From April 6-8, eight small teams of participating students were given the task of writing, producing and editing a short film within a 48-hour time limit. As required by the 48 Hour Film Festival organization, each film had to run between two and six minutes and include four specific creative elements.
Three professional filmmakers composed the official judging panel, voting on first, second and third place overall winners for the event. Additionally, members from all of the various teams and members of the public who attended the Festival voted on a film to win the Audience Choice Award.
In this year’s competition, first place was awarded to “Team Intern,” for their production of the film “Tagged,” a dramatic piece about a man plagued by the labels he was given by society.
“We’re all filmmakers and part of Wildcat Watch, and as a producer, I always evaluate everyone’s strengths and weaknesses,” Clarissa Weers, senior in digital media and producer for Team Intern, said. “I think what our team does well is that we all build off each other’s strengths and that we have a chemistry. We never go into something like this to win, we just go in for fun. We plan on donating all of the equipment we won through the Festival to Wildcat Watch to use in the future.”
In second place came team “4T8 Dominate” for “The Target,” a film about a hired assassin’s daily life. This film also received the Audience Choice award.
Third place went to the team of “Taratino’s Pizza Roles” for their work in “Cottontail,” a film about a man haunted by a pair of rabbit creatures.
“Next year, we plan on working more on the quality of our cinematography and basic time management skills as we actually produced our entire film in about 15 hours,” Andrea Browne, freshman in open option and Taratino’s Pizza Roles team member, said.
Christian Swearingen, freshman in secondary education, said he came to the event to watch a film produced by one of his friends.
“I was really impressed with the Festival, as it is only the second year that this has happened,” Swearingen said. “I was amazed at how well produced each film was, especially given the 48 hour time limit.”
