The annual 48 Hour Film Project is a city-by-city international competition that was created a little over 10 years ago in Washington D.C. Participants gather on Friday night where they are given certain requirements that their film must adhere to. Other than those particular restrictions, teams have complete creative freedom. They then have the next 48 hours to write a script, audition actors, film, score and edit. The films are due Sunday night and screened in local theaters around the city the following week. Audiences vote on their favorites and then there is a final screening of all the winners. The Seattle 48HFP took place two weekends ago, July 12-14. Teams were instructed to include a barista named Gino or Gina Asplund as a character, cheese as a prop and “there must be something in your ear” as a line. The short films on were screened in groups July 16-17 and then a winner was chosen from each group by the audience. A screening of those films will take place Wednesday, August 7 at 7p.m. at the SIFF Cinema Uptown. Tickets can be purchased online for $12.
Bellevue College student and avid film club member Josef Wilke was part of a team that participated in the 48HFP this year. Wilke joined the team 24 hours in and was editing as filming was continued. Although he admitted that the experience was a challenge,Wilke said the most rewarding partt was “Being able to get it done . Making a movie, any movie, in 48 hours is hard…The fact that we were able to get it done and have it screened in front of an audience was incredible.” Despite this being Wilke’s first 48HFP, BC students have been participating in the competition for about nine years now. Although he did not attend any screenings this year, BC instructor and film club adviser Michael Korolenko said that he has “gone to some of the presentations and [was] pretty impressed with a lot of the stuff…in fact, a lot of it is even better than the students who have been working on a project for [longer].” Korolenko believes the experience to be very beneficial to aspiring filmmakers and tells his students and film club members about the competition.Korolenko wbelieves it to be “a very good exercise…it’s good to do maybe once, to get something out of and…then enlarge [into] a bigger project.” Seattle’s next 48 Hour Film Project will take place next year, but 48HFP offers other postseason competitions. A full list can be found at http://www.48hourfilm.com/en/competitions/. Any BC students interested in joining the film club can email the adviser Michael Korolenko.korry@bellevuecollege.edu.