If you noticed a bunch of people running around with video cameras last weekend you’re not alone. The 48 Hour Film Project hit San Jose on Friday night, and 39 teams turned in completed projects just 48 hours later. Just what is the 48HFP? Only the most intense, fun, stressful, exciting, and imaginative film project on the planet. Remember in school when you were given a surprise topic for a composition and then given an hour to write the entire thing? This is (almost) the same thing only on a much grander scale, and on film.

The 48 Hour Film Project is a filmmaking challenge in which anyone can participate, though only the most committed and strong-hearted come through it with their sanity intact – and sometimes not even then. Participants join up as teams and are then given 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and score a film using surprise parameters given to them at the kick-off. Those specific parameters are: a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue. Then each team draws a specific genre of film, such as a Buddy Film, Comedy, Drama, Horror or Mockumentary. Each individual film can be about anything the filmmaker desires, as long as those parameters are followed. And that is the point when the teams are let loose to create their films. No one but the unsuspecting public will see these filmmakers for the next 48 hours.

After the films have been turned in on Sunday night, the fun really begins. This Wednesday and Thursday you can attend the screenings of those films at the Camera 12 theaters downtown. For only ten dollars you can see several of the shorts and even meet the filmmakers of these imaginative films.

The elements for San Jose this year are:

Character:  Zach or Zelda Alexander, Exterminator

Prop:  a piece from a board game

Line of Dialogue:  “Tell me again why this matters.”

The screenings are at 7:00pm and 9:30pm on Wednesday and Thursday. You may purchase tickets HERE. Don’t miss either of these fun and exciting movie evenings!