Studio

Organizing a Filmmaking Adventure

3/14/2009 at 9:01 PM by Amy Allen

Massify members Joshua J. Mills & Jamie Blankenship are about to embark on a filmmaking project they call the Two-week Turnaround Tour (T3 for short). In an RV filled with film equipment, Josh & Jamie will visit 14 cities over 7 months, where they'll write, shoot, and screen a short film in each city in just two-weeks. It's an adventure to celebrate the collaborative art of filmmaking, and all are invited. Here's what they have to say about it.

Can we have a little bit of background on you?
Josh: Growing up I have always enjoyed telling stories and going on adventures.  I always wanted to make video games (still do) but started getting into film (by accident) when I went to NC State for college. I have a degree in Business Management (of course nothing to do with filmmaking).

Jamie: I’m from Raleigh, NC and went to school at UNC Chapel Hill. Growing up I was not the adventurous type. I was always kind of quiet and shy until I met Josh and he kind of forced it out of me. I am currently living in Chapel Hill but would like to move back to Raleigh when we get back from the tour.

This project looks like a ton of fun. How did you come up with the idea for the 2 week turnaround tour?
Josh: I was at a meet and greet for the 48 hour film festival when I was told about someone who went to several cities a year to participate.  I thought that was a very fun, cool thing to do and it planted a seed.  At this time, I was already looking for ways to make movies and a lot of them.  I also really wanted to explore the world, how I didn't know, I just wanted to go everywhere. So I put the ideas of traveling and making movies together and boom, you got the Two-week Turnaround Tour

What is the end goal of the project? To meet people? Create exciting content? Fame and fortune?
Jamie: The end goal of the project is to get people involved in the filmmaking process that otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity and just make movies. We want the people we meet to continue to build on the relationships they form while working with us and to collaborate on future projects together. Our own personal goals I would say are just to create content that people want to see and make it out of the tour alive.

Josh: My end goal is to not be broke or, hell, I'll take broke. Zero is better than negative numbers.  But for real, I want to create a sense of community in this new frontier of filmmaking. As the price of entry goes down and equipment gets better, we, as an audience, are going to have a lot of really good movies to watch. I also want to leave a footprint in each city and online so individuals can start helping each other create great entertainment, or art, whatever you like to call it.

Do you have experience doing these types of projects before?
Jamie: We’ve done the 48 Hour Film Project for the last 4 years. The 48HFP played a pretty big part in the development of this tour.

Josh: The 48 hour film project really is the basis for thinking people can come together to create something in a short time.  I have also participated inrootclip.com as well as some typical film fest and contest stuff.

What are your filmmaking backgrounds? Do you get to make movies often?
Jamie: I had absolutely no filmmaking background whatsoever. My degrees are in Biology and Clinical Laboratory Science which clearly are not film related. I got into it through Josh, who would recruit pretty much anyone around him to help him with his movies. He would always say “Oh I’ll just need you for like an hour, two at the most” Then I’d end up there all day, holding boom poles, making props, fixing costumes, anything and everything. I completely fell in love with the process and have been hooked ever since.

Josh: The biggest filmmaking experience I have is making 30-45 min comedies for a select group of people in college (my friends) and putting on a premieres.  Other than that, it has been the 48HFP and making short films solely to entertain myself.  I watch movies to learn how to make movies.  Growing up I watched a lot of movies.  Now I just try to make something I want to watch.

Are you two dating? What is it like to work with someone you are in a relationship with?
Jamie: We are dating. Needless to say the preparations have put some stress on the relationship but we’re both so excited to travel the country together that I think once we get going it will be an amazing experience for us. Just to get to see all the different cities, be a part of the cultures, and have a reason to document all of it will be so special to us later in life. Though it won’t be easy all the time, especially because living in the RV will be the first time we live together, I think the overall experience will make us stronger as a couple. We also won’t always work together I don’t think. I may always play a part in Filmblazer but when we get back I want to go back to work in the hospital labs. So he’ll always be the one in charge and I’ll just help out.

Josh: Whatever Jamie said...

Jamie: Good answer

I love the idea of an RV full of film equipment. What equipment do you have? Where did you find an RV?
Josh: Craigslist is magic for Travel Trailers! I used to work with a Canon XL2 but moved to a Canon HF11 for some sweet HD.  For audio, I have a Sennheiser ME66 shotgun. I use some tripods that need to be replaced and a sweet Kessler Crane for camera mounting. Oh and the best lighting kit ever, the sun. I edit everything on a Mac Pro running Final Cut Studio. We can create the film for 3 with what I have however we encourage people to bring what they use and what they know out on the tour. Why force someone to use something new if they know their equipment like the back of their hand?

Have you gotten a lot of positive feedback so far, in terms of finding City Leaders and sponsors?
Josh: Lots of positive feedback from sponsors but not a lot of money which is unfortunate. (aka the economy blows)  The tour is really a great opportunity for equipment makers to get their product in the hands of potential consumers, let them get a feel for it, and see its benefits. Then after two weeks take it away! As for city leaders, each city is different but overall people have a real enthusiasm for bringing together the filmmaking community which we've been able to tap into.  If anyone would be interested in working closer with us please let us know. We'd love to have you.

I hope somebody documents this adventure. Will you have somebody taking behind the scenes footage of this?
Jamie: We will definitely have documentation of the whole trip, probably more so than anyone would ever want to see. We will shoot behind the scenes footage, post pictures, write blogs, have a weekly podcast, twitter updates, etc so that we will have so much media at the end of the tour that we won’t know what to do with ourselves.

Josh: We will be documenting the crap out of this thing.  We really want to use social media not only to bring filmmakers together but to entertain people.  I see the tour as a real-time documentary.  You can live the ups and down along with us, be there at premiere (streaming live), ask questions, and the biggest thing, influence the tour.

What will you do with the finished films?
Jamie: With each finished film we will have live premieres of the film online. Then at the end of the tour, we will have DVDs of all 14 films with behind the scenes extras and other bonus materials.

Josh: Never watch them again and let time and my fading memory make them better.  I think I'll let the community decide what we should do with the films but a DVD would be in order.

Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?
Josh: I don't want to limit the participation of the tour to just "filmmakers". It takes a lot of people to make a movie from a diverse background.  I want the mom that makes awesome Halloween costumes.  I want the local coffee shop owner who is sitting on a perfect location.  I want people's skills and resources to influence the movie we produce.  I want the end film to be unique to that city.  We aren't creating a script then trying to find resources. We are taking the resources at hand and writing the script.  It is a nice way to know you have x location and x actor ready to go.

Two-Week Turnaround Tour (T3) Other