On your marks. Get set. Film!
Oh no! He tripped right out of the starting blocks.
You might think it would be near impossible to make a short film from conception to completion in only 48 hours, and yet people do it. Heck, I’ve done it a few times and it’s a pretty awesome experience.
In case you don’t know, there are 48-hour filmmaking competitions all over the world whose rules are roughly the same:
Pick your team ahead of time.
Meet with other teams at a designated time and place on a Friday evening.
Draw a genre at random out of a hat.
Blindly draw a slip of paper that contains a line of dialogue you must include in your finished film.
Draw a prop at random from a box.
Go make your film, and be sure it’s turned in by Sunday evening at the designated time.
The rules are set so that teams don’t actually write or shoot anything ahead of time. Organizers want to level the playing field and ensure that everyone starts with a blank slate.
Some teams really go all out. Once I saw a group leave on a Friday night, drive to the beach while writing their script, shoot at the beach, then edit their film on the way back. All because they wanted to have a beach location. I had to tip my hat to the dedication.
Over the years I’ve been involved in about a half dozen different 48-hour contests and they can be a lot of fun, even though you don’t get any sleep. I’ve learned that these competitions are just like a 100m sprint. You have to come out of the starting blocks strong if you hope to meet the deadline.
It was during one of these cinematic track events that I led a team out onto the field. In addition to the random line of dialogue and a prop, we also had to draw the name of a Hollywood director and imitate his/her style. We drew M. Night Shyamalan, so we knew our script had to have an unexpected plot twist.
We withdrew from the kickoff location and regrouped at a crew member’s apartment to start writing. The evening progressed well and late that night we had a solid script, a location, a schedule, and a plan. We were about to wrap when my main actor raised his hand.
“Um…” he began tentatively, “How long will this take? Because I have to leave for work at two o’clock tomorrow.”
The room went silent for a moment. The rest of us looked at each other with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. I finally responded, “All day. It will take us all day.”
“Oh,” he said.
This particular actor was a friend of the co-star and she was the one who asked him to join our team, but it was obvious that there was no way he could commit to the film. So, we were left scrambling just before midnight, hoping to find someone who could show up on location in only 7 hours… on a Saturday.
I realize these 48-hour challenges are only for fun and aren’t meant to be taken too seriously, but there are definite lessons to be learned from participating in such a frantic, stress-inducing project.
It takes the right kind of people to pull it off.
Whether you’re making a film, a corporate video, or anything really that involves coordinating a bunch of people toward a common purpose, you have to ensure that the personalities, work ethics, and the know-how of your team match well with the problem you’re trying to solve or the job you’re trying to complete.
You can’t just plug anyone into a 48-hour filmmaking challenge. It has to be people already familiar with the filmmaking process; people who don’t have to ask questions; who don’t need hand-holding. When things are moving that quickly, you can’t afford to waste a second. You need to maintain order, efficiency, and a high degree of stamina. And it helps when the people on your team can communicate with a kind of short-hand.
Vet your people.
Even though there are rules in place during a 48-hour filmmaking challenge to ensure teams don’t get a head start, you are still allowed to organize your cast and crew ahead of time. This is where I should have been more diligent. As a director, even for a fun, informal weekend film project, I should have had a conversation with my co-star’s friend to make 100% sure he understood what he was getting into and what the expectations were. Even though he was an actor, he had very little on-camera experience and zero on-set experience. It wasn’t his fault. He just didn’t understand the process. Thoroughly vetting your people ahead of time, managing expectations, and properly communicating the job and the role each person will play is incredibly important.
In the end, it all worked out, even though we stumbled a bit off the starting blocks. Miraculously, we were able to find a replacement actor and we completed the film on time. We didn’t win the competition, but it was pretty satisfying, creatively speaking, that we were able to produce a piece of art and get it out into the world in only 48 hours. So, don’t discount little creative exercises, whatever they may be. They’re a great way to hone your skills and improve your craft. Even if you do stumble a bit, either off the blocks or down the stretch, you can cross the finish line feeling proud of what you accomplished.