June 04, 2007

24 Hour Film Project

I have committed myself, a friend and several volunteers to the 48 Hour Film Project, an international film competition where the contestants are prescribed a character name, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, then given 48 hour to write, direct, and edit a 4 to 7 minute film. Sound like fun? I think so. I'll let you know.

Tonight my partner in film production, Jason, and I attended a meet and greet of the New York contingent where several of the previous years winners were screened. I can't say that we met and greeted too much, but we did learn a lot from what we saw from last year's entries. Lots of good stuff. Surprisingly good productions for the limited time allotted.

Impressive submissions were presented from across the county in the genres of silent film, animation, family film, and mockumentary - all preceded by info cards that detailed the particular required prop, character and script line elements of each. The most improbable was an entry from Paris in the Western genre. Trust me, it totally worked. My other favorite was a mock documentary about homeland security forces arresting Canadian Geese. Genius.

In the end I think this event bolstered our confidence (which is good, very good). The competition obviously rises to the challenge and the best of the lot produces some very impressive fare - but we are reasonably confident that we too can produce a fine film under these contraints. As confident as our yet untested team can be.

I think that at the end the result we will be very positive. We will have completed a short film and certainly learned a lot about the process. Whatever happens I am prepared to have a good time. That's my new rule. I will keep you all updated as the action unfolds.