The latest 48 Hour Film Project: Cincinnati rapidly approach. Founded by in 2001 by a pair of independent film producers in Washington, D.C., the project has now spread to 80 cities — I think this will be the eighth Cincinnati version — on five continents.—-
The premise is simple: Filmmaking teams have 48 hours (this year it's 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5 through 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7) to make a short film four to seven minutes in length. In addition, each team must each make use of the same prop, character name and line of dialogue somewhere in its film.
Still confused? Listen up: The grassroots, DIY-driven project is the antithesis to bloated, big-budget commercial fare like Michael Bay's latest Transformers travesty. While Bay and his ilk often spend mountains of money and shoot miles of film on sequences that might not even make the final cut of a movie, 48’s filmmakers have to take advantage of every minute and creative resource at their disposal.
Yet, as one might expect, the quality of the finished films range from painful to stellar, the best of which could eventually end up playing at the Cannes Film Festival's shorts program (like Kendall Bruns and Josh Flowers' Robot Love from Another Planet in 2009).
This year’s local screening takes place 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Aug. 13-14 at the Cincinnati Art Museum, with the Best Of screening 7:30 Aug. 28 at the 20th Century Theatre. More than 30 teams have already registered to participate, and while the early registration period has already passed, teams can still sign up for $175 through Aug. 5. For more information or to register, go to www.48hourfilm.com/cincinnati/.
