Pop quiz, hotshot: Friday night, 7pm, you are given an envelope containing three things: a movie genre, a prop, and a line of dialogue. You have 48 hours to conceptualize, write, shoot, edit, and submit a 3-minute film centered on these random items. What do you do, hotshot? What do you do?
Henceforth, this contest shall be known as the 48-Hour Film Challenge, presented by the Independent Film Project (IFP), Phoenix Chapter. Webb Pickersgill of Bassline Digital put together a team of friends and entered the contest. The team was: Webb Pickersgill, Joel Cranson, Brenda Glenn, Kevin Herrmann, Nathan Blaine, Charissa Hobt, Hal Semmens, Troy Wilson, and Brett Siders. (Some others also contributed, but this was the major creative team.) This year’s challenge took place July 21-23. This was our material:
- Genre: Drama
- Prop: Binoculars
- Line: “Where did you get those pants?”
(Every team gets the same prop and line. The genres could be horror, comedy, or drama.)
Regrouping at home base, we wrote the mini-screenplay in roughly 3 hours and began shooting immediately that night until 5am. After a five-hour nap break, we continued through Saturday afternoon. At 9pm Saturday night, shooting was wrapped. After a decent night’s sleep, Webb began post-production Sunday morning and submitted the finished product ahead of time Sunday night around 6pm.
48 hours. One 3-minute movie.
Our final product, titled “Silhouette,” premiered next to 24 other submitted short films on August 3, 2006. All 25 films were shown back-to-back, with awards to follow.
“Silhouette” walked away triumphantly with three awards:
- Best Drama
- Best use of the line of dialogue
- 1st Place Overall!! Best Film!
“Silhouette” is now automatically selected to be shown at the next Phoenix Film Festival.
‘Nuff said.
Kevin Herrmann 