You may have seen small film crews around town recently, rapidly shooting films. They were doing something called the 48 Hour Film Project.
“There are about a hundred and fifty cities around the world who host their own.”
San Antonio is one of them, according to City Producer Sarabeth Pridgen Fox. As to what happens, here’s how it plays out. People assemble at Fox's house and slips of paper with nine film genres are put into a hat. The genres include horror, drama, action, and mystery.
“I let everybody draw a genre out of a hat, and there’s a line of dialogue, and a character with a name, and there’s a prop. And those three elements have to be incorporated into your film.”
Those specific elements need to appear regardless of the genre chosen. And so film producers have 48 hours to write, shoot, and post-produce a film. Fox says the exercise is to help filmmakers become razor focused.
“Yeah, focus, and the fact that they have to work with a team. That to me seems like one of the most important aspects. And so you come back by Sunday at 7:30 on the dot and turn in your movie. And there’s a panel of judges and they choose best film, best acting, best writing, best directing, a few other things."
The films will be screened on Wednesday, August 26 at 6 p.m. at the Santikos Bijou theater, with the winning films in each category receiving an encore screening on Sunday evening at the Rialto Theater.
“Yes, that’s right. And there are about nine categories. The audience gets to vote for their favorite. There are two groups. And each of the teams gets a prize for that.”
The Grand Prize Winner gets to the national competition.
“They call it Filmapalooza,” Fox says.
For more on the 48 Hour Film Project go here.
