It Donned On Me is a competitive filmmaking team from San Francisco, CA. Over the past five years we've completed 25 short films in timed competitions such as the 48 Hour Film Project and International Documentary Challenge.
The ongoing 'It Donned On Me' saga...
For several years Evan Donn has been teaching classes in After Effects and Final Cut Pro in the Multimedia department at College Of San Mateo. Each semester there were a couple of students who wouldn't go home when the class was over, staying after with an endless stream of questions about every aspect of video production. Many returned semester after semester for whichever class Evan was teaching at the time...
2006
In the spring of 2006 Evan taught a new class called DV Workflow consisting almost entirely of these "irregulars". DV Workflow became an 'everything but the kitchen sink' type of class covering the entire production process with an emphasis on online video.
Each member of the class had to produce an episodic online video series, leading to everyone teaming up to work on each others' videos as well as provide valuable input during class screenings. When the class ended everyone felt that the working dynamic of the group was worth continuing.
Led by Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen they dubbed themselves 'The Evan Donn School of Film' and began holding quarterly screenings of everyone's current work. Several members of the group attended one of the 48 Hour Film Project screenings, and they all walked out with the same thought - "we can do that!"
At that point the quarterly screenings became 'challenges' with criteria similar to the 48 Hour Film Project, preparing the team to quickly create short films around a character, prop and line of dialogue.
2007
As the 2007 competition drew closer Mr. Nguyen signed up the team for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. Put on the spot to come up with a team name he considered and rejected many possibilities before the ideal name 'donned' on him... and IDOM was born.
The San Francisco competition was actually the first time all members of the team had worked together on a single project. Everyone jumped right in and the result was our first short film - 'Urgent Care'.
Despite incredible audience reaction to the film, 'Urgent Care' failed to win either the audience or juried competition for San Francisco. However, the team was selected by competition sponsor Visa as one of ten teams from San Francisco to compete in their national "Life Takes" Invitational against teams from New York and Los Angeles.
Evan decided the team needed a little more practice before the Visa competition. Unbeknownst to the team, he signed them up for the nearby San Jose 48 Hour Film Project and announced it at the cast & crew party for 'Urgent Care'. Fortunately everyone jumped at the chance to hone their skills and prove that the success of the first film wasn't just luck. The result of that effort is 'Doggie Style', the second official film from It Donned On Me.
In September the team came together once again to complete another 48 hour film for the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational. In collaboration with members of the a capella group "Flying Without Instruments" they completed the fantasy film "EXIT" which took second place in the Visa competition.
In October, 2007 the team completed their fourth 48 hour project, the National Film Challenge, producing "Retreat", an existential tale of a horse seeking enlightenment. After this they took a break from high-speed filmmaking for the holidays in order to prepare for the 2008 season.
2008
In March 2008 IDOM kicked off the 2008 filmmaking season with the International Documentary Challenge, producing their first non-fiction film, "Stick & Pound". Selected as a finalist in the competition, 'Stick & Pound' screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival where the team brought home Documentary Challenge awards for Best Cinematography and Best Directing!
After an amazing first year of competition IDOM came full circle, returning for the second time to the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Challenge and successfully completing our 6th film, "Tail". 'Tail' brought home the award for 'Best Sound Design' as well as being nominated for Best use of Dialoge and Best Cinematography
Just a few weeks later it was once again time for the San Jose 48 Hour Film project. Despite a rough start IDOM pulled together and created 'TwirlyBoy', possibly our strangest film so far. Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen's antics at the film's screening earned us the special award for 'Most Gratuitous Marketing Ploy'
2008 ended not with a bang but a whimper for IDOM with the 2008 National Film Challenge. Despite the fact that most members of the team were either out of town or too busy to participate, three members made a valiant attempt to complete a film. Unfortunately in the end it just didn't come together with a finished film, marking the first time IDOM didn't make the deadline.
2009
After a holiday break IDOM regrouped to start off 2009 with the International Documentary Challenge. After last year's showing the team knew it would have to step things up a notch for this year's entry, and the result is "a place like this...". Profiling the work of Angela Wellman and her Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, "a place like this..." came together beautifuly. Unfortunately it didn't make the cut for this year's finalists.
For their third round in the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project the team completed the mockumentary "Sur Mesure: Journeys in Transpersonal Haberdashery". All the elements seemed to fall into place this time and the film scored IDOM's first Audience Choice award as well as Best Actress for it's lead performance.
Following the SF 48HFP IDOM jumped into a new competition this year, the 7 Day Filmmaking Competition. What would they do with all that extra time? After unexpected illness and scheduling conflicts shut down their first attempt the team regrouped to complete their film in the final 36 hours of the competition! The result is "Intrinsic Self", a documentary about fire performance artists. "Intrinsic Self" won Best Editing in the competition and was nominated for Best Sound, Best Picture, and Audience Choice.
Just one week after the 7 day competition it was time to go back to work, this time for a third year in the San Jose 48 Hour Film Project. This resulted in IDOM's 11th film - "Coulrophobia". With that the team's 2009 season came to an end.
With eleven very different short films completed in just over two years some would say it's time to take a break, but not IDOM - this is just the beginning as IDOM tackles new projects and goes in new directions in the quest to become the greatest competitive filmmaking team of all time!
Stay Tuned!