Over the weekend of the 13th (yes, starting on Friday the 13th!) we took part in our second Glasgow 48 Hour Film Project. We had a wonderful time as it marked a year since the beginning of Screaming Unicorn and we were able to reminisce and compare this years experience to last years.
For this blog we thought that the three of us could share how we individually felt this years experience went. What we loved most about it, what we want to do differently next time, and hopefully it will encourage you to sign up and give it a go in your own city. So without further ado, here is our experience of the Glasgow 48HFP 2023.
Emma
I love the 48 Hour Film Project! Last year was our first time entering the competition AND our first time ever making a film, so we definitely felt more confident in our skills and ideas this time around. I often find these events kind of daunting because there are always so many talented groups and individuals and I think to myself "I've seen their work before and we're up against them?!". However, Screaming Unicorn are good at reminding each other that we're here to have fun - and that's what we did!
First piece of advice for the 48 Hour project - don’t hope and pray for a specific genre. You won’t pick it! Second piece of advice for the 48 Hour Project - don’t take it *too* seriously! The weekend flies by and you want to look back with fond memories and a hunger to do it all again next year!
My favourite part of the process is probably the brainstorming/scriptwriting session we have on the Friday night. The chaos of finding out your genre (we picked Silent Movie/Martial Arts - wtf) followed by an idea-pitching frenzy is unmatched! We worked with a super-talented team who fell into their roles really quickly and easily, which definitely made for a less stressful weekend. One of the things I love most about our team is that we approach the 48HFP with a collaborative mindset. We all helped develop the script, we all gave input into the editing process and we all helped with sound, lighting and direction on the day of the shoot. Some filmmakers may read this and think it sounds like an absolute "too-many-chefs..." nightmare. I personally feel it offers everyone a chance to be involved in a bit of everything and that's what makes the 48 Hour Project different and fun!
I took on a couple of roles this year! I played the role of Ali Silver, our given character, and I also did a bit of makeup on one of our other actors! I think another piece of advice for anyone who is thinking of taking part in the competition is to have a multifaceted team. Not one of our team members did only one role. When one of our actors wasn’t needed on set they were keeping track of the shot list. When our editor was colour grading our camera operator was collecting all of our sound effects. Find a team who want to do it all!
I am extremely proud of our team. We had no drama (which is rare for a group of creatives), kept a professional and friendly atmosphere AND made a whole film! What more could you possibly ask for? Bring on next year!
Cameron
This year for me felt much easier than last.
The ideas coming to us at first were more unserious, funny take on food fights and callbacks to the karate kid intertwined with a silent film. But then we stuck to our best ideas and decided to do our take on a silent horror. I don’t actually remember all the scenarios we made up during our pizza-fuelled brainstorming. Some scary ideas we wanted to include that didn’t make it into this movie sounded so fun that we will likely revisit them in our next few movies.
After we translated the idea into the small script with Emma and Heather, I took the mission of taking to a piano keyboard and ATTEMPTING to bring together a key motif sound for our film. But it was a very big challenge when you are under pressure and have a complete lack of musical knowledge - I felt it was maybe not best to set this challenge for myself on the 48 hour film festival… maybe with months of planning but not for a movie due in 40 hours.
The filming process was more chill and fun! Seeing Emma and Heather in their elements made me want to enter my scream queen era and watching Sean plan every shot and watching every moment come to life was great. The editing process was stressful however, seeing our editors work and see if what we planned was successful, and just trying to decide which sound suited each scene and needing to find a decent soundtrack that wasn’t too mellow or too emotive was the most stressful process of the weekend I feel.
Overall? it was a fun and busy couple of days, I still feel like the exhaustion hasn’t fully settled down because all I’ve done since is work, but maybe next year we can get some different genres to play with and maybe plan a few more work holidays to relax properly after the chaotic process.
Sean
Last year, being part of the 48 Hour Film Project was incredibly stressful. I felt pressured to create something perfect, thinking that anything less would be seen as a failure. Fortunately, I've since learned a very important lesson: it's more important to have fun on set rather than fixate on how the film will turn out.
This year, we were so close to drawing our dream genre during the selection process. But it simply wasn't meant to be, as the team that picked right after us got Horror! (I know I was raging!). However, it turned out that picking Silent Film was more of a blessing than a curse. During filming, we were constantly interrupted by people and had to deal with a lot of distracting background noise. But because we were doing Silent Film, we weren't too worried. Our film had zero dialogue, so we managed to construct the sound design in post-production. But it does show how important it is to thoroughly research your location before filming! Oops.
There are always those teams with crews of 15, that have won international awards and could take a sausage and make a cinematic masterpiece while blindfolded with their hands tied behind their back. But there is no point in comparing yourself to them or anyone else for that matter. This year I managed to be present and focus on us, and what we could do with what we had at our disposal. By doing that, we had a relatively stress-free and incredibly fun experience. Which, unfortunately, not all 48HFP teams manage to accomplish. But we accomplished it and the cherry on top is that we also made a pretty damn good movie! If I do say so myself.
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