If you saw people running around with cameras filming all over Renton last weekend, then you witnessed parts of the city’s 50-hour filmmaking competition, the Renton FilmFrenzy.
Veterans of the competition, now in its fourth year, Chris (Bob) Anderson and Sam Graydon set out to capture yet another win Saturday morning filming at Graydon’s house, Liberty Park in the afternoon and the Piazza late in the day.
The two won first place in the Open Division in 2008, second place in 2009 and won again in 2010.
“It’s going to be super awesome and super funny; that’s about all I’m going to give you,” said Anderson of their entry for this year. “I kinda just want people to watch it for the first time without knowing anything about it.”
After Anderson and Graydon, as well as 15 other teams, were emailed requirements for this year’s competition on Friday at 5 p.m., the two didn’t stay up late working on the details for the four-minute film. Instead, they finished writing and outlining their script in two hours and started filming late Saturday morning at 10 a.m.
This year films had to incorporate a line about aerospace in Renton, a piece of public art and a scene from the Harvest Festival, which was taking place in the Piazza on Saturday.
The Anderson/Graydon team includes actors Tonya M. Yorke, Rick Walters, Tom Ricciardelli and camera operator Ellen Callaghan.
All three of the actors have worked in productions before and had good things to say about the talent of Anderson and Greydon.
The team did take after take, stopping to huddle around the camera and watch the playback. They smiled at each other when they saw something they liked.
Like true movie stars, most everyone on this team had sunglasses this year instead of parkas or rain gear as the weather was much better than last year’s downpour. There was actually too much sun in some shots, so the group resorted to shooting in the shade.
Bringing his professional skills to the competition, Graydon is a cinematographer and has a company called Donkey Park Productions. He and Anderson met in middle school in Renton and the two have done quite a few movies just for fun outside of the FilmFrenzy. Anderson is a cook full-time, but works on films as a hobby and creative outlet.
“Me and Bob have this chemistry as far as writing, I think,” Graydon said. “We can bust stuff out pretty fast. Plus this is our fourth one in Renton, the FilmFrenzy. So, we’re use to it. It’s starting to get pretty easy.”
Despite a late start the team was on schedule most of the day.
“We got it all done really quick,” said Walters, who was filmed indulgently kissing Yorke Hollywood-style. “It’s 3:15 p.m. in the afternoon and we’ve got one scene left to shoot (on location), which is unheard of. We’re actually going to get out of here on time today.”
Anderson anticipated he and Graydon would be up until 5 or 6 a.m. Sunday morning editing the film.
All 16 teams made it to happydelusions on Third Avenue to drop off their entries by the 7 p.m. deadline on Sunday. Last year 18 of the 25 competing teams actually submitted a film for judging.
Just a spattering came in between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and two came in at 6:59 p.m., said Stefeny Anderson, a volunteer on the FilmFrenzy planning committee assigned to collect the films.
The judges have a matrix with which to judge the films and will look at many aspects such as story, visuals, photography and creativity.
All 16 films will screen Monday, Oct. 24, at the Renton Civic Theatre. Filmgoers can vote for a separate award that evening. The next night, Tuesday, Oct. 25, the top films will be screened at the Renton FilmFrenzy Curvee Awards Gala at the Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center.
The Downtown Film Talk is Wednesday, Oct. 26, during which filmmakers will talk about their films at various locations downtown.
The Renton Reporter will host the online voting for the People’s Choice Award.
