48 Hour Film Project ready to roll out 11th year

People in central Arkansas may catch glimpses of professionals and enthusiastic amateurs roaming around with cameras, microphones and other moviemaking paraphernalia on an urgent quest: to produce a creative, technically sound film -- on a tight deadline.

It's the 48 Hour Film Project, an international film festival competition now in its 11th year in Little Rock.

"It's pretty much the marathon of filmmaking," Jeff Hahn, the producer of the Little Rock project chapter who has twice competed, says with a laugh.

Teams will meet at a kickoff party, 6-7 p.m. Friday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. Team leaders will receive their genre, a randomly selected category -- comedy, buddy film, fantasy, romance, horror or any of the 14 official genres for 2015.

If the team is unhappy with its category, they can trade it for a wild card, also randomly chosen. But once they decide to try for a wild card, they can't go back to their original selection.

They also receive required elements -- a line of dialogue and perhaps a prop -- that must be included in the film, which must be four to seven minutes long.

From that point on, the team has until 7:30 p.m. Sunday to write a script, film it, edit it and return it to the theater.

There are no limits on team size; Hahn says they've had teams as large as 20 and as small as five. The makeup skews toward professionals, but they do get a fair number of amateurs and students. This year, they even have a team of high school students. And teams are allowed to recruit extra people once the competition is underway, as long as all the appropriate on-camera waivers are signed.

The most successful films have a combination of creativity and technical proficiency. Actually, Hahn says, many people don't realize it, but sound could be the most important factor: "Good audio is really, really important. Good audio is more important than video quality. If people can't follow your story, you're going to lose them."

It's a big challenge, and Hahn estimates that every year, one or two teams don't make it in time. His first year, his was one of those teams.

"I didn't really know what I was getting into," he says. "We were just trying to go too big. One of the things that really snag people, they don't take into consideration how long it takes to edit these films."

Even if a team just can't make it in under the wire, he encourages them to turn the film in anyway. It may not be eligible for the competition, but it will still earn a screening for an audience.

All the films, those on time and those that come in late, will go up on a screen for audiences July 20-21. A "Best Of" screening and awards ceremony will follow Aug. 4; the top finisher wins a $5,000 grand prize.

Hahn says he can't reveal the lineup of judges, but he has made an effort to get a good range of people from diverse backgrounds who are able to judge films on their technical and creative qualities.

"I try to choose people who are veterans in the business but who are also open-minded," he says.

The international project has challenges in more than 30 states and dozens of countries, from Poland to Australia.

It may be wide-reaching, but it definitely has local appeal. One of the project co-founders, Liz Langston, is an Arkansas native. And, Hahn says, the results of this competition will be pure Arkansas: "They're actually films made in Arkansas. That's what separates us from other festivals. These are people in our community coming together and making things."

Weekend on 07/09/2015