Making Captcha - A 48 Hour Project

Here’s an unabridged, detailed rundown of how Captcha was made for the Richmond 48 Hour Horror Film Project.

You can watch it first here to avoid spoilers!

The Choice to Participate

With the momentum of starting Gopher the Gold Productions and falling into my directing debut of This Again in August, the horror 48 seemed like the natural next step. I was also ridiculously lucky in recruiting excellent core team members like R Jay Molina as a cinematographer/editor/colorist, Ty Murdaugh as my AD and Carolyn Minor as an all-round set badass.

Setting Up for Success

I had a very specific vision for what I wanted to achieve for the weekend and what it means to “Gopher the Gold.” In fact I made a whole write-up/manifesto, outlining:

· Our goal - creating a film that is smart, sharp, and entertaining. Something we are extremely proud to call ours.

· Our collaboration values and their definitions in this context - Kindness, Respect, Fun

· The politics of film and specifically horror films

· Crew dynamics and expectation

· Roles and who to go to for questions

· Our writing process

Anyone who joined the team had to read and agree to the manifesto before filling out a form with their information and sharing their releases. This filtered out people who were not aligned with what I was trying to achieve as well as people I could not trust to be reliable over the weekend since they were not responsive.

I also hosted a pre-crew dinner on the Wednesday prior to the filmmaking weekend. Check out the spread:

It turned out also to be a great way for people to get comfortable with each other and see the group dynamics. It helped me take note of who is quiet/loud in group settings so that I could make sure everyone is being heard and sharing their valuable insights.

The Friday Kickoff

Building up on Wednesday, I had my home open and stocked with snacks from that afternoon for the crew to come by and hang out and socialize. We had a handful of the group show up, whereas the rest convened later.

At about 5:30pm, we carpooled to The Hof for the challenge kick-off that went from 6pm – 7pm. First we got to pick our genres. They we attached to Tarot cards so I had Izzy Cheung use her expertise to help us with our choice.

We got Eco Horror or Techno Horror. We could choose either one or combine both.

We had a bit of time to start thinking of ideas until they revealed the character requirement: Mia or Matteo Marlowe, Auto Mechanic. For character, we were advised to avoid referring to them too on the nose. As long as they show up on screen, can be plausibly that character and are referred to correctly in the credits, we would be safe.

Then the object was revealed. It had to be a sealed envelope. It just needed to show up on the screen for it to qualify.

Finally, they revealed the line of dialogue that had to be quoted exactly by any character: That’s not what you said yesterday. OR That is not what you said yesterday.

We got back to my house, got our Chipotle dinner catering and then got to work!

The Writing Process

Photo by Mandi Covert
From left to right: Max Garcia Hernandez, Shannon Martin, Tricia Dumm, Izzy Cheung, Salimah Ismail, Carolyn Minor, Jeremy Wells, Bryar Ajijola, Khun Minn Ohn

I had wanted this to be mostly a writer’s room collaborative experience (intentionally replicating my summer experience). So I used Mentimeter to structure the process. First I had everyone submit their worst ideas:

This was a low pressure, fun way to see how everyone was thinking. Most of the ideas were actually pretty solid so we each had five votes to allocate to what we liked. I abstained from voting, mainly due to technical issues.

Then it was time to submit our best ideas. Before we started to submit, I shared that we should be thinking more along character interactions and relationship dynamics rather than just a horror situation. Once people thought they were done submitting, I asked everyone to think of one more idea. I think some really great things came from that.

Everyone (except me) voted again and one idea had more votes than the other (russian roulette but to figure out if one person is a robot) and there was a 4-way tie for third place. However, to be sure, we did a final vote on the top five to rank our favorites (and I still didn’t vote). I was so thrilled with the results because my idea won!

Then it was brainstorming time. We talked through why and how people would end up in this situation and whether it makes sense for the situation to be Russian Roulette or if it’s more like Mafia. We were getting a little stuck so we decided to cast the actors from our group and have them sit around a table and just improv a little bit. From there we were able to discover the character motivations and how the robots needed to collude to win the game.

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Carolyn Minor, Jeremy Wells, Logan Eberhardt, Moriah Young, Bryar Ajijola, Salimah Ismail

At that point, I sequestered myself away to write a draft of the script. Since we knew at that point that it could be written as one-room kind of story, we were able to relinquish the locations we had put on hold and just plan to shoot it in my house, so the production crew was able to start bringing their equipment over.

When I was done, I cast the script to my TV and read it out to everyone how it sounded in my head. Then we got the actors to read it and collectively workshop and punch up the script. It was so helpful to find the logical inconsistencies and work together for additional world building. The production crew also started setting up the blocking and lighting in my garage and figuring out what set pieces and props we would need to film.

From this point onwards, it felt like there was very little I needed to do as a director since everyone understood the vision and the story we needed to tell. From costume choices to set pieces to shot composition, I was basically just saying “yup, sounds great” to any question or decision because everyone had what they needed to intuitively know what had to happen and the tools and access to make it happen.

The Filming Day

You know what’s wild? That I lead a team where I had no clue how to do almost anything that needed to be done.

Ty was incredible at helping me out in that regard. He had the foresight to make sure we had people to cover specific jobs in the crew and he had the organization skills to keep everyone safe and on track. He stepped up and took care of everything that I would normally worry about so that I could just focus on the “creative vision.”

Photo by Tricia Dumm
Ty literally keeping time. (Or should I say Tyme??)
From left to right: R Jay Molina, Cassandra Thorne, Ty Murdaugh, Mandi Covert, Bryar Ajijola

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Ty Murdaugh, R Jay Molina

Which is funny because I leaned so heavily on R Jay in that regard. If you haven’t seen his work, R Jay has such an incredible eye. I love how he makes everything look. It’s his skill and expertise that lets him notice and think through the little details that make a bigger impact. He also seems to just understand my sensibilities intuitively – that’s why the rule on set is: Let R Jay Cook. (NB: I’m trying to make “Chef Boy R Jay” catch on as a nickname).

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: R Jay Molina, Salimah Ismail, Jeremy Wells, Moriah Young, Khun Minn Ohn

One of those details included lighting, that our gaffer, Shannon Martin, led. We had the lights flickering in a really unsettling way for the opening scene. I didn’t realize how much it was disturbing my nervous system until we paused them. That’s something I NEVER would have considered, but I really like the effect in the film.

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Shannon Martin, Khun Minn Ohn

Jeremy Wells and Grace Dorl were also so incredibly helpful with slating and resetting the set and just helping with anything that was around.

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Logan Eberhardt, Cassandra Thorne, R Jay Molina, Jeremy Wells, Moriah Young, Salimah Ismail, Bryar Ajijola, Khun Minn Ohn

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Grace Dorl, Cassandra Thorne, Max Garcia-Hernandez, Moriah Young, Salimah Ismail, Bryar Ajijola

I also can’t imagine working on a set without Khun Minn Ohn for sound. You never have to worry about him and he’s so helpful even outside his role. He brings such a chill and positive vibe, it’s such a gift.

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Izzy Cheung, Khun Minn Ohn, Mandi Covert

Izzy Cheung served as our 1st AC, which meant that she pulled focus for R Jay. I didn’t know what that meant until I saw her in action. What was even more surprising was that it was her first time in that role. Could have fooled me! Notice that shot that changes focus between Jade and Sophia? That’s all Izzy!

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Max Garcia-Hernandez, Izzy Cheung

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Jeremy Wells, Salimah Ismail, R Jay Molina, Izzy Cheung

What’s even crazier is that when shooting ran late, Izzy had to leave, so our BTS photographer Tricia Dumm stepped in and was ALSO doing it for the first time. We were so lucky to have her step in.

Speaking of making things look good, Mandi Covert had makeup and special effects covered. It was so cool how she got the lighting where she was working to match the film lighting to color match the makeup.

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Mandi Covert, Logan Eberhardt

With a production crew that strong, I didn’t even have to worry about filling in the production gaps because Kaaryn Raines, our transport PA, was able to run out to pick up props, catering, and everything else we needed. I didn’t have to worry about hosting at all because she had it covered!

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Kaaryn Raines, Moriah Young

With all that taken care of, I just needed to keep an eye on continuity, right? Nope, Carolyn had my back! For every wall hanging that fell, for every shot that was out of order, Carolyn had it all tracked and sorted to avoid any issues. I am so amazed at Carolyn’s capacity for doing great work because she had to work Saturday morning before she came to the shoot and still brought so much energy while running on empty!

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Mandi Covert and Carolyn Minor

Maybe I had to direct the actors then? Barely! You see their talent for yourselves.

Moriah Young and I are already collaborating on a vertical miniseries and she is so good at pointing out my logical gaps or when I don’t explain things enough. She was able to help me figure out Sophia’s motivations and play to that really well.

Logan Eberhardt was recruited quickly because he is a trained stunt person. He said he had never acted before or been on a set, but the way he took to it was like he’s been doing this forever. I find his sequence at the opening of the film captivating.

Funnily enough, we ended up asking for quite a bit of strenuous activity from Max Garcia Hernandez. We were originally going to get him to rip his shirt with gashes across his chest so he had to shower and shave and then we ran out of time! So we changed tactics and poured blood down his face and it got into his contact lenses. Fortunately, he was okay!

I met Bryar Ajijola at the first recruiting mixer and we hit it off immediately. I knew she would be great as a writer and as an actor. She understood the Jade character right away along with the tension she had to build with the Carey character. I like how she plays her anger and rebelliousness. It’s delivered exactly how it should be.

Photo by Tricia Dumm
From left to right: Bryar Ajijola, Cassandra Thorne

I found Cassandra Thorne at the Horror 48 auditions. She did this excellent monologue of a mother saying goodbye to her child because she was going to jail for murder. The subtle, understated way she delivered lines was so entrancing. She was able to bring a cool energy to the Carey character that showed her exhausted desperation but also something else underneath. It’s crazy that this was her acting debut!

The Editing Day

This was another day where I was spoiled rotten. R Jay started editing at 8:30am and had me come over to his house at noon. What he put together was very close to picture locked. It took a bit of time, but we implemented a few tweaks here and there to tighten things up.

Then we sent that over to Grace, who was already working her magic on the score.

In the meantime, Izzy designed and animated the opening title cards (she had also designed the Opal Intelligence logo the previous day for the envelope).

I then got to relax on R Jay’s couch and cuddle with his dog Slugger while I got to backseat drive his special effects and sound editing.

We showed cuts to Seth and R Jay’s wife, Nicole, and their expressions were very validating.

I could relate! I kept getting too absorbed into the movie instead of finding issues.

By around 5ish, Izzy finished with the title card and so we worked on the sound effects. Just after 6pm Grace sent the fully composed score. It was perfect. Barely any tweaks needed. She understood the assignment.

But we were still not done! We had to finish the sound mix and the coloring. At 7:20pm we realized we had to add in the credits and some title cards as part of the submission.

At 7:25pm we realized R Jay did not have upload permissions so I was typing in my 25+ character password into his computer AND IT WAS NOT GOING THROUGH.

Here is a video R Jay’s wife, Nicole, took of us uploading the video.

That night, I sent the following message to the team. I’m sharing it here because I think it encapsulates how I feel about this process:

Hello Friends, Team Members, Gophers,
As you may recall our goal was to Create a film that is smart, sharp, and entertaining. Something we are extremely proud to call ours.
I can say with 10000% certainty: WE DID IT. Because of YOU. 🔥
I don't even know how to express how grateful I am to each and every one of you for coming together and creating this experience of a weekend. I feel like I'm taking credit for all of your hard work. The level of talent you brought to this set is humbling.
We took things down to the wire, but it was worth it. Captcha looks so fucking dope and I can't wait for you all to see it next week. Congratulations to Izzy and Shannon for winning the free passes to the screening! 🎉
I'll be working on the poster and trailer tomorrow. Let me know if you want to help. The vision: Izzy made a really cool opening animation and I'm going to build on that to create Opal Intelligence's ad for the study ("Apply today for our cutting edge research project. You'll be paid in Opal Coin")
With this stellar group, we can always dig for more creativity. You are all incredible.

Thank you so much for Gophering it. We got Gold. 🏅
Lots of Love,
Salimah

The Aftermath

Here are some pictures and videos from the Horror 48 screening! So many members of the crew were sick and couldn’t make it, but I’m glad those who were able to come got to see it on the big screen!

Have you ever done a project like this? I’d love to hear about it.

—
Enjoyed this read? Do you want to be notified of my latest blog posts and other updates about me once a month? Subscribe to my free substack newsletter 5 on the 9.