This past weekend, a number of university students competed in a race-against-time, striving to be crowned champion of the university’s annual 48 Hour Film Royale.
Hosted by the university’s Film and Media Production department, this is the 10th installment of the competition. Additionally, this is its third year since coming back from a two-year hiatus after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students had 48 hours from 6 p.m. on Friday until 6 p.m. on Sunday to write, shoot and edit their film. The films were then shown on Sunday at 7 p.m. in the CMC.
Each film needed to include the assigned theme, line of dialogue and prop. The prop was a small cactus, and the line of dialogue was a short exchange between two characters.
The theme is chosen by Sabrina Evans-Renkar, the director of the Film and Media Production program and Nathan Gjerstad, a film instructor at the university.
“In years past, we assigned a genre, but we decided this year to broaden it with a theme,” Evans-Renkar said. Although the competition was nothing to be scared of, the theme did not share the same sentiment.
Fear.
Traditionally, a single winner is awarded by a panel of judges. This year, they chose to have all the attendees scan a QR code and fill out a ballot of four awards.
The awards were “Best Use of Required Elements,” “Best Standout Moment,” “Most Cinematic” and “Best Interpretation of the Theme.”
The film “Plantabelle” won best use of required elements, and “Oskar and the Undead” won best standout moment.
The last two awards, “Most Cinematic” and “Best Interpretation” went to one film: “The Host.”
Colt Fyffe and Roman O’Brien’s film, “The Host,” follows an aspiring tv show host struggling with paralyzing stage fright.
Fyffe is a sophomore music technology, and O’Brien is a sophomore creative writing and film and media production major.
Their interpretation of the theme deviated from many of the other films, producing a film that is more psychological than spooky.
“I wanted to focus less on being afraid of something and more on how that fear affects the individual,” said Fyffe.
The myriad of possibilities with the theme allowed Fyffe and O’Brien to bring their idea to life.
“Instead of focusing on the more ‘standard’ notions of fear, our interpretation was more focused on anxiety and how it can affect someone, even if they so desperately want to accomplish something,” O’Brien said.
Though the time constraints meant having to keep “less than ideal shots” in order to finish the film in time, O’Brien acknowledged his pride in the final product.
“I want to make more films like this in the future, so I hope to get used to the privilege of having my projects perceived by an audience,” Fyffe said.
The 48 Hour Film Royale is a great opportunity for students to grow their skills in filmmaking and showcase their creativity.
“[I]t was nice to not only receive applause―and quite loud applause at that―but also to be awarded for our work,” said O’Brien. “Even though that wasn’t the goal, it was a really nice way to end the seemingly very long weekend.”
