A scene from The Saddest Day.
In The Saddest Day, a man looking for his brother is helped and accosted by a man wearing a cheerleader’s outfit. In Steeping, a detective who keeps getting beaten up on the trail of an investigation doesn’t know how much he’s being played — until he does. In G.R.C.E., a space explorer runs into trouble on his mission. And in Friendly Advice in a Coffee Shop, a woman and a man try to renegotiate a relationship, but their cleverness keeps getting in the way.
They all have a few elements in common. They have characters named Grace Broha. They have cheerleaders. They have the line “let me tell you something.” And most of them were made in New Haven — all of them as part of New Haven’s chapter of the 48 Hour Film Project, now in its eighth year and going strong.
As the name implies, the 48 Hour Film Project is an annual competition in which participating teams have two days to write, shoot, edit and produce a four-to seven-minute film. At the beginning of the competition, the teams learn what elements need to appear in their films (e.g., a cheerleader, a character named Grace Broha) and draw the genre they’ll be working in out of a hat. It’s then a race to write a script, then shoot and edit the film.
On Wednesday evening, the project’s organizer, producer Trish Clark, hosted a screening of the best films to come out of that process in 2017, at Best Video Film and Cultural Center on Whitney Avenue in Hamden. In attendance with her were a few curious moviegoers and a handful of the people who had made films last year — and were planning to do again this year, the weekend of July 27 to 29.
Clark explained after the screening that 30 teams have already signed up, and that a few more will likely join before the weekend starts. She pointed out that teams could enter “right up until kickoff” at the Rough Draft on Treadwell Street.
“You can be a team of two or a team of 50. I don’t recommend a team of 50,” she said. “You can shoot on your phone, or rent big equipment.”
Brian Slattery Photo
Martin, Clark, and Poger.
Russ D Martin, a producer who has been in the competition before and will be in it again this year on team Dada and the Human Tripod, encouraged a few of the audience members to join the competition. “Everybody has a nephew in film school somewhere,” he said.
“I do have a cousin in film,” said an audience member.
“See?” said filmmaker Doug Poger, who is heading up Dada and the Human Tripod. “He’s a mind reader.”
Clark explained that the participants range from seasoned filmmakers to people who are just looking to see what making a movie is all about. Many of the teams do a good amount of organizing beforehand — but not everybody does. “Some people plan appropriately before the weekend and some people don’t,” she said, “and you can tell. Some people learn how to edit over the weekend.”
Poger’s team was among those that was prepared — he makes his living doing video production and editing — but it didn’t mean that he left his sense of humor behind. “The problem with my titles is that they sound like porn films but they’re not,” he said. He was referring to his entries of previous years, Raging Leather and Brass City Dicks.
“That’s what I like about the 48,” Clark said good-naturedly. “We have filmmakers who have fun.” Though the project takes film seriously. The best films can have lives beyond the competition. A few end up being screened at the annual Festival de Cannes, one of the film industry’s most prestigious events.
Martin, a professional filmmaker and previous participant, ended up producing film projects because “I tend to get distracted with everything catching on fire,” he said. He joined up with Poger for the competition “because he has the most fun set.”
“We write it Friday and often shoot it Sunday,” Poger said.
But why make a movie in your spare time when you do it for a living? For both Poger and Martin, it was about being able to scratch a creative itch, to make the kinds of movies they don’t get to make in the course of their jobs. “It can be stressful, but I thrive on it, too,” Poger said. “You get creative with it.”
It also, however, taps into the deep desire that drew Poger and Martin to the craft in the first place.
“It’s impossible work, it’s trouble, and everyone hates it,” Martin said. “They don’t want to do anything else, though.”
The 48 Hour Film Project’s competition weekend runs July 27 to 29, with kickoff and dropoff at the Rough Draft. The films will be screened Aug. 1 at the State House, 310 State St., at 7 p.m. The “best of” screening will be at the Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport on Aug. 24, 7 p.m. Click here for more information about how to participate and watch films from previous years.
Click on the audio and Facebook Live players below to listen to a recent interview with Trish Clark on WNHH’s “Deep Focus.”