the 48 Hour Film Project for Greensboro is finished for 2005.
This year was much more solid than last year, and I think we as a film making community can make it better. There has been some squabbling since the project ended about people's opinions and a little bickering, but overall this has been a positive step for Greensboro's film making community. Perhaps next year, prior to the project, some of us who have participated before and who have strong skill sets could meet with some of the less experienced groups and help them. I can only imagine how much better some of these groups could have been had they been given some instruction in some basic areas. Perhaps we could have an "adopt the beginners" big brother type program a month or two before the project.
Maybe some of us with blogs could start posting helpful instruction for those out there who could use a little helpful instruction. All of us in the 48 aren't film students and may not have the time to read a stack of books to get some basic rules of movie making. My skills do not lie within the "technical" side of movie making so I am not a resource for this.
Now for my thoughts.
The films have been reviewed in several locations. I don't feel the need to review them yet again. I was glad about a few of the awards and I'll post my opinion here. I was happiest that "super best buds" won best use of prop. These guys were teenagers who got together and made a good tongue-in-cheek movie that entertained me more than most of the other entries. "The Gift" won best sound and best special effects. I was part of this team and I am glad that their talent was recognized. There were some very tough choices for the judges and I'm glad I was not one of them. I really hope that everyone next year can get something in on time because the feeling you get when your team comes together and makes it in under the wire is such a rush. I will try to get some sort of timeline together as a rough idea of how to spend your time to hopefully help out the folks who didn't make it this year. I wonder if anyone involved in the 48 might know a way to convince one of the groups that own a large multi-level buildings to donate space for base camps. It would be nice for folks from out of town to be able to have a place to plop down equipment and work from.