Filmmakers felt the crunch in the Okotoks Film Society’s 48 Hour Film Challenge last weekend.
“The energy feels so awesome, you can feel it starting to build up with people getting excited,” said society director and organizer Katie Fournell. “You see the teams running off and that's actually kind of the nicest part; the mystery of how it’s going, wondering how it’s happening for them.”
Taking place each May preceding the society’s Okotoks Film Festival, 19 filmmaker teams received a kit at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 20 with cues and parameters, as well as a prop they must include. They then had until 6 p.m. Sunday to complete it.
“Normally we give each team a genre, a line of dialogue and a prop,” Fournell said. “This year they got the prop and the genre, but instead of the line we gave everyone a director and they have to emulate that director’s style in their film.”
Those directors included Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro and Edgar Wright.
“If you know their style, you can really think about what they do,” Fournell said.
Stacie Hansen is the co-director for one seven-person team that got Tim Burton and sci-fi for director and genre, and a couple spools of neon green party ribbon for their prop, which was quite a twist.
"We just had to follow that and it was kind of difficult,” Hansen said, adding in an interview Sunday her team rolled with the punches and the film was coming together. “I’m actually really liking how it’s looking.”
Just 13 years old, Hansen has already created three films and is taking a photography class through school.
“When I first saw the genre and director I was like, ‘Oh no, we’re screwed,’” Hansen said. “But I liked the idea we came up with because we all sat together and thought of what we were going to come up with.”
That concept involved a group of characters celebrating a birthday party that took a trip through the multiverse, said co-director Savannah Watson.
“This has been quite a fun project to work on,” Watson said. “Everyone’s been very cooperative and giving of their ideas and opinions and talents. It’s come together really well.”
New to the event is Okotoks actor Blaine Schlechter, who teamed up with Logan Coutts, an old hand at the 48 Hour Challenge.
“Filmmaking, writing and directing is something I have no experience in, but it’s something I have mad respect for,” said Schlechter. “I haven’t done it before, it’s a bit nervous and a bit exciting at the same time.
“Logan’s done this so many times before that he came with a basis of knowledge of knowing exactly what to do.”
An actor by trade however, Schlechter brings experience in film, television and commercials to the table.
“I could bring that in, and then just being on set I could help bring a little bit of that and what’s needed to make things go smooth,” he said.
The team received Quentin Tarantino and western as its theme and director.
“I was a little bit nervous last night coming up with the idea, but today it just flowed so good that it was exciting,” Schlechter said.
“We’ve managed to tie a lot of ‘Tarantino-isms’ into our shot; we’ve used walking behind like Tarantino does, but the biggest one is non-linear storyline, with flash-forwards and backwards and bringing everything together.”
The 48 Hour Challenge films will screen at 7 p.m. June 5 during the Okotoks Film Festival.
For more information visit okotoksfilmfestival.ca.
