The A3F 48 Hour Film Challenge

Recently, I helped out some friends and participated in the Almost Famous Film Festival's 48 Hour Film Challenge. Those of you unfamiliar with it, the 48 Challenge works this way, Friday night at 7pm you're given the theme, the main prop that has to be used, and a line of dialogue that has to be said in your film. The film cannot exceed 5 minutes. From there, you have to have your cast, crew, location, and editing ready to go. Then you're given roughly 48 hours from then to return a completed short film (Sunday at 7pm). I wanted to take a moment to break down the "Award Show/Top 20 Screening" experience for you:

For the Newbie

The event as a whole? It was a good experience, and for any of you fledgling filmmakers, it's a great opportunity to hone your skills, and do a little bit of networking as well with others just like you. It's fun, and a good way to challenge yourself. We did a musical, and I gotta say that was a whole new experience for me. The screening is fun for someone just starting out. It feels like you're the star of the show when your film fills the screen. My grade: B+

For the Veteran

For me, being involved in film for a while, it seemed a bit drull. At times I felt like I was wasting my time....lost in thoughts like "I could be home indexing my file cabinet, or alphabatizing my DVD selection, but instead...I'm here". It seemed to be a lot of novices and beginners joining together to applaud their respective efforts. Again, I wasn't there for me, though, I was there to support my colleagues....at least that's what I kept reminding myself throughout the whole screening. Curious, but why does it seem that all of these events have a political slant to it? By that I mean, that someone has to get the nod for an award because of past relationships moreso than the actual piece they presented (or in our case, get snubbed). The event as a whole, I got to work with some up-and-comers who showed me what skills they had and what they needed to improve on, and I worked with some people that I probably won't work with again, but that's part of filmmaking....learning who you want to go to war with. My grade: D