I participated in a 24 hour film contest this past weekend. At the pre-game meeting location, the roughly 160 participants (20 teams of 8) gathered at, an XL1 sausage party erupted. I guess everyone wanted to show off their expensive toys (except me), and were pulling out their gear.

Here was the count of visible cameras:
Sony TVR-900: 1
Sony VX2000: 1
Sony DP-150: 1
Canon GL1: 1
Canon XL1: 7 + 2 on our team = 9

Apparently, the XL1 is still THE camera to have for indie film makers. Interesting note, all of the XL1's were bone stock, except one guy had an MA100. I wanted to throw on my manual lens, matte box, and LCD monitor, jump on top of a table and yell "DVinfo ownz you!", but held back.

The xl1 certainly looks the part, and i feel a lot of younger indie film makers enjoy that feeling of attracting attention.

They are excellent camera's all around, and i sorely miss mine, but the pd150 in my use has equally matched it in every way.

Zac

Hmm. Interesting candidate for a T-shirt slogan.

I'd have to draw the line at wearing a picture of Dylan up on a table.

Or were you talking about the slogan?

John,
maybe I'll take a photo with my friend holding my XL-1, she is in the calendar I sent you, Miss May. If I made a t-shirt with her dressed the same way, would you wear that?

Chris,
we need some DVinfo t-shirts, how about selling them through cafepress?

Dylan,
yeah, the XL-1 has a great look, I love intimdating all the young japanese I see in the clubs with their VX-2000's, shows how much they know about cameras, people who know their stuff know that both are great cameras, in the end, it's mainly the person behind the camera that matters.

Dylan:

I'm curious about the rules behind that 24 hour filmmaking contest. In our Instant Films festivals (www.instantfilms.tv), we have a 48 hour deadline and it's always a difficult race to the finish. We've talked about doing a 24 hour version but it hasn't seemed practical yet. How was it?

Charles
Check out their website here (http://www.the24hourfilmcontest.com/the24hourfilmcontest/24_frames.html)

It went pretty well. I think 24 hours is a good amount of time. 10am to 10am. We wrapped shooting around midnight and gave it to the editor to work on overnight.
With this competition, you select a group of 8 people ahead of time, so you can assemble a good crew. Plus you can write your script and secure your locations ahead of time. They give you a few criteria you have to incorporate into your film to achieve maximum points for the judges.


Rik, I'll hold an XL1 dressed the same way as your calendar girl for a T-shirt! Man, they'll never have enough of THOSE in stock! :D

The key to a 24-hour filmmaking contest amongst busy individuals is to begin it on the Saturday of a three-day weekend.

Dylan,
I don't think your wife would like you dressing like this:

http://www.dr-ricardo-sanchez.com/tokina.jpg

and John would definetly not buy one of those t-shirts:)

<<<<With this competition, you select a group of 8 people ahead of time, so you can assemble a good crew. Plus you can write your script and secure your locations ahead of time.>>>

OK, that makes sense now. In our version, we include the script writing within the 48 hours, and since you have no ability to prepare (other than assembling crew and equipment) there's some pre-production time to factor in also.

Out of curiousity, is it just honor system that prevents people from shooting any of the elements before the clock starts?

<<<-- Originally posted by Dylan Couper :
Rik, I'll hold an XL1 dressed the same way as your calendar girl for a T-shirt! Man, they'll never have enough of THOSE in stock! :D -->>>

Dylan in a dress? doh!

Charles, it used to be an honour system, although this time there were documentry people filming almost every group, so I'm not sure how easily you could get away with it. Although I'm sure you could, but it would take the fun out of it.

Don,

Take another look at the calendar girl...that ain't a dress! At least not like any dresses I ever saw in Texas (here...another matter).

Rik...don't jump to any conclusions. Dylan might be pretty striking in that same setup. ;)

Dylan...will there be any kind of compilation DVD or video available? I'd order one in a heartbeat. (same goes for Instant Films, Charles)

The 24 Hour Films will be available for viewing free on their website. I'll let you guys know when its up.

My woman has a corset and fishnets like the one that girl is wearing, if you guys all chip in enough money, I WON'T post a picture of me wearing it! :)

Now you're thinking...that's an idea of a true capitalist! Isn't that also called extortion?

I'll definitely check them out on the web, but if there are many it'd be a lot better to stretch back on the couch and watch them all on the TV...with a 12-pack...and just wait for the rainbows to appear.

Tell the organizers about CustomFlix...it only costs $50 to set up. Then you could sell them all over the world.