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Calling all starving artists and film students: If your pipe dreams of submitting features to Sundance have yet to be realized, maybe start a little smaller. With the upcoming 24-Hour Film Race, for example.
After blessing Miami with poop jokes galore in last year’s Audience Favorite short film Wall of Shame, the 24 Hour Film Race returns to town May 18. It’s a chance for filmmakers to test their speed and creativity by creating a film in — you guessed it — 24 hours, using a theme, a prop, and an action, all of which are announced at the start of the race.
It’s like a reality TV show, with one difference: You have the chance to compete.
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Above: last year’s audience award winner, Wall of Shame.
The contest
encourages individuals to participate and tackle
an anxiety-inducing deadline of 24 hours to produce a stellar short — whether they’re experienced filmmakers or movie-making newbies.
“Film Racing is dedicated to inspiring and challenging creative minds,”
said Film Race spokesperson Christy McCouch. “We strive to provide exciting and rewarding competitions for
the filmmakers, and to provide them with the prizes and exposure
necessary to take the next big step in the industry.”
And if you’re not hell bent on directing, there are other options.
Namely, you can channel your inner film critic by attending the premiere
screening of the finished projects at the Colony Theatre, and be prepared to watch the best short
films Miami has to offer.
“I expect we’ll have plenty of silliness and humor from Miami this year
as always,” predicted McCouch. “It’s so much fun to see what these
creative minds come up with.”
Fun indeed; some of last year’s selections included a film
that was just someone complaining on camera that her crew stood her up,
and a poignant flick about love lost titled Forgetting You.
And if last year’s much buzzed about (and Audience Favorite Award
recipient) short film on poop, Wall of Shame, is an indication of this
year’s submissions, be prepared for humor.
“The 24-hour format that this competition uses tends to lend itself to
comedy because it is hard to develop a story and characters for people
to invest in within a four minute time frame,” noted McCouch.
How serious are the event organizers about the secret “theme, action, prop” directives? McCouch breaks it down: “The secrecy of the
theme and surprise elements are pretty important to the whole concept
of the race. [Competition Director Charlie Weisman doesn’t choose the guidelines] until the last minute in an attempt to prevent any potential
leaks. We have to keep the filmmakers on their toes!”
Registration is currently open, and participants have until May 19th to
channel their inner Spielberg and upload their finished product.
Selected local shorts will be viewed at the premiere screening at the
Colony Theatre in September, while 14 additional screenings will be shown
in various cities across the nation.
The selected films will compete in a battle royale (not to be confused with Battle Royale) in New York City. Out
of the submissions, the top 24 films will be viewed at a private gala
and awards ceremony and the winning film maker will receive $10,000 and a
new HTC OneTM smartphone.
Visit filmracing.com.
–Carla St. Louis
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