48-Hour Film Project (2017)

The 48-Hour Film Project is a competition where filmmakers have only 2 days to write, film, edit, and turn in a short film that meets a highly specific set of requirements. Each team is given the same character name, character profession, a line of dialogue, and a prop. All of those elements must be in the film. Then, each team draws a genre from a hat, and they have to make everything fit into that genre.

As you can imagine: this adds a lot of extra stress on top of the process of filmmaking. The only thing we could plan in advance was our team, and our locations. So we gathered a few people, scouted a few locations, and hoped for the best.

The kickoff event usually begins around 7pm on a Friday, and the due-date is usually 7pm the following Sunday. So before we gathered, we knew our weekend plan would be as follows:

Pulling a genre out of a hat was somehow one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life. You never know what you’re going to get! Do I have the skills to make an action movie? Do I have the right cast for a children’s film? Would I have enough makeup and props to pull off horror?

I don’t think 10 minutes went by before inspiration struck. I called Eric, who was already set to be one of the actors in the film.

“Hey, do you still have that revolutionary era costume?”

We spent the whole night trying to decide how to tell the story of a man from 1775 suddenly appearing in 2017, and what he thinks of the world as it is today. Knowing that most of the cast and crew are improvisors, we decided to frame the story as a documentary. We’d go to a farm, a bar, then a city street, and just let Eric do his thing.

The only thing we knew for sure was what questions we were going to ask his character during the interview portion. The rest? Well, we knew we could eventually bring it all together.

48 Hours is not a very long time, but you have to keep moving! On a bright, sunny Saturday, the whole crew met at our farm location and started rolling. Here’s a great look at some of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans:

We ate a quick lunch at our bar location, filmed some walking-down-the-street clips, and went back to Heather’s house to film the interview.

Everyone brought their A-Game. The whole team. I was so impressed with how smoothly the whole day went. I felt like I had more trust and support than possibly any other project I had been a part of before. It was truly seamless!

Filming wrapped around 5pm. And after that? 20-some hours of nonstop editing, with very little sleep in-between.

The film premiered at The Parkway Theater in Minneapolis on June 27, 2017, along with many other 48-Hour Film Projects from the same region. Each person in attendance was tasked with voting for their top 3 favorite films. The top scoring films would move on to the Best-Of awards on July 5th.

The competition was tight, but guess what!

Being in the Top 10 was an absolute honor. Even though we did not move on to the national competition, we still get to call ourselves an Award-Winning Team!

Reviews

Bryce is a wizard. He has a firm grasp, not only of the big picture, but of all the details leading up to it. Most of all, Bryce shows up. He shows up every time, and he brings his best self to everything he does. Every time. Every, every time. Bryce has a relentless — and I am not using that word lightly — relentless pursuit of creating a quality product that will meet both your standards and, yes, his standards. He is invested in what you’re doing and what you want. That is not something you can ask for in an interview or find out over coffee, or read off a resume. It’s something special that you have to experience to know.

Eric HeibergActor, Improvisor