The National Film Challenge Is On!

DMProductions

DMProductions

Active member
Saw this on another one of my forums, thought I'd pass it along in case anyone's interested.



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Attention Filmmakers!

The time is here again for the 3rd Annual National Film Challenge! The National Film Challenge(www.filmchallenge.org) is the latest cool filmmaking competition from the creators of the 48 Hour Film Project(www.48hourfilm.com).

Here are the details:

WHAT IS THE NATIONAL FILM CHALLENGE?

It's your chance to stop talking and start filming! The premise? Filmmaking teams have just one weekend to make a short film. All creativity - writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack - must occur beginning Friday evening at 7 p.m. on October 21, 2005 and ending Monday October 24, 2005. On Friday, to make things interesting, each team is emailed a genre for its film, and a character, prop and line of dialogue that must appear in each team’s movie. Then the film must be sent to National Film Challenge Headquarters with a postmark no later than Monday, October 25. In the following weeks the top films (determined by a panel of judges) will be available for viewing (and voting!) on our website(www.filmchallenge.org). There will be two big winners this year – The Judges Winner and The Audience Award Winner (determined by the online voting.) Both films will screen with the 48 Hour Film Project City Winners at this year’s Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California.(www.cinequest.org) In addition there will be cash prizes for the winning films!

HOW DO I SIGN UP MY TEAM?

Starting THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 you will be able to register your team at www.filmchallenge.org. This is going to be the largest Film Challenge ever – 250 teams will be selected to compete this year! Registration is on a first come first served basis. The Early Bird Entry Fee is $110 if you register on or before September 20, 2005 and $125 if you register between September 21, 2005 and October 20, 2005. Teams can be anywhere from 1 person to 30 or more people. Read all of the rules of the contest here: www.filmchallenge.org/rules.htm

Do you have any questions about the National Film Challenge? Please check our FAQ and then use our Bulletin Board to post questions you need answered: www.filmchallenge.org/faq.htm

The National Film Challenge is being produced by KDHX, Community Media for Saint Louis, MO www.kdhxtv.org and www.kdhx.org

Thanks,

Doug Whyte
National Film Challenge Producer
 
I'll play Devil's Advocate here...

Why do filmmakers put their time, resources and energy into making a 48 Hour movie that probably won't be any good? There have been exceptions, but most of the ones I've seen are crap.

Why not put the same time, resources and energy into making something good? After all, how good can a movie possibly be if the script was written and tweaked in less than eight hours?

Does anyone else feel this way?
 
christopherthomas said:
After all, how good can a movie possibly be if the script was written and tweaked in less than eight hours?
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If it's good enough for Roger Corman...:thumbsup:
 
I haven't decided yet, but I had a great time doing this year's 48Hour. I do have to agree with Chris to some extent though - it's a lot of work with marginal results, especially if you're the one forking out the cash (producer). You really need to have a top-notch team in place to rise above the jetsam that makes up these contests.
 
Yeah... your right... it is fun, but the more days with little to no sleep, the more you tend to lose quality
 
christopherthomas said:
True, but Corman was writing FEATURES, not shorts. :shocked:

I'm a big fan of Corman's "High Concept / Low Execution" way of thinking.
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Explain, Chris, this concept for one as uninitiated as myself (I haven't done a lot of reading on Corman).
 
The thing that bothers me about these "competitions" is the entry fee. $110 is a lot for any festival, much less one that requires you to make a film specifically for it. This is a profit deal, can you smell it? And the website didn't promise any cash prizes beyond $1000 travel expenses if you are the grand prize winner. I've always been interested in one of these weekend film comps, but would never drop that much for the privilege of working my but off on a film that I will most likely hate. I can do that on my own. Or on a free to enter dvxuser.com 48 hour contest... nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more.
 
christopherthomas said:
I'll play Devil's Advocate here...

Why do filmmakers put their time, resources and energy into making a 48 Hour movie that probably won't be any good? There have been exceptions, but most of the ones I've seen are crap.

Why not put the same time, resources and energy into making something good? After all, how good can a movie possibly be if the script was written and tweaked in less than eight hours?

Does anyone else feel this way?
Click to expand...

If you put the same time into making something cool you're still only putting in 48 hours. I think this sort of thing teaches a lot of people how NOT to make a film, if nothing else.

For me it's a fun exercise in creativity. When you're in the middle of pre-production etc and spending all your days planning (or even in post and spending days locked away editing), sometimes it's fun to just get out there and shoot for a weekend.

I also see these as networking opportunities. I've met a lot of people through these contests who I would not have met otherwise.

Also, these competitions let you experience working under pressure and allow you to test your limits without having to be on a big budget production with loads of money at stake.

For most people I think it's more about the experience rather than the end result.
 
seejay1031 said:
The thing that bothers me about these "competitions" is the entry fee.
Click to expand...

Very true. When the 48 Hour Film Project started I think it cost like 1/3 of what they're charging these days. A DVX User version of this would be awesome.
 
seejay1031 said:
The thing that bothers me about these "competitions" is the entry fee. $110 is a lot for any festival, much less one that requires you to make a film specifically for it. This is a profit deal, can you smell it? And the website didn't promise any cash prizes beyond $1000 travel expenses if you are the grand prize winner. I've always been interested in one of these weekend film comps, but would never drop that much for the privilege of working my but off on a film that I will most likely hate. I can do that on my own. Or on a free to enter dvxuser.com 48 hour contest... nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more.
Click to expand...

Exactly! You can put that $110 towards the production of something that you take your time with and make something you're proud to show people.

EXAMPLE: Last September, we shot a DV short - THE DUBYA - on a friend's DVX-100A. I wrote the script and we were in pre-production for about a month. We shot everything we needed on a Saturday, then we had about five weeks for post-production.

Total cost: less than $100 for doughnuts, coffee, pizza, beer, a few miniDV tapes, and some props.

The result: Three film festival screenings, including TromaDance in Utah this past January.

Bonus: Troma will be distributing the 6-minute short on their upcoming Best of TromaDance DVD this December.

This summer, I've directed and/or produced three shorts. Two of them took one day of principal photography, and the other took two days.

Bottom Line: The shooting is actually the shortest part of the entire process. Pre-production is where your creativity flows as you juggle a hundred different things and rewrite the script because you can't get that one actor/prop/location on the day you need to shoot. And even with top quality people working 'round the clock, you can't edit a masterpiece out of subpar footage.

I suppose you could always go back after the weekend of the competition and invest hours reworking the edit of a 48 Hour film, but why would you want to polish a turd?
 
DMProductions said:
Explain, Chris, this concept for one as uninitiated as myself (I haven't done a lot of reading on Corman).
Click to expand...

High Concept: Vampire Strippers

Low Execution: A bunch of naked women with fangs dancing around and biting people.

High Concept: Zombie Western

Low Execution: Aside from some killer exteriors, everything takes place inside one poorly dressed location and everyone's costumes look like they came from Party City.

High Concept: A Misty Mundae movie

Low Execution: A Misty Mundae movie

:happy:
 
Yeah, I know what you're saying. I think "polishing a turd" is self-explanitory, especially when talking about 48H-style projects, but at the same time ) perhaps not this fest), the rush of having to complete something that you'd put your name to is fun. You're challenged to have multiple locations on standby, same with talent, and your story, well, sucks. It does force you to be out of the box.
 
Sometimes, yes. But I've also seen some very good and extremely creative people, who if they had at least a week to prep the script would deliver a great pic, fail miserably in the 48H. The flip side is that some not-so-good ones thrive.
 
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