Can you make a movie in 48 hours?

Cafe Society
1

I did. Not by myself, though. I was part of a team consisting of some co-workers and former college classmates (many who are both). Together we completed an entry into the San Francisco edition of the 48 Hour Film Project.

At about 7:00pm Friday, teams draw a genre from a hat, and all teams are given the same character name and occupation, a prop, and a line of dialog. All three must be included in the finished film, which has to be handed in by 7:30pm on Sunday.

our elements
Genre: Fantasy
Character name: Gus (or Gloria) Lorenz, Trade Expert
Prop: a plane, bus, or train ticket
Line of dialog: “Forget it. I already have.”

My primary job was recording audio with a boom mic. Apparently I have a knack for this as we didn’t have to master the audio during editing. I also helped write it, and I did the video effects and opening titles during post-production. Technically I was also in the film, but I’m no more than a lump under the covers during a montage scene.

We’re thinking of entering again when they come to San Jose next month. There’s some lessons we learned we’re all eager to apply. Plus, we didn’t want Fantasy, although it was better than Historical Fiction.

With SkipMagic’s permission, I present Like Pulling Teeth:
In HD on Vimeo
In Crappy Vision on YouTube

2

“H. The finished film must be a minimum of 4 minutes in duration, and a maximum of 7 minutes in duration.”

Thank the gods. If they wanted you to do a 2 hour movie, that would just be suicide.

I once did a three minute film* in about 72 hours. It was fun and insane, but fortunately I chose to do it as a silent film! :smiley: Makes it a bit easier.

  • It would have been better as a four minute film, but the rules for the competition was that it had to be three minutes.
3

Yeah. Ours ended up just barely over four minutes after editing. Our script was only three pages*and we expected the cut-aways and the montage to fill up more time.

One thing we’ll implement is a five-page script minimum.

*: A standard script is one page = one minute.

4

Yes, I could. If you wanted it to be watchable and/or interesting, though, that would be a bit of a stretch.

5

That didn’t stop some entrants. We were looking at previously made movie, and a few from the same weekend, and so many were just plain bad. :frowning:

6

I’ve done so, a lot of times (for boomerang projects) and while it’s possible, the point of the exercise becomes tedious after a while.

A movie starts with a concept, developed into an idea, maturing into a boiled-down synopsis, nurtured into a treatment and whipped into a manuscript. Then, all economics aside, one contemplates the importance of visuals and sound and actors, technics and one boils all of this down into a plan.

All that, alone, takes months if not years. Filming a movie is the easy part. Or rather, it’s the predictable part. (Which is why so many projects have been waterlined by nasty surprises during filming – once the crew of dozens, hundreds or thousands of people are working on a project, the progress cannot be put on hold. It really is doe or die for many films)

So, in essence, yes. You can make a film in two days, but the time-constraint chokes so many of the factors of what we consider film that some people would say that it doesn’t qualify.

Yes, I’ve been there and had it happen - genious sequences, great-fun sets, good spontaneous acting and so on and so forth. And it feels good and it lets you know you’re doing something you know how. But most results will be crap and what’s good is either pre-meditated, art by accident or stroke of genius.

Films are the product of a process. And the point of the exercise is to highlight the process, not the end result - making an audience watch it is almost always humbling (or humiliating, depending on which part of the curve you occupy) which, I suppose, may be an anxilliary point.

7

Seven minutes long? Roger Corman would have written, shot, editted, and distributed a feature length film in 48 hours. :slight_smile:

8

I recall that in Corman’s autobiography, he mentions renting a ghost-town set out in the desert for a weekend to shoot a Western. The female lead fell off a horse and broke her leg, so while somebody drove out to call an ambulance, they rewrote her scenes to let her sit down for all of them, rearranged the shooting schedule, and finished shooting before she went off to hospital.

The show must go on!

9

They made “sweded” films in 24 hours. :stuck_out_tongue:

10

In Toronto we’ve got the Toronto Film Challenge which has both 24hr and 48hr film festivals. Myself and a group of my friends have entered both with a reasonable amount of success. Third place on one occasion, audience choice award on another.

The situation was similar to garygnu’s, you’re provided with a genre, prop, line of dialogue, and a location that all have to be included in your story. On two occasions we’ve had to include specific sound effects.

I dunno, are there rules about linking to your own videos or something? They’re both online and I could provide links if anyone’s interested.

11

We were going to shoot four short films in a week when I went to New Orleans in May. Unfortunately things on the Big Easy end didn’t come together. So I have a script for a five-minute zombie short that can be shot in one long day. (Though two would be better.)

I also have a script for a film about 15 minutes long. That could be done in a couple of weekends if I could get someone who could do make-up well. It would be slower to make than the zombie film because I want to shoot that one on super-16.

Unfortunately it’s difficult to find actors and crew up here. :frowning:

12

Please tell me it was the Wilhelm Scream.

13

Heh, no. It was nothing that interesting. If I recall, it was a dog barking or some such thing.