The 48 hour challenge opens to doors to people who have always wanted to try making a film. (NB Film Co-op)
Filmmakers in Saint John will be working hard this weekend for the first 48-Hour Film Competition.
Teams will have two days to write, shoot and edit a short film, based on an “inspiration” object that was revealed to them Friday.
Tony Merzetti, executive director of the NB Film Co-op, says the competition pushes the teams’ creative limits.
“There’s a lot of things that have to happen to get a film completed in 48 hours. It’s a huge, huge challenge. But sometimes having those constraints spurs a lot of creativity in people,” he said.
“They push the boundaries, and I think a lot of times people think ‘oh, well you really didn’t have enough time to do a good film,’ but the fact is a lot of the films, the creativity and stuff like that in it, you probably wouldn’t have come up with something that interesting if you had all the time in the world,” he said.
Merzetti says the challenge opens to doors to people who have always wanted to try making a film.
“For people that may have thought about doing a film or had an idea in the back of their head but they always put it off, giving them an incentive to work on a project because it will all be done in a very short period of time,” he said.
He says in the past, teams have created sci-fi films, horror and even musicals.
Besides only having two days to create the film, Merzetti says all the material has to be original, including music, artwork, and photos.
Merzetti says the competition draws the film community together for a weekend of fun.
“The one thing about this that keeps people coming back each year is that it’s a lot of fun. You’ll probably laugh more this weekend than any other weekend, especially with lack of sleep, you start getting a bit punchy, everything becomes funny or silly,” he said.
The 48 Hour Film Competition was started in Fredericton 11 years ago, but this is the first time it’s coming to Saint John.
Merzetti wishes the competitors a successful weekend and hopes to make the competition a yearly tradition in the Port City.
The finished films will be screened at the Mary Oland Theatre in the New Brunswick Museum next Thursday. The event is free and open to the public.
