the east on I-240. "Merrimon sucks," Pat said. "I know a quicker way." Like Luke Skywalker, I just had to let go and let the Force guide. Pat took the Charlotte St. exit, eventually found his cross-street -- and then tucked in closely behind the slowest car in town on a two-lane. Amazing.

I knew we would not make it, and everyone would hate me -- well, just the 10 others on our team, but that's a pretty high number to be hated by. I was the one who insisted on "one more edit." Because I am the team leader, I got my way. I was regretting getting my way. Of course, we hit the stoplight just before our destination, with 85 percent of verification finished. And then something happened -- my G4, perhaps sensing the urgency of the situation, STARTED TO SPEED UP. The last few percentage points went really, really fast, as did I, through cheers and toward Dylan, my sound guy, waiting for me. I gave him a hug. I gave the 48-hour crew my packet. I got my two free tickets. And I'm so excited, it's 3 a.m. the next day and I can't get to sleep. -- Eric, Team Stellar Media

I just want to give a shout-out of sympathy to all the teams who were late. I feel your pain, and think there ought to be a 10 minute grace period if a majority of the other teams vote for it.