Films shot in 48 hours
By Emily Espinosa
Aspiring filmmakers, take note! An opportunity to showcase your cinematic skills will soon be arriving in our very own backyard.
The catch?
This film festival challenges participating teams to write, shoot, edit and score their film in just two days.
The 48 Hour Film Project has taken place annually for the past nine years and more than 150 competitions are held in cities around the world. They expect 2009 to be their biggest year yet with over eighty cities on the schedule and an expected participation of 3,000 teams.
This year's festival is quickly approaching -- the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project will take place on the weekend of June 5th and the San Jose competition on the weekend of August 14th.
On the Friday night of both events, production teams will be assigned a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre. The task is to create a film that includes all of these aspects in the two day period.
"The 48HFP is an excellent opportunity and outlet for artistic expression" said Elena Cruz, the San Francisco 48HFP Director. "In regards to the genre of your film, you never know what to expect."
Genres from last year's competition included categories such as "silent film" and "musical", said Cruz.
"The spontaneity and creativity of this event is what makes it truly unique," she added.
This rare format continually results in a dynamic, imaginative, and diverse collection of films that have shown in local theaters in the weeks following the competition.
All films entered are eligible to win prizes on the local level including a trophy, a chance to be screened at the 48HFP Awards Weekend, Movie Magic Screenwriter software, smaller titles such as Best Directing, Best Script, Best Acting and Best Use of Genre are all up for grabs.
Those who win at the local level are eligible to win at the international level. Top prizes include money, an opportunity to have their film screened at the Cannes Film Festival and possibly distributed on DVD.
Directors would love to see more participation from the huge population of young artists in the Bay Area, explained Cruz.
"I think it's great to have this type of diversity-it's really motivating to see the creativity of our younger generation," she said. "It also builds confidence, and allows students to realize their potential."
Sharif Christopher Matar is a communications in video production major at Santa Clara and competed in and won the 48HFP in Hawaii last year as a freshman.
"It was a blast," said Matar. "A crazy mess of writing, shooting, editing and then shooting, re-shooting, re-writing and some more shooting and a whole lot more editing topped off with no sleep. We chose the thriller/suspense genre out of a hat praying we didn't get musical."
Matar and his teammates originally doubted that they would go far in the competition since they were competing against some teams from professional film studios. But after his team's achievements in 2008, Matar continues to find success; his film is now showing at the Miami International Film Festival and will appear in the Cannes International Film Festival in France later in May, which he is hoping to attend.
Matar encourages other Santa Clara students to participate; his experience shows what young filmmakers can gain from this festival.
"Students at SCU should be interested in participating because for all the chaos, it was a blast," he explained. "You learn a lot including how to make quick decisions and it really gives you a perspective on how far and fast you can push yourself. Anyone can help, all you really need is passion and an ability to break the rules a little bit."
Registration is now open for the San Francisco competition and will begin June 9th for the San Jose festival. The cost is $155 per team. Interested students can obtain general information by visiting the festival's website at www.48hourfilm.com.
Contact Emily Espinosa at eespinosa@scu.edu.