MOVIEMAKING
COURTESY PHOTO
The best of the 48 Hour Film Project have been showcased in many film festivals.
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Filmmakers test limits of their creativity
The 48 Hour Film Project debuts here
There's no question Honolulu filmmakers will be ready for their close-up when the 48 Hour Film Project brings its first Honolulu festival to town.
48 Hour Film Project
Screening: 6 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday
Place: Paliku Theatre, Windward Community College, 45-720 Keaahala Road, Kaneohe
Tickets: $10, available online at ETicketHawaii.com
Info: www.48hourfilm.com/honolulu
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Local filmmakers have had more than a year's worth of experience with the competitive, quickie filmmaking format, thanks to monthly "Showdown in Chinatown" events that started with teams making a film in 24 hours, before adopting a 48-hour format to give directors more time to edit their work.
The annual 48 Hour Film Project will give Honolulu filmmakers an opportunity to reach a larger audience through a national competition that will pit Hawaii's winner against those from 56 cities across the country for the title "Best 48 Hour Film of 2007" and a cash prize of $7,500. The 48HFP has also produced DVDs of the winning films and has taken the top films to festivals including Cannes, SXSW in Austin, and Cinequest.
According to Cherie Tallett, organizer for the Honolulu event, the local competition will involve 24 teams, from professional to amateur.
Tallett, who grew up in Hawaii, was an L.A.-based producer who did work for MTV, reality television series and documentaries before deciding to move back to Hawaii with her husband to raise their daughter.
That's when the national 48HFP organizers tapped her to organize the Honolulu project. The national competition started in May 2001 when Mark Ruppert, in Washington, D.C., wondered if a film made in only 48 hours would be watchable. He decided to give it a try, enlisting his filmmaking partner, Liz Langston, and other area filmmakers to form their own teams and join the experiment.
Of course, those who have sat through the offerings at "Showdown in Chinatown" know firsthand the answer is both yes and no, but there's no question that small gems have been created in as little as 24 hours.
Access to inexpensive video equipment has fueled the enthusiasm for filmmaking and 48HFP's rapid growth across the country.
According to the 48HFP Web site, www.48hourfilm.com, "the smallest team has consisted of one person who sets up the camera then runs around to be 'on-camera.' Our largest team to date was an Atlanta-based team with 70 people. We've had about 3,000 teams in the project over the years, and at 15 people per team, that translates to roughly 45,000 people who have answered the call to come on out and make a movie."
THE KICKOFF for Honolulu filmmakers will take place at 7 p.m. Friday at the O Lounge. At that time, teams chosen last month will each receive a genre, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue that they must work into their piece. While the character, prop and line will be the same for all the teams, the genres will differ.
Teams will need to drop off their finished work at the same place by 7:30 p.m. Sunday, and the public is invited to view the films at 6 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Windward Community College's Paliku Theatre.
Tallett says she's watched the competitions in L.A. and said, "The deadline is harsh. You can expect teams not to sleep, and there are always teams that can't make the deadline, but it's fun in the end. It's about putting your creativity down on film, using your imagination. We're just here to promote filmmaking."