Plenty of things can be done in 24 hours. You can complete a workout, read a book or cook your favorite meal. One of the things people don’t think about when contemplating what you can do in 24 hours is write, shoot and edit a film.
That is what Oakland University film students did over the weekend of Oct. 19.
The OU Film department holds the 24-Hour Film Challenge every year and has done so for the past 10 years. The challenge involves a group of students — both film majors and non-film majors alike — who team up and are given a list of requirements they must implement into their film. These requirements include a prop, two lines of dialogue, genre and two special locations. All change on a yearly basis.
Groups that participate in the challenge then have to plan and write out their script, shoot the footage including their requirements and have to edit together the raw — and rushed — footage into a final project.
All of this happens within the strict time constraint which poses a serious test of skill and patience for the students. It also forced them to think more creatively and change their usual practices to meet the requirements.
“There was a lot of pre-production, just like with any other film,” said Keylsi Davis, a participant and film major. “However, because the two genres we had to pick from [mystery or sci-fi] were genres typically used for longer films, we had decided to try and work less on the story and more of the cinematography itself.”
The screening was held in Dodge Hall room 203 the following afternoon and students could attend a showing of every film on the big screen.
After the screening, awards were handed out to students with different categories to win from.
The winners of OU’s 10th annual Golden Grizzly 24-Hour Film Challenge include:
Best Story — Don’t Die Anything Stupid
Best Cinematography — Nothing Ever Happens
Best Editing — Time Travel Kinda Sucks & Two At A Time
Best Performance — Heartspotting
Best Sound Design — Kronos Unbound & The Horn of Time
Creative Use of Prop/Location — Skull Pendant & The Silent Command
Creative Use of Genre — Around The Clock & Noseblunt
Creative Use of Dialogue — Buzzed
Audience Award — Heartspotting
Best Film — Heartspotting
While every team had similar constraints, it’s amazing to see just how creative the students were in the fact that no two films were all that similar.
The short films ranged from an Indiana Jones style adventure to a film noir mystery that needed to be solved.
To watch the films you can visit the OU Film Vimeo page.
“You’ll stay up incredibly late and love every second of it,” said William Gilbert, director of “Heartspotting.” “On top of that, you get to watch every other teams’ projects and share so many fun, creative and wacky stories with every other student who participated.”
If you are interested in participating in next year’s 24-Hour Film Challenge, follow @oufilmstudies on Instagram for any updates.
