This comes to us from Chach by By MEG FRASER:
The lights dimmed at the Columbus Theater in Providence to a packed house of Rhode Island filmmakers last Wednesday night as a weekend's worth of nonstop adrenaline was condensed into short, four- to seven-minute films. Pictures of the teams flashed by the screen to the sound of a clock, ticking faster by the minute.
"Every second counts when you only have 48 hours to make a film," says the voice on the screen while the pictures fade and a logo appears – 48 Hour Film Project.
"This year we broke every record we ever had and had 55teams sign up to compete," announced producer David Splinter of event organizer Rhode Island Film Collaborative, who has been involved in the project both as a filmmaker and a coordinator.
Rewind several days to Sunday, July 20, and the lobby at the Warwick Hilton Garden Inn was inundated with those teams, scrambling to submit their film on time.
With 25 minutes to go until the 7:30 p.m. deadline, 33 teams had yet to hand in their final product. Some were faced with a power outage in Newport,while others had difficulty transferring their projects onto a portable disc,tape or flash drive.
For the teams that came in late, several by small margins, their films will not be eligible to win a "Best Of" honor, but were still shown last Wednesday and Thursday in one of four screening groups at the Columbus. For many filmmakers, it was their first time seeing their creations on the big screen.
"This is such a weird experience because you have to throw all the rules out the window," said Warwick team leader Larry Minick. "It was interesting."
In addition to the 48-hour time limit, teams must adhere to a set of guidelines that ensures they do not begin the filmmaking process before the weekend kicks off. Each short must include an assigned character,prop and line of dialogue that is not revealed until the event kick-off. This year's films had to feature a hairstylist named Monte or Monica Chaney, make use of a pear, and were required to include the line, "If you see him again,tell me."
Despite these common threads, variation comes into play when the teams pick the film genre at random. If a team is dissatisfied with their genre, they have only one method of recourse, and one that requires a gamble.
"We originally pulled drama and that was honestly the only one we didn't want to get," Minick said. His team, called "Team the matador phase is Justin Case Mike Rotch Bens Dover in Farsts and Boobs, Inc. the 1st," then opted to pull a wild card, which is kept safe by event producers in a sealed envelope.
The gamble paid off. Minick pulled "ghost movie," and the http://www.warwickonline.com/warwickonline - warwickonline.com Powered by Mambo Generated: 8 August, 2008, 13:46 team, whose name is a combination of member suggestions, got to work.
"The actual writing of the script was the hardest part for my group," he said. He explained that when working with a group of people,it can be difficult to please everyone; a problem many teams encountered.
"Too many chefs spoil the broth," said actor Paul Fortey of Boston. Drinking a vodka cranberry after handing in his final cut at the Hilton, Fortey laughed when asked how it felt to be finished. "I'm ready for a nap," he said.
He wasn't the only one. After trading ideas for six hours in Bickfords and several more in a 24-hour Dunkin' Donuts, Minick's team developed three versions of a script and got little sleep during their filming weekend. The group spent the early morning hours of Saturday gathering props, brainstorming location ideas and writing down a shot list. At 8 p.m. Saturday, after filming all day, "Team the matador…" decided the film wasn't turning out the way they wanted.
"Now we had less than 24 hours to do this," he said. "We ended up just changing things as we went and we filmed it really fast."
In as little as three or four hours, Minick and his crew had completed filming so that editing could begin – not an easy feat with those kind of time constraints. What's more, Minick was met with a major last minute obstacle less than three hours before deadline. "The camcorder would not record the footage," he said. "I did a lot of yelling and I said some swear words and now it's like 7 o'clock and it's still not working and then all of a sudden at 7:15 it decided it would print to video properly," he explained.
Coming in just in time, "Shh! Ghost" was met with laughter and applause at the Columbus. The film follows a ghost who struggles at being scary and goes through regular bouts of unemployment. "It came out more structured and more watchable than we thought it was going to look," Minick said of his heavily improvised film.
Improvisation is key to the 48 Hour Film Project,especially when the assigned genre requires a team to leave their comfort zone,explained Providence producer Mike Ryan.
EXILE MOVIES was another team from Warwick, and came into the competition knowing how important improv can be to making a successful short.
"Last year we had two pages of dialogue and we did 10 more of improv," said actor John "Chach" Dziadosz. Dziadosz is also a featured actor on the Rhode Island-based Showtime hit "Brotherhood," where he plays mechanic Limpy O'Connor.
At Wednesday's screening, Dziadosz was happy to support other filmmakers before his team's political drama was shown. The EXILE team had 20 members, all of whom were involved in the brainstorming process. Dziadosz and team members Erin Megin and Kathy Knight even documented the weekend on handheld cameras. He said the actors got a little more sleep than http://www.warwickonline.com/warwickonline - warwickonline.com Powered by Mambo Generated: 8 August, 2008, 13:46
the technical crew, though screen time was divided equitably.
"We have a great ensemble cast," he said, standing in a light rain outside the Columbus. "Everyone shines." EXILE MOVIES' film featured original music as well, thanks to Harrison Condit, who, with his wife Debbie, assisted the team during
their nonstop filming and editing.
"The technology has improved but more importantly I can say right away that the quality of films has improved," said Condit, who has participated in the project before. Producer Splinter agreed. He said many teams use impressive special effects and editing techniques, especially given the time provided, but showmanship is secondary when creating a film.
"If your story's not good you're not going to be voted best," he said, adding, "I would say that everyone really did quality work."
After screening films, audience goers voted for the three films they thought were the best. A panel of judges consider those tallies when selecting the top entries to be honored at a "Best Of" screening that also awards films based on things like best director, best script and best use of prop.
The "Best Of" will serve as a closing to the Rhode Island International Film Festival and will take place on Aug. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbus Theater. Tickets are available at the door.
The 48 Hour Film Project has grown from 24 teams in its first year to 55 this year after just three seasons of competition, and producers expect it will continue to grow as the film community in Rhode Island comes together.
As the house lights came up in the Columbus and filmmakers and film fanatics alike mingled, talking about memorable scenes or unusual music choices, a mantra of the Rhode Island Film Collaborative – and of the event – faded from the screen; "Film is alive in Rhode Island – let's keep it that way."