Hollywood comes to Alamo Heights

from the North Central News

The “San Antonio 48 Hour Film Experience” is the brainchild of San Antonio Film Commissioner Drew Mayer-Oakes. This unique, yearly event involves more than 20 local filmmakers and their teams churning out short films in only 48 hours all with one common, assigned theme. This year’s theme was “Drought: Life Without Water.” In addition to the theme, all films must incorporate an assigned genre and location into the film and films cannot exceed eight minutes. Upon completion, works are judged by local industry veterans, critics and educators.

One local contender, PrimaDonna Productions, consistently stands out from the pack. Their first film, “Dating Danielle,” swept the awards the first year. Another film, “Four Minutes Till the End,” went all the way to the Cannes Film Festival. PrimaDonna Productions is run by local actress/producer/marketing guru Nikki Young along with Creative Designer and Technical Director Chadd Green and Writing Services Coordinator Lee Hurtado.

 

Their entry starred comedian Jay LaFarr and KENS 5 Executive Producer Cassandra Lazenby along with Martha Prentiss and Brenda Pena. Rounding out this inexhaustible crew was composer Oscar Laun, Michael Patrick, Claire Casseb and Virgil Yanta.

Their “48 hour experience” began with an initial meeting to prepare for the weekend’s adventure. The team hashed out a preliminary plot, not knowing what genre or location they would draw. Over dinner, a plan for a romantic comedy set in North San Antonio began to form.

On Friday, all the teams participating in the 48 Hour Film Experience drew for their genre and location. And, as everyone knows, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The PrimaDonna team drew “teen/coming of age” genre with a “Hill Country” setting. Undaunted, they rallied and by Saturday morning they had a whole new plan.

Cut to bright and early on a cold, overcast Saturday morning. Hurtado and LaFarr hashed out a final script at the dining room table of leading lady-to-be Cassandra Lazenby’s home. This historic Alamo Heights house would go on to make its film debut as a Hill Country estate later that afternoon.
Then it was time for action as well as a lot of waiting around, shooting, reshooting, sound checks, makeup and general insanity that apparently takes place on a movie set. Even for a short, eight-minute film, scenes must be shot over and over with a lot of attention to detail, logged, shot from different angles, shot again with close-ups, or if someone in the room made a noise, sneezed, if a car drove by, an airplane flew overhead, if the lighting was off, someone forgot a line or any other of a multitude of reasons.

Filming went on way into Saturday night and even though everyone was exhausted, they managed to have a lot of fun and worked so efficiently together it seemed like they were communicating telepathically at times.

Early the next day it was time to really get to work to edit as well as compose an entire soundtrack. Like a scene out of one of their movies, the PrimaDonnas got their film, dubbed “Eugene,” to the finish line with just 10 minutes to spare.

“Eugene” and all the other films from this year’s competition were screened Tuesday, Dec. 6, at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center where the audience voted on its favorite films. Awards were announced at the Film San Antonio Holiday Reception December 13 at Sunset Station.

Want to see “Eugene?” Visit Eugene .

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