Local Boys Make Good, Win International Grand Prize Trophy for Short Film

Monday, March 5th, 2012 at 12:02 pm

Update: “In Captivity” was awarded the International Best Film Prize at the 48 Hour Film Project’s Filmapalooza, besting 3,500 films from 100 cities. For their efforts they’re taking home $3,000 and their film will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

“There’s not enough time.”

Goodness on a time crunch.

This is a statement that’s heard every day in our hectic lives. It was also the required spoken line within 25 short films premiering at the Naro last month as part of the Hampton Roads 48 Hour Film Project.

48-hours is about the only amount of time my husband, Jon Abrahams of Jpixx Inc., winner of this year’s Hampton Roads 48-hour Film Project, can string together to work on a personal film project this summer. Juggling time between deadlines for work, freelance projects and our new baby, his schedule is packed with all sorts of obligations. Good thing for his inner-artist-voice they make the Project, which forces local filmmakers to finish a film in one weekend. Jon’s not the only one in these “frenzied Facebook times” that needs this push. This year, 25 out of 26 frazzled Hampton Roads teams finished their films, and were screened in front of multiple nights of excited and (more or less) packed Naro audiences. The creative process doesn’t usually flourish quickly – often times, directors re-shoot scenes or tinker their vision to perfection, but with this competition, good or bad, the filmmaking must go on – or risk disqualification.

The rules are simple: a) Create a film in the genre you choose from a hat at the beginning of the process. b) Make sure to use the prescribed prop (this year it was playing cards). c) Have a character with the assigned name (this year it was Tammy or Tam, a poet). d) Make sure a character in your film says the given line (“There’s not enough time” was the chosen dialog this year). e) Get it all within the 48 hour time period.

Sounds easy? Yah. Not really.

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