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Project Pioneer 2880: I've Got A Golden Ticket
This is a unique project sponsored by Pioneer in which students at select film schools are given 48 hours to write, cast, shoot, edit, and burn to DVD a 5 minute movie, with special features, commentary, etc on the disc.
The premise we were given on Friday, October 24th at 6AM was "While on his way to work, Jim finds a winning lottery ticket." The plot written by Zach Clark and Aaron Katz was that during their morning routine, Sheila confesses to her boyfriend Jim that she has not been auditioning for soap operas, but rather strip clubs such that she can help pay the rent. Walking to work, a blind man is begging and stops Jim. The man's radio announces winning lottery ticket numbers that just happen to be on a ticket at the blind man's feet. Visions of Sheila dancing for money fill Jim's head; disgusted, he throws the ticket away. While bored at work, more visions come to Jim. Hoping to cure the money problems, he goes back to look for the ticket, but it is gone. He goes home, defeated, but willing to reconcile when Sheila comes stumbling in drunk with the blind man.
Organizing the production was very intersting and a big note of thanks goes to all of the talent for stepping in virtually at a moments notice to act in the film. We had some technical problems with our camera that resulted in completely unusable audio, requiring the entire soundtrack to be rebuilt. At the end, we had some problems with our DVD burning drive provided by Pioneer. This resulted in us taking longer than 48 hours, but Pioneer has ruled our entry is valid due to the technical problems (which related to incompatabilities with Apple computers.) Winners will be announced at the end of November.
UPDATE: Okay, we didn't win, we didn't even place third. But the form e-mail sent out to all students said 'all of the entries were innovative; many were shocking.' We feel they were talking about us there. View our page at Pioneer's website, where you can view the film. We were screened however at the North Carolina School of the Arts in December and the project was well received.
View production stills.
Cast
Austin Loudenslager - Jim
Lydia Hyslop - Sheila
Bob Daye - Blind Man
Steven Gonzales - Smith