Why we made a film in 48 Hours

If you don’t know what the 48 Hour Film Project is, it’s a wild competition where teams come together to compete against one another to make the best 4-7 minute movie, all to be completed over a single, sleepless weekend. At 7 PM on a Friday night, you draw a genre out of a hat and then have until 7 PM on Sunday to hand-deliver a fully produced short film. It’s ridiculous.

Two weeks ago, we participated in this ridiculousness. And why?

Well here are just a few reasons:

To grow in our craft

  • For some, that meant becoming a better writer, or a better actor, or a better director of photography. For me, I was pushed and stretched through this project to come out of it as a more experienced producer.

  • But more importantly, we grew as a team. Last weekend we learned to communicate better, increased teamwork efficiencies, and developed better working rhythms

To work with new people

  • We were fortunate to work alongside 30+ incredible people that chose to join in on the movie-making adventure— gaffers, grips, producers, writers, actors, artists… the whole bit. We developed new relationships with some awesome, talented, positive people that we hadn’t had the privilege of working with before. And it was fun. Which brings me to my next thing...

To have fun

  • It was a lot of fun getting to collaborate and work alongside a bunch of amazing people that are genuinely a joy to be around. And the fun is multiplied when you realize the unity that comes from each person working in different roles, fulfilling different needs, and pushing towards a common goal—making a movie in 48 hours—together. That to me can be a lot of fun. And it WAS.

In the end, we came out of the 48 with something we were proud to have made, but more importantly, we came out with a refined craft, new relationships with awesome people, and 48 hours worth of lasting memories.