Filming against the clock

November 12, 2009 by Bryant Nguyen 

Campus festival gives filmmakers 48 hours to make a short

Professional filmmakers spend about a year’s time to produce a feature length film, but UNLV film students were given the daunting task to complete a short film in just two days last weekend at the 48 Hour Film Festival.

“When you have only 48 hours to write, film, edit and present a film, you can’t spend time nitpicking or doing little individual things you would do on a normal film,” said James Lourie, UNLV film student.

More than a dozen student filmmaking groups compete each year in this spirited competition for recognition and to showcase their talents.

But this is the true account of one group with seven student filmmakers overcoming late nights filming, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, a rifle-wielding neighbor and shielding a Rebel Yell photographer from danger. And all the while racing against the clock.

The group consists of Jeremy Cloe, Brett Walters, Zack Witt, Jorel Belmonte, Adam Kilbourn, Vanessa Elgrichi and Lourie.

The competition requires contestants to blindly draw four elements that the short film is based on, which are genre, character, line-of-dialogue and prop.

And that is where this tale begins.

6:00 p.m. – Friday

UNLV film professor David Schmoeller promptly begins the preliminary meeting of the 48 Hour Film Festival contestants to inform them of the process and rules.

“The only way you can prepare is rounding up the right people and getting all of your best friends, best actors, best crew and that’s all you can really do to prepare,” Walters said. “And try to lock down a few locations that you may be able to get.”

6:01 p.m.

The group is randomly selected first to draw their four elements. Cloe went up to represent the group and selected “film noir” (genre), “Patrick the Exterminator” (character), “If it doesn’t start this time, use some more gas” (line-of-dialogue) and “baby blanket” (prop).

“It is kind of nerve-wracking because you never know what you are going to get,” Cloe said. “We are going to start writing, maybe start filming and see where it goes.”

9:00 p.m.

The story idea is finalized. The movie is titled “Rat Basturds,” and it is about an exterminator who has an alternate reality of himself, being a detective in a film noir. The only problem for him is that everyone else doesn’t share the same alternate reality.

9:30 p.m.

The group begins writing the script. It is completed at 2:30 a.m.

“We got half way through writing the script and then we almost changed the idea because we weren’t set on it anymore,” Cloe said. “But then we decided to just keep it and started to like it again.”

3:00 a.m. – Saturday

The group begins recording voice-overs and prepping for a full day of filming in the coming hours.

8:00 a.m.

Lourie and Witt start their day early to shop for props at Wal-Mart, Savers, The Hat Company and an outlet mall.

10:00 a.m.

The group begins filming scenes for the movie.

7:00 p.m.

While shooting a scene outside a house, a domestic dispute next door causes the group to delay filming for two hours.

“The guy was trying to get us involved being like, ‘Hey, I want you guys to be witnesses that I’m not beating my wife,’” Lourie said. “He got his rifle and then came down to start yelling at us. And then eventually we just went inside the house.”

In the face of danger, from the neighbor and a deteriorating deadline, the group managed to shield an unsuspecting individual.

“We felt really bad because your photographer showed up as this was happening,” Lourie said “We were like, “Come into the house, this guy has a gun.”

2:00 p.m. – Sunday

The group completes filming at 4 a.m. on the same day, then placed the final touches to their film.

5:39 p.m.

Cloe goes up to submit the group’s video to Schmoeller.

6:16 p.m.

Their short film, “Rat Basturds,” is shown and the closing credits are met with arguably the loudest applause of the night.

8:06 p.m.

The awards are announced and the group wins seven of the eight awards that night. They win Best Director, Best Actress (Elgrichi), Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Short and the Audience Award.

The only award to escape the grasp of the group was the Best Actor award. That went to Lundon Boyd.

“First of all, the guy who won the award for Best Actor is probably my best friend at UNLV, so I was really happy for him,” Lourie said. “As far as the awards go, I didn’t think we would win everything else. Other people had good films and I was shocked that we had won most of them.”

8:30 p.m.

After staying past the conclusion of the festival to greet fellow filmmakers, the group went out to grab some food and drinks to unwind from a whirlwind weekend.

“We were relieved that it was over, but we did so well with what we had that we all just relaxed and began planning for our next film,” Lourie said. “And that was that.”