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Can quality short films go from concept to completion in just 48 hours? Short film challenges are proving that when time is a constraint, creativity can actually flourish, and quality doesn’t have to be compromised. The art of the short film challenge is often in how quickly a filmmaker can think on their feet, bringing to bear the team’s experience at the right moment to make the best film possible in a short time frame. Whether it’s 24, 48, or 72 hours, short film challenges are a great way for filmmakers to get their reps in.
California State University film student Caitlin Medalla recently produced a film for a 48 hour film challenge. “When I was at Providence High School, the film program there had us creating about two films a school year,” said Medalla. “So, the idea of creating a film in just two days was both exciting and scary. At this point, I consider myself very experienced. I can write, direct, edit, and I know the basics of being a hands-on crew member in all aspects, but having to perform multiple tasks in such a short time frame was a challenge.” With only a team of four, Medalla was excited to see what she could make in just two days.
Film challenges bring about creative ways to get the film done on time. Faizan Sheikh, who participated in the Cinematography for Actors 72 hour film challenge, shied away from the typical sequence of tasks in order to speed up the filmmaking process, and was able to do so working with people all over the country.
“Our main editor was in New York City, our assistant editor was in Ohio, our colorist was in Colorado, and our director watched the edit from Los Angeles,” said Sheikh. “It was an absolute game changer. We felt like we were able to produce a much deeper, more artistically involved film since we weren’t working in a vacuum. We could shoot and see what the editor did with the footage almost right away, understanding how the film was coming together, rather than waiting until we were totally production wrapped and hoping we had a film.” During the two day production of his film “The End of War”, the team uploaded footage to Blackmagic Cloud via DaVinci Resolve Studio so that their editor in New York could begin assembling the film before shooting was even finished.
Ryan Santia, a film student at DePaul University, used a similar technique with his four person team for another short film challenge. He said individual roles on the film remained pretty loose with a small team, so he was able to be involved across the entire creation. This included everyone having a part in editing. Santia explained that editing while shooting “allowed us to start to see the film pieced together as we were shooting, so we could understand what footage we had, what we needed, and how it flowed together. This was essential to our production workflow since we were taking a more run and gun approach without storyboarding or creating shot lists. Because of this, the final product flowed well and felt very coherent in a way that is very impressive for a film completely created in just 48 hours.” After shooting, the group edited and colored the film together remotely.
While Medalla’s team also edited as they went, they waited until all footage was in the timeline to color. “Having an assembly before jumping into color correction made it so that the colors were more consistent.” Medalla also noticed something unique in her film, an element that rarely happens in filmmaking at all, much less during a film challenge. “I saw a significant lack of stress in making this film,” said Medalla. “I feel like a lot of times, artists end up resenting their finished projects because of how strenuous it was to finish. But because Blackmagic Cloud was able to ease our minds and help us get things done in an efficient manner, I was more proud of the final film than I would ever have been otherwise.” Film challenges might just create the perfect storm to have ideas come to fruition.
