Clarksville, Ark. --- The Ozarks Student Producers class will host a film screening on Monday, November 21, showcasing the movies created during the first Ozarks 48 Hour Film Project.
The five teams entered in the competition will meet with the Student Producers class on Friday, November 18 to draw for a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre. Then, as the project name implies, the competition will begin, and each team will have just 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and score an original movie using the all the elements they’ve drawn.
An independent panel of three judges will critique the films during the Monday screening. The team whose film best meets the judging criteria of artistic merit, technical merit, and adherence to the assignment will be named "Ozarks 48-Hour Film Champion [of the World]." Other awards that will be presented include:
- The Fan Favorite - Awarded to the film that receives the most votes from the audience.
- The Rocky Balboa Award - Awarded to the film that, in the opinion of the Student Producers, gives a valiant and respected effort, but which falls just short of champion.
- Fickle Pickle Award - Awarded to the film that is the favorite of the Student Producers.
- The Most Likely to Win a Daytime Emmy Award Award - Awarded to the film selected by the Student Producers as the most dramatic film.
Awards will also be given to the two actors selected by the Student Producers as Best Actor and Best Actress.
The film project is being organized by the members of Susan Edens’ Student Producers class. Seniors Tanner Holman, August Laue, Evan Lipschitz, Patrick Otto and Neil Thompson came up with the rules for the competition and have been working to promote the event. The inspiration for the competition was The 48 Hour Film Project, which began in 2001 when filmmaker Mark Ruppert wondered if he could make a film in just 48 hours. The answer, as he and his filmmaking partners found out, was "Yes!" Ten years later the project is still going strong, with more than 300 competitions having taken place around the world.
"We did 48-Hour projects in the past but at that time the competitions were limited to those in the RTV major, and then we let students have a full week," said Edens. "What makes this competition different, is that it is open to the entire campus community AND entrants must use their personal equipment to shoot and edit their movie." Edens hopes that the festival will entertain but that it will also show the possibilities that exist for filmmakers who are using even the simplest of mobile consumer devices such as smart phones and flip cameras. "Hopefully it will also spark that creative bug and get people to start writing, shooting/recording, editing and producing work of their own," she said.
The Ozarks 48 Hour Film Project film screening will begin at 7:00 pm and will be held in the Rogers Conference Center. T-shirts featuring the project concept and the names of the five teams will be available for $5 each. The event is free and open to the public.
Topics: Communication Studies