Miami — Romance and love that go beyond the two people involved in the relationship are explored by the indie movie Agape, which was created from start to finish in two days.
Agape was made during the Miami 48 Hour Film Project (#Miami48HFP), a competition where 60 percent are professionals who have exactly 48 hours to shoot, edit and score a film.
Editor’s Note: The story below was written by Majestic Productions team members who participated in the Miami 48 Hour Film Project, June 20-22. The team stayed awake for two days to create a seven-minute film called Agape. This is their story.
Majestic Productions, the makers of Agape and the other 44 teams, started at 7 p.m. Friday, June 20 at News Lounge. The team turned in its film at 7:23 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, seven minutes before the deadline.
All the project’s films will be screened during four shows at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. June 27 and 28, at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, 212 NE 59th Ter., Miami. Tickets are $12. The grand prize is a trophy, bragging rights and $5,000. The winner, who will be announced before Aug. 1, goes on to enter the national film project. The overall 10 best films of 2014 will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
The fun begins for filmmakers when they pull their movie theme out of a hat at the beginning of the competition. Majestic Productions pulled romance. The team sent one member to represent at News Lounge, while the other members stayed at team headquarters in Weston, ready to start creating a seven-minute feature film.
We developed a film that explores the love between a man and his wife, which goes so far as to touch a whole community and bring it together.
“Agape shows a broader side of romance and it is not your typical love story,” said lead editor Alex Gruber.
Within the first few hours of picking the film’s theme, the team had to determine which locations to use, design those sets, write the script, compose the music, decide who would play whom as the cast, mobilize the crew, begin promotion and much more. An added twist: A competition rule requires each team to use one character, a provided line of script and a prop. Majestic had to use a musical instrument, was given the line “How do you do that?” and had to cast Cliff or Claire Finley as a waiter or waitress.
How many people does it take to make a movie? For Majestic Productions, it took 41 people, including two children, 10 teenagers and a tweenager, Dylan Glottman. Dylan, a 12-year-old prodigy, took charge of special effects and helped with film editing.
“Most people have to see the special effects work I have done in person to believe it’s me,” said Dylan. “They usually say it’s the coolest thing they ever saw!”
The romance theme helped team leader and the film’s director Tania Aikman get a scene she wanted to film.
“I really wanted to have the perfect beach scene in the film and having romance as the genre gave us the chance to really make that happen,” she said.
Three writers, under the direction of Scott “Professor” Snell in Tennessee, culled their work and chose the best of everyone’s ideas.
The team who spent 48 hours collaborating and working as a unit to create Agape were very recently strangers, having only met at the two meet-and-greet events. To bulk up the numbers, team members called on their friends and families to participate.
“I felt like I knew the cast and crew already; there was an instant connection; they are amazing,” said lead actress, Mireya Kilmon.
And the experienced mentored the youth – but not all the time.
Team teenager Ashley Fletcher made a stand early, which set the tone for the two days. As with everyone on the Majestic team, Ashley held multiple positions and earned the title, scheduling assistant.
“It was hard because our team wasn’t using time efficiently in the beginning, but then I stepped in with a loud voice and we began to get back on track,” she said.
Singer Meghan Guastella, along with team members Aeja Pinto, Ian Mann and T.J. Brown, worked together and composed a soundtrack for the film.
“It took a lot of re-writing and back and forth” to decide what type of song would fit well with this seven-minute romance. “We wanted to create a song that uplifted those who see the film and hear the song,” she said.
All in all, there was good chemistry among the cast and crew. Everyone seemed to work together like a well-oiled machine. Communication and leadership played a key role in getting things done in an organized way. We await the result.
ON THE NET: 48hourfilm.com/en/miami/
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