Identity was one of a group of films that were made during Elon’s 50/50 film festival.
Crew: Mike Allen, Andy Newman, David Magida
Starring: Richard McNolty
Featuring: Alyson Wells, Rafe Andrews, Brandon Curry, Alex Carmine, Georgia Freed
ABOUT 50/50 FILM FESTIVAL: Modeled after many 48-hour film festivals taking place around the United States, the Elon University 50/50 Film Festival will demand that filmmaking teams write, shoot, edit and finalize their short film in only 50 hours. The extra twist to this film festival is that the teams will be limited to a maximum of 50 spoken words in their script, thus putting a premium on using visual story-telling techniques. For this short film creaters were to explore the concept of “the other.” The other race, the other nationality, the other gender, the other sexual orientation, the other religion, the other social class, the other age, the other subculture, the other political affiliation, the other personal background, the other….well, you get the picture.
INTERVIEW WITH MIKE ALLEN
What were some of the things you prioritized when filming a short in such a small amount of time?
When we first got the theme of the “other”, we immediately thought about how we could use a lot of people to tell a story about fitting in. Putting together the cast was our first priority, and the actors who worked with us were what made “Identity” special, and I think that shows in the sort of tongue-in-cheek, fun sort of way we looked at the project.
What were some obstacles you faced?
We definitely prioritized the story and visual elements of the project, but working on such a tight schedule, the main thing to prioritize is flexibility. Improvisation was pretty much our most important tool. Between all the people that worked on the project, each of us probably had a different priority — for me, behind the camera, my priority was aesthetics. But the actors prioritized having fun with their characters and being natural around each other, and I think you can tell when you watch it. Especially in the last shot, where everyone’s together.
One of the things we were most afraid of was the weather, which went sour on us: it rained steadily all weekend. But we actually built the story around that, in a way, by filming inside, or making sure it made sense for it to be raining when we did shoot outside. Other than that, our main obstacle was the time crunch, which was both a curse and a blessing in the sense that it was a very exciting, high stress time, but once it was over, all we had to do was sit back and hope that people liked it.
Were you pleased with how it turned out?
It didn’t turn out exactly like we imagined, but we’re happy, especially with the overwhelming amount of support from people on YouTube. A lot of people helped make this project possible, a lot of them without much thanks, and it’s people like them that make making movies fun.
Learn more about Mike Allen by clicking on the “Meet The Artists” tab at the top of this page.
