By Ally Mullord
The V48HOURS: Furious Filmmaking competition, which challenges teams to make a short film from scratch in 48 hours, took place on the weekend.
3 News spoke with Becky Kuek from The Real Potato to find out how the last-minute magic happens.
On Friday night the team was given all the information they needed to go ahead, including the genre Horror, which Ms Kuek says was a blessing.
“[Horror] actually worked perfectly for the ideas we had swimming, so we considered ourselves super lucky.”
The script – which had to include a character, prop and line of dialogue handed out on Friday night – was by the “cohesive group” of Gerard Otto, Matt Baker and Steve Ciprian in around 4 hours.
Co-writer/actor Matt Baker says the writing went smoothly, with only a minimal amount of “killing your babies”– the term for when one writer loves an idea which is rejected by the rest of the group – and by 7.50 on Saturday morning the team was ready to start filming.
Their main location was Alberton House, in Mt Albert, which Ms Kuek says suited the group perfectly.
“We were so, so lucky to secure this location for our film, not only because it wound up fitting in perfectly with our genre, but because it’s such a unique property which offers such a stunning backdrop for a film.”
The team were helped by a team of three from Body FX, who Ms Kuek hopes will give them an upper hand in the competiton.
“They played the characters of Rage, Lust and Shame, which wound in marvellously to the story. We were all so impressed… they had been up since the wee hours getting all painted and prepped for a day largely filled with waiting around nearly-nude, freezing cold, and bored.”
The last few scenes were shot on Saturday night, when Ms Kuek says “everyone was completely delirious with fatigue and hyperactive from all the V”, and Sunday was devoted to editing the film.
After a long weekend – the director got four hours of sleep and the editor only a few more – The Real Potato are happy with their furiously finished product.
Ms Kuek says that while they’re “super duper happy” with the film, it went almost too smoothly.
“I'm definitely getting my claws into an amateur-as-hell team next year for the stress, tears, arguments, energy drinks, wardrobe malfunctions and dogs on set.”
Heats start tomorrow, with final judgings mid-June.
3 News