I have been involved in the 48 hour film project for two years. Both years I have been post production supervisor. Basically I try to make sure the Post Production crew finishes on time. This year was close, freaking close. We made our final cut in with 32 seconds to spare. I wish we had had 10 more seconds to wit 42 seconds to spare, but alas you work with what you have.
I couldn't participate in the first 48 hour film project and I regret that. Now I block off that weekend and baring family emergency I'll be there. This year was a blast for me and I feel that the films keep improving from year to year. At first I thought this might be because folks are getting the hang of it, or working on their skills during the year, however we had some very strong shows from first year guys so I guess we are both improving, and drawing in a more skilled group of participants. I really found myself enjoying more of the films this year and having to sit through less of them. I am no film critic but I know what I like and I will not sit here and name names in order to be troll bait. I will simply make 2 observations.
Sound.
Sound almost got us last year and this year. Both years sound was the last thing we were working on and both times we wanted more time to tweak it more. Creating good audio is difficult and doing it on a strong tmie constraint will make or break your film. If you can't find a dedicated sound person make sure you leave ample time at the end to go through and balance your audio, clean up what you can, and get your film in on time. I'm sure there are tutorial throught the internet .
Time:
It is difficult to write a 7 minute film. It is even more difficult to know when to stop filming. Some films will take the entire 7 minutes to tell, some may only need 4. If you only need 4 don't make it 7 just to fill time. When you are writing your script make sureyou don't write a 15 minute film.
I thought these thing, and I also heard others echoing my thoughts. I hope that this will help next years bunch of films excell and make the judges really have to earn their pay. This year there were MANY strong contenders for best of city and I don't think any of the teams will begrudge the winner. Hopefully TIFN will be ready during this year and help us all create better films.