VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Looking for a way to exercise their “creative muscles,” Miles Coulton-Thompson and Daniel Ardura entered last month’s 48 Hour Film Project. The two Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts alumni recently launched a film production company in Richmond called Idol Hand Productions and thought the competition would be a good way to promote their venture.

Not only did they showcase their creative talent, they also earned an Honorable Mention for their film “Crypt Crawlers.”

Now in its 13th year, the 48 Hour Film Project challenges filmmakers around the world to create a movie, from inception of the script to the final cut, in just 48 hours. To ensure the teams don’t get a head start, certain elements are required of each film — elements that are unknown until the start of the competition.

“It was pretty easy since the elements didn't have to directly influence the plot of the film and instead we could incorporate them however it felt most natural,” Ardura said. Indeed, “Crypt Crawlers” seamlessly incorporated those elements.

Richmonders competing this year had to include an architect named Pete or Peggy Wiltz and use flowers as a prop of some kind in their films. Plus, each movie had to contain the line, "You don't have a clue, do you?" As a further deterrent to starting early, filmmakers randomly pulled a genre out of a hat at the start of the competition.

“We got the horror genre,” Coulton-Thompson said. “It was definitely nerve racking to wait in line for your genre, but when we pulled horror it was a big sigh of relief for our team. As long as we didn't pull a genre that clearly conflicted with our comedic tendencies as writers, we would have been at least content.”

The film, while short, has all the hallmarks of a contemporary comedy-horror flick in the spirit of “Shaun of the Dead” or “John Dies at the End”: gallows humor, irony, snappy dialogue, witty quips and, of course, a “big bad.”

“Our film, ‘Crypt Crawlers,’ is about two rude college kids having a great time at their neighbor's house — until they wake up hours later in a mysterious basement to find they are not alone,” Ardura said. Calling the antiheros — portrayed by Coulton-Thompson and Ardura — rude understates how sociopathic the characters really are. But sociopaths make for great comedy. And Coulton-Thompson and Ardura have honed their comedy partnership.

“We definitely write characters with ourselves in mind,” Coulton-Thompson said. “Dan and I have a nice rapport with each other since our sketch comedy days and we are looking to keep that up.”

The 48-hour period elapsed with almost zero setbacks, the duo said. They had locked down three locations, five “fantastic” actors, professional equipment, and a super-crew of friends and colleagues a few days in advance. And they had the premise of two guys trapped in a basement, which seemed malleable to most genres provided by the competition.

“We were just absolutely blessed with the amount of talent and production value we were able to assemble in a short period of time, and for no compensation either,” Coulton-Thompson said.

They held a quick brainstorming session with their director, director of photography and first assistant director and came to a consensus and an outline fairly quickly. The script took about an hour and a half to write. After a quick read-through and slight tweaks, they worked out scheduling and call sheets, actually managing to get a decent night’s sleep. They shot for about 14 hours on Saturday and took shifts syncing sound and editing a final product on Sunday.

“The only real moment of terror came during the editing process,” Ardura said. “After many hours of editing, Adobe Premiere crashed on us and it refused to open any of our saved files. Shout out to the director, Mike Duni [another VCU alumnus], who opened up the actual text coding of the files like something out of ‘The Matrix’ and solved the problem in the 44th hour.”

The filmmakers also credit their crew, comprising mostly VCUarts Cinema or Theatre alumni, for the success of “Crypt Crawlers,” as well as actors Richard Warner, Aaron Mauck, Tim Harris, and Alexa and Aiden Fiske.

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