The Making of a 48 Hour Film Project Winner
The 48 Hour Film Project offers filmmakers a chance at fame and glory and unleashed creativity, along with the insanity of producing a film from pre to post in two days. Scott Strimple, editor of award-winning 48HFP entries two years running, recounts what it was like putting together this year's film. In Part 2 he'll discuss the instrumental role Apple Final Cut Pro X played in editing and delivering the film with a cool 9 minutes to spare.
The 48 Hour Film Project is a series of competitions held around the globe with the stated goal of proliferating filmmaking and showcasing filmmakers. And with the unstated goal, presumably, of testing the limits of filmmakers' sanity as they scramble on mere minutes of sleep to create films that normally would take weeks or even months to prep, write, shoot, edit, and score.
Filmmakers register for the fun of it and the challenge of it, perhaps the same reason an athlete signs up to run a half-marathon or ride a bike an ungodly number of miles in one weekend. Wedding filmmaker Scott Strimple of United Wedding Productions in Richmond, Virginia, is one of these intrepid "endurance filmmakers" who, on July 13-15, took part in Richmond's 48HFP for a heart-pumping weekend of filmmaking.
final.revised in 2011: In a League of Their Own
It was his second year participating in this 12-year-old event, and his final.revised team last year won Richmond's 48HFP with their film Summer League. That's nothing to sneeze at considering the nature of the competition. You can't submit just any old film or video that you can bang out in 48 hours. Your team is given a genre, and every team in your city must include the same assigned line of dialogue, character, and prop to be revealed at kickoff in a much-anticipated announcement. What's more, any "creative" work prior to the competition is strictly forbidden, including writing a script, rehearsing, designing sets or costumes, and sound design.
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Final.revised's 2011 48HFP entry, Summer League, took the top prize in Richmond and went on to be screened at Cannes. From there, Summer League advanced to Filmapalooza, the finale festival held last year at the Taos Shortz Film Fest, where it was one of only 12 films chosen from around the world to screen at NAB and the Short Film Corner at Cannes, a coveted position for sure.
More Kudos for 2012's Entry: Foot Patrol
This year, team final.revised took home "Best Acting Ensemble" and "Best Costumes" with their film Foot Patrol at Richmond’s “Best Of” screening held on August 4 at the Byrd Theater.
Final.revised's award-winning 2012 entry: Foot Patrol
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No matter how fast, efficient, and determined a 48 Hour Film Project production team is, they need to finish strong with a streamlined edit. Final.revised editor Scott Strimple describes how Apple Final Cut Pro X allowed him to deliver the goods on deadline, by leveraging key features that could make any edit cook.