Lancaster Film Crew makes strong presence in Philadelphia…

Check out the video of "MacGuffin" – completely created in 22 hours in Lancaster PA

On October 1, 2010, Lancaster PA scriptwriters Ken Wenditz and John Spence received the guidelines they had to use in the script for our entry to the Philadelphia Film Race…. at 6am I (Derek Lau) met up with them and the rest of the crew to begin practicing our shots and lines for the film. We shot with pretty much all natural light in the Keppel Building on North Queen Street in Lancaster PA. I was the Director of Photograpy, shooting with a Canon MKII 5D with a "L" series 24mm-70mm 2.8f lens. This camera was primarily  designed for photography, but has initiated a revolution in digital cinematography and the indie film scene.  The film starred Lancaster PA Talent :Bob McDonald, Brielle R. Stuckey, Micah Bias,Corey Clark, and Steven Tyler Hart. Producer Franklin Navarro worked with Director John Spencer (Spence Films) to squeeze the most creative and collaborative juices from the cast and crew. I had an amazing time working with the entire crew and the cast…. it took a while to remember everyone’s names, but we still gelled together for the good of the film…

Once we raced from room to room checking off our shots from the list, we moved down to Blue Tiger studios where we began assembling the clips into what would soon be our rough edit. We handed off and clips that needed gunshots or blood to our special effects guru Allen Clements from Postage VFX. Allen worked his magic on the special effects while Spence and Ken ironed out the kinks, mixed audio and prepared for the final edit. At this point the Director of Photography (me) was asleep on the couch… 🙂

When I woke up…  I ordered a Greek Pizza from Spyro Gyro and I was there sportively for John and Ken as they came closer and closer to the deadline to drive to Philadelphia…. see  – us Lancaster filmmakers had a slight dis-advantage….. we actually had to make the film in 22 hours because of our 2 hour drive to hand-deliver the finished product in Philly…. but after it was all said and done – we still pulled in 9 out of 15 awards and got 1st runner up in the 2010 Philadelphia Film Race……

For More info to go : www.filmracing.com

The Results: "MacGuffin"

1st Runner up in overall 2010 Philadelphia 24 Film Race:

Awards:
Best Direction – [tie] ”A Boy and His Bike" by Half-Watt Productions & ”Mac Guffin"
Best Leading Actor – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Cinematography – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Editing – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Sound Design – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Visual FX – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Special FX – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Set Design – ”Mac Guffin"
Best Costume Design – ”Mac Guffin"