Maine filmmakers are catching up on some sleep. At least, the ones who recently took part in this year’s 48 Hour Film Project (www.48hourfilm.com/portland_maine), where teams receive a genre, a prop, a line of dialogue and a character, all of which have to be included in the finished film — which they have only 48 hours to make.

Impossible? Possibly. But here’s what some of this year’s participants have to add, all in — you guessed it — 48 words:

Ian Carlsen: MINT Films

“A Bounty for Susannah”

Genre: Western

“This is our fourth 48. It boils down to trust. Each member of the team knows their role, communicates well and believes in the project. We have an incredible network of friends and families to support our efforts. Advice? Think big, write small and leave time to render.”

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Deb Tenenbaum: Mr. Pearl Productions

“The Getaway”

Genre: Buddy movie

“Our 48 hours in no particular order: tempura bacon, setting up a tent, filming, shadow puppets, figuring out what a buddy film is, drinking home-brewed saison, editing, fitting in some random characters, wig selection, biting into a fresh tomato, falling in love with iMovie, confusing fishermen and laughing.” 

George Dalphin: Man-Like Machines

“Payment”

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Genre: Film noir

“After a great collaborative brainstorming process and a late evening of interweaving all those ideas, we had a fabulous and fun day of shooting. Video capturing problems, however, had me stumped, so some others in the group tried their hand at editing together a final piece in time.” 

Corey Norman: Bonfire Films

“Inn Season”

Genre: Horror

“This year, Bonfire Films was lucky enough to draw horror as our genre for the 48. Let me tell you this, even with plastic on the ceiling, floors and bed, we still managed to have to clean fake blood up off most of the apartment we shot in.” 

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Bryan Ferrante: Slow Children Productions

“Hitler in Heaven”

Genre: Fantasy

“This was our fifth year making a 48-hour film and the process gets more enjoyable each year. One of the more memorable moments this year was traveling around Portland with a cast member dressed up as Adolf Hitler. People’s reactions were priceless.” 

Allen Baldwin: Strongpaw Productions

“KPAX Too”

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Genre: Sci-fi

“Ours is a sad story, but not an uncommon one. We made a film, and we thought it was pretty funny and well made. As we were finishing it, however, we had problems exporting it. the time we got everything done properly we had run out of ” 

SOME OF THESE FILMS will be coming soon to the 48 Hour Film Project Web site, and a DVD is expected that includes all of the 2010 films (last year’s DVD is available at Videoport).

To view Dalphin’s “Payment,” go to www.man-likemachines.com/payment.html

Dennis Perkins is a Portland freelance writer.

 


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