48-hour film festival

Just got back from the 48-hour film festival. Nope, not a marathon movie-watching session, but rather a contest where teams of local filmmakers are given a genre, a character, a line, and a requirement to include some sort of prop, and are given 48 hours to turn in a finished film. Different teams get different genres, but they all must include the same character (Joe Fitzsimmon, senator), the same line (“Is that the way it goes?”), and the same type of prop (a figurine). Our friend Dan Parsons was in charge of lighting for the film “Slim & Shorty vs. Evil,” of the spy genre. This was by far the cleanest production of the ten or so short films we saw. It struck me that this was a professional production right away, and I was really amazed that it had been produced over such a short time. Really cool! There certainly were others that had quality editors and produced a fine finished look, but several were quite amaturish. Everyone had a great time though, and I suppose that’s probably one of the grand goals of the sponsors. Good job, Dan! Don’t forget the little guys.