This weekend (starting Friday, 29th October 2010) a group of friends and I participated in the 48 Hour Film Project. It’s a competition where groups from all around the world have to create a movie — write, shoot, and edit — in just 48 hours. They are given a specific genre (we got “Buddy film”), line (“Same same, but different”), prop (incense), and character (“Pham Minh An, Taxi/Xe Om/Xyclo Driver”).
Prizes are largely irrelevant in this event, but they can be found here.
For more details on the event, see 48 Hour Film Project, and 48 Hour Film Project Vietnam.
My group’s name was “IdleNation”, and we chose to create a film about two unlikely friends who help each other through difficulty, and in doing so discover that they have a lot in common.
It was an amazing chance to experience what filmmaking is like. As the editor, I had to learn about the intricacies of editing in Final Cut Express for the first time, only actually using it for the first time just 48 hours before the project started. Despite this, I feel I learnt a lot about using the program, and editing in general over the course of the project.
Targets for next year: learn to use LiveType, Final Cut’s integrated title making program; learn how to set up the project’s properties — we recorded in 720p, but the final project is significantly less than that, and our canvas had black stripes at the top and bottom, this resulted in a low quality final project.
We took a lot of our sound effects and music from iMovie, since this is classed as not for profit. Other sound effects and music were found at various sources online — all of them royalty-free, of course!
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, and I’m sure my group members will agree it was a great experience, however stressful!
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Music meets Tech 