Friday evening, March 6, 11 teams of filmmakers waited in anticipation for this semester’s Film Jam requirements to be released in the William Rolland Arts Center, as part of the annual 48 Hour Film Jam.

“It’s a good experience to work under pressure and work with other people to create a fun short film in such a short amount of time,” sophomore Julia Barrios said.

Barrios has been involved in coordinating the 48 Hour Film Jam in previous semesters as a member of the Digital Cinema Guild, an on campus club for students that are aspiring filmmakers and digital content creators.

As part of the Film Jam process, team leaders randomly select two genres out of two bins that their team must incorporate in their film. This ensures that no team enters the competition with an already outlined story. Films must be a minimum of four minutes long and can be a maximum of eight minutes in length which includes end credits.

Instructor in Multimedia, Daniel Restuccio, gave a warm welcome to all participants that attended the opening hour prior to the release of specific required elements such as character name, props, a line of dialogue and an occupation.

The Digital Cinema Guild and Multimedia Department have hosted one 48 Hour Film Jam each semester since 2017. The film jam is a 48 hour period where student filmmakers scramble to produce a short film within the genre, characters and props they are assigned.

“This is an extravaganza that is unmatched,” Restuccio said.

First-year Josh Tulier aspires to become a screenwriter in the entertainment industry and said he looked forward to being a part of the writer’s table in his team’s production.

Tulier participated in the Fall 2019 48 Hour Film Jam where his team’s production won first place. His team consisted of approximately 10 members, a slight increase from his previous semester’s team.

“You can be any part of the process. You can really pick and choose what you want to do depending on what you want to gain experience in,” Tulier said.

Students from all majors are welcome to participate in future 48 Hour Film Jams and are able to sign up with a team in advance or come to kickoff and join an existing team. 

There is no cost to enter the competition and the main goal, according to Restuccio and participants, is to simply go out and have fun.

“I think every time you go into the 48 Hour, you figure out how to fix problems that come up. You gain the sense of adaptability that’s really important in film, something you can’t really get when you have all the time in the world,” Tulier said.

Most teams follow a workflow where Friday night is time to brainstorm and form a script, Saturday is spent filming and editing, and Sunday is dedicated to finishing post production and polishing the film for submission.

For those who are interested in participating in future 48 Hour festivals, Tulier said that it is a lot of fun and something worth trying at least once.

“The hardest part of the 48 hour is that you have to put all homework and all your other priorities on hold because the 48 hour literally takes up your whole weekend and it takes so much of your energy and soul,” junior Izzy Bordagaray said, in an email interview.

The 48 Hour Film Jam provides participants the opportunity to meet new people and put together a film in a limited amount of time, to be shown on the big screen.

Student’s in Professor Kenneth Gardner’s Acting for the Camera course, were available to help in the production process. The process will allow new participants to gain knowledge regarding how creating a film works from pre-production to post production while working alongside talented and driven students with passions for filmmaking.

Films will air at the Thousand Oaks AMC theater on April 20 at 7 p.m. This screening is free to Cal Lutheran students. This is a chance to see final creative productions and also where the winning team will be announced.