The 48 Hour Film Project brings together aspiring filmmakers for a high-stress battle to see who can pull off the best 5-7 minute short film in — what else? — 48 hours. Teams are randomly assigned a genre, prop, character name and line of dialogue on a Friday night, and then have to scramble all weekend to write a script, costume the actors, rehearse, shoot, edit, score and deliver a movie for exhibition by Sunday evening — all basically from scratch.
The Project takes place in dozens of cities around the world, with the Tampa/St. Petersburg victor nabbing a trophy, a screening slot for their movie at Filmapalooza (the annual grand finale event for the contest, held at the Chinese Theaters in Hollywood), and a free copy of script-writing software Movie Magic Screenwriter 6. As a special bonus, 10 of the best films from the 2013 Tour will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner in 2014.
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The actual filmmaking was completed from July 26-28, and all that's left for the teams is the spectacle of a public screening and the soaking up of fanboy adulation. Screenings will take place on Wed., July 31 and Thurs., Aug 1 at the Muvico Centro Ybor in Ybor City, with Screening A at 7 p.m., July 31, Screening B 7 p.m., Aug.1 and Screening C taking place at 9:30 p.m., Aug. 1. Tickets are $12 per screening and can be purchased here. Don't sleep on getting tickets, as the organizers expect a sellout the day of the show. (Last year's events sold out as well.)
Full disclosure: I participated in this year's 48 Film Project, helping a friend do the music for one of the teams. Though I was only a tiny part of the team (and only met the director and producer once for about 12 minutes), I must admit I can't wait to see how it all came together, not only for our team but for all the other talented filmmakers as well. I will be at the event on Aug. 1 (my team's flick will be shown during Screening B) and look forward to seeing my name up on the screen as my guitar wails on the soundtrack. I hope to see you there …