Film Crunch Time

During our first Fiction Feild class we discussed "crunch time" or the time when you need to stay up for hours and work  extra hard to complete a project.  I've learned over this past summer that there is no "crunch time" like "film crunch time."  I'm sure we've all had our fair share of late night essay writing and pre-test cramming, but it wasn't until this summer that I truly had to push myself to the absolute maximum to make a deadline.

This summer I was fortunate enough to study at the Hanyang University of Seoul, South Korea for approximately a month.  During my time in Korea I took a course called Cross Cultural Documentary Studies.  The goal of this class was to make a short documentary in only a month.  Like any class, I thought that despite the time extreme constraints with good planning and hard work my group and I would be able to ease through, get our sleep, and not have to go crazy and stay up for hours the night before.  Initially our group was ahead of the game.  We came up with our topic and began research.  We got a Korean translator and began to set up interviews.  Our planning was nearly perfect, wasting no time.  We simultaneously collected b-roll of anything and everything we thought could be useable.   Finally we were able to conduct all our interviews.  Just like that we were done shooting.  "Wow a whole week and a half to edit, we'll be done with time to spare" we thought.  

In post-production I served as Co-editor alongside my friend Colton, also from Ithaca College.  The days pasted as we spend hours and hours sorting footage and translating interviews.  Soon we found ourselves editing into the night just to keep on track.  Suddenly our perfect schedule had fallen apart. Even with the extreme amount of time we had allotted to edit it wasn't enough.  Before we knew it we had two days left until the project was due for a screening!  Unlike many other classes assignments where teachers can give extensions and accept late work, we had no such room for error.  The final projects were due for the screening the day before we got on our planes to go back home.  It was "crunch time" in those two days I stayed awake for 37 hours and edited for approximately 23 of them, only interrupted to eat and attend my other classes for Hanyang in the morning.  Eventually after many sleepless nights and more "Hot 6 Energy Drinks" than I could count we had finished and come up with a great piece.

It wasn't until my first serious film project that I learned what real "crunch time" was…film crunch time.  The hours and hours I put into the project had produced a 13minute 27second documentary I was proud of.  I feel this experience has taught me a lot as a film maker and also a lot as a student.  I have learned the value of having a plan and keeping organized.  I have learned that in this field of film, documentary, and television punctuality is key.  However most importantly I have learned that a deadline is a deadline (invest in energy drinks accordingly).