Making Movies for the 48 Hour Film Festival
The Blair Witch Project pretty much changed everything for independent film. The profit that film made proved that no matter how crappy a film you actually make, as long as you can make it as cheaply as possible and turn a big profit, then you will get noticed. And DV technology has brought that ability to make a film with a ridiculously small budget into the home of every wannabe Spielberg alive today.
But just because you can make a cheap film is no guarantee that anybody but your friends and family will see it. Until now, that is. A trio of guys living in LA has made it possible for anyone reading this article in even the most remote village in Croatia to have their eight minute masterpiece potentially viewed by movers and shakers in the business.
And by the business, of course, I mean the industry.
The 48 Hour Film Festival is the brainchild of Mark Kochinski, Keith Matz and John Parenteau. All three are involved in the film industry in various ways and all three have long dreamed of being filmmakers themselves. One day while sitting around bemoaning the state of the industry and how things were going to be different once they start making those dreams inside their heads come to life on celluloid, Matz casually mentioned that a friend of his had entered a one day filmmaking contest. By the end of the day the gauntlet had been thrown down and Kochinski and Matz-along with three others-spent the weekend making a movie to see who could do it best within a strict 48 hour time frame. Although by Kochinski’s own admission all five of the films were less than spectacular, lightning had struck and history was born. Interestingly enough, if you just change the names, that story also details exactly how the Academy Awards was born. Go figure.
The budding film revolutionaries held a screening of those famously bad two day movies and much in the way that most people who ever actually attended a Sex Pistols concert wound up starting their own bands, those people who watched those movied wanted in on the action and demanded another two day film festival in which to showcase their own visions. Three months later enough participants had submitted a film that the renting of a screening room was required. Which immediately sold out. It probably goes without saying that most of those attending that screening also wanted a shot. It didn’t take a psychic to see where this was heading.
At that point John Parenteau was brought it to help develop an actual film festival. First the trio founded ExtremeFilmmaker.Com. The first order of business was to get in touch with the other similar concepts around the country and make sure nobody’s toes were being stepped on. After all, America is a litigious country if it is nothing else. After that potential mess was rooted out, the 48 Hour Film Festival was born.
The rules are simple. And they can be found at ExtremeFilmmaker.com if you want all the details, but the basics are these: All movies must be filmed from the first shot to the final edit within a 48 hour time period. Film can be no longer than eight minutes, though certain exceptions are made in the case of extraordinarily well-made movies. And by extraordinary, they mean it. The content cannot be considered deserving of a hard R or NC-17 or XXX rating. All preproduction efforts, including screenwriting, are exempt from the 48 hour time limit.
The first big time 48 Hour Film Festival was held at the Chaplin Theater at Raleigh Studios, a 150 seat venue that soon proved too small for the growing audience eager to attend. Currently, the festival is presented at the Arclight Theater on Sunset Blvd. All proceeds go to the Starbright Foundation.
The ExtremeFilmmaker web site not only gives all the pertinent information regarding the 48 Hour Film Festival, but provides a wealth of information for budding filmmakers. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter so you can keep up to date on the 48 Hour Film Festival updates. Also included on the site are guides for picking the right equipment and the right software for editing your masterpiece. In addition, you will find fabulous tips on the actual process of making a movie; for instance, such things as framing, lighting, and using the camera itself as an actor are covered.
Perhaps nothing is a better teacher of how to make a film than watching a film. Heck, there’s no perhaps about it. You can read all the theory you want and listen to all the seminars and read every word ever written about film from DW Griffith to Quentin Tarantino, but if you haven’t watched a lot of movies, you can’t hope to make an original movie. It has been said that Orson Welles prepared to make Citizen Kane by watching Stagecoach dozens of times. Although the story is probably apocryphal, the idea has merit. If you don’t watch a lot of movies you can’t make movies. (Which, of course, is going to present some heavy duty problems to the next generation of filmmakers who, instead of being exposed to daily doses of Hawks, Welles, Ford and Stevens are instead being treated to three showings on three straight nights of You’ve Got Mail on TNT and nothing but James Bond movies for a whole week on American Movie Classics.)
But I digress.
The point is that if you really want to learn what it takes to make a 48 hour movie, then you should check out what has been submitted before. And the site makes that possible by listing many of the best submissions according to the festival in which they were shown. This is your classroom. Watch these films and learn. And then grab your camera and go out and make your own and, who knows, you just may find your own flick available for download.
Lest you think this is all just an exercise in wishful thinking and that nobody is ever going to get noticed by making a movie in 48 hours, consider that no less a proponent of independent film and the digital revolution than writer-composer-editor-director Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon A Time In Mexico) took notice of the 48 Hour Film Festival and asserted that it represents the very essence of independent filmmaking.
Once upon a time, Cannes was just a beach where women walked around topless. Once upon a time Sundance was just the quiet guy in a funny western movie. Right now the 48 Hour Film Festival is taking place inside a 450 seat venue.
Once upon a time it took place inside a small room at a special effects house.
