Buffalo Rising Online

Aug 11th, 8:19am By Joseph DiDomizio

The instructions are easy: on Friday night, your team gets a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete. Turn the film in on time, and then within the week your film gets screened, voted on, and a winner for the city is determined. Sounds like fun, right? With only five days left before the beginning of the Buffalo 2008 48 Hour Film Project, Buffalo’s 24 registered teams are anxious for filming to begin. Once the genres are chosen, at 7pm on Friday, August 15th, the teams will be put into motion, hopefully avoiding a number of the pitfalls from last year’s productions.

In order to minimize the problems that happened to a lot of teams last year, Buffalo’s 48 Hour Producer Terry Fisher held a Meet & Greet event on July 24th. This event allowed filmmakers to meet each other and potential actors, crewmembers, and writers of all types. It was also a good way to size up the competition. Last year’s 19 teams did not meet until they were drawing their genre out of the hat on Friday. Letting the teams mingle allowed teams to fill their needs, but also began to let connections between teams come together, and hopefully build some foundation to the often spoken about, but rarely coalescing Film Scene in Buffalo. The fruits of that meeting, and the weeks of preparation that have gone into each team’s production so far are ready to go for this upcoming weekend.

After the whirlwind of a weekend is over, the teams and their supporters will have their short films screened at the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre on Wednesday, August 20th and Thursday, August 21st at 7PM. “Anyone who enjoys film, and would like to see what some very talented and creative local filmmakers can do with only 48 hours to produce a completed film from scratch, should attend,” notes Fisher. The screenings may be the first time whole teams get to see their finished product, and the audience will be able to vote on their favorite film.

Results from the audience voting, as well as the winners of local awards, and the overall winning film, will be announced at the awards screening on Wednesday, August 27th at the MAFAC. The screenings are another opportunity, much like the meet and greet in July, where the filmmakers celebrate their successes and failures with each other and the Buffalo audience willing to be a part of Buffalo’s fast-growing Film Scene. Be there with your friends, your neighbors and your neighbor’s friends, and show your support for some of Buffalo’s quickest filmmakers.

Tickets available at the MAFAC box office before both screenings. The prices are: $8.50 Adult, $6.50 Children/Students, $6.00 Seniors. Free parking is available in the M&T Parking Lot on Washington Street. Pay in the lot and get reimbursed at the MAFAC Box Office. Viewers who buy a ticket to either of the initial screenings will be admitted free to the awards screening. Half of the 24 registered teams will be screened Wednesday, the other half Thursday, with films being approximately seven minutes in length. Visit dipsontheatres.com for more information.

Last year 30,000 participants in 55 cities, including Buffalo, made the project one of the biggest yet. This is the second year for the project in Buffalo. You can see last year’s entries, as well as entries from all the other cities, at www.48.tv. For more about the festival, including entry fees, dates and times, legal forms, official rules, as well as how to sign up, visit: http://www.48hourfilm.com/buffalo or call Terry Fisher (Buffalo 48 Hour Producer) at 716.875.7740.