IT WILL BE HERE SOONER THAN YOU THINK...

Get ready for Extremefilmmaker's 11th Annual 48 Hour Film Festival!

The screening is coming up September 2008 at the Hollywood Arclight Cinemas.

Submissions will be due by August 31st, 2008.

Interested in making a film? CLICK HERE to find out everything you need to know!

Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?

It's probably the most mocked question asked of writers on the lecture circuit. Sarcastic answers abound, but for once, I'd like to answer it in all seriousness. Because, for me at least, there is a process, and it's one I find rather interesting. Looking back, each one of my 48 Hour films were developed through a similar method, and I'm going to describe it in the hopes that it will either help some filmmakers get started, or cement my reputation as being certifiably insane.

The first thing to realize is that a short film is a very different animal than a full-length film. The tension and drama that works well in long form can often translate into wasted time and boredom in a short film. There is usually only enough time to convey one main idea. Shorts work best with a punch line or unexpected turn-around at the end (like in an O. Henry short story.) And for those who crave audience reaction, comedy tends to get the biggest response, though good serious films can garner more respect. Eight festivals and screening some 120 short films have shown me that these are pretty good guidelines to start with.

So where do those ideas come from?

For me, film is a visual medium more than a literary one. A single image for me is enough to start. On my first film, I was challenged to make a superhero film by a friend. My first reaction was annoyance - making a superhero film in 48 hours was impossible.

But…if you were to make one…what would you do?

The Nightshift Festival 1

And suddenly there was this image in my brain, not of heroics, but of someone staggering home at 4 am and digging out the bullets, downing painkillers. (This was long before the release of the film Daredevil…thus it was at the time an image of superheroes not really seen on the screen.)

One Last Time Festival 3

For "One Last Time" I simply had the image of a guy turning face down the picture of his son as he committed a regrettable act. Since I was going to Vegas later that week, naturally I thought of a gangster or hit man. By the time I was on the road, I had most of the story worked out. The only thing I didn't have was the ending - he was just going to do the job, and walk away. I am infinitely grateful to my partner Keith Matz for tossing in the idea that it was actually a set-up. The twist makes it a much better film, because it comes out of nowhere, but makes perfect sense - and the audible gasp from the audience at the screening made me happy for weeks.

So this Guy Walks Into This Bar… Festival 4

"So This Guy Walks Into This Bar…" came out of the desire to do something with the supernatural, but different from the usual vampire or psycho killer genre. The concept of a succubus had not been used too often in films, and the turn-around would be over who was hunting who. Over-ambition, technical difficulties (audio) and lack of time (Doh!) hurt the film a bit, I feel, and it's one I'd like to do again sometime. The image that drove it? Drawing magic runes in salt on a table in a bar - the fantastic in an everyday place. (Well, maybe not every day…sometimes I don't get to the bars until evening.)

Duel Festival 6

For the most recent festival, our lovely spokes-model, Cherise Leana Bangs, asked me to do another film with her. Faced with a determined and beautiful actress, I had to come up with something. So I had a beautiful girl, and her boyfriend worked in a bar …and the image that immediately sprang into my mind was perfect. A bottle of beer sitting on a bar…it gets picked up, and a rack focus reveals an equally beautiful girl flirting for the same guy. Hi-jinks ensue. I'm very happy with this film and the way that the reveal worked in exactly the way I wanted it to. "Duel" is, I think, one of my simplest but better films.

So that is how the process works for me - I look at what I have to work with, and I get an image, a shot, something I would like to see or film. And I surround it with a simple idea or a logical conclusion. Sometimes thinking about it leads to an immediate story - "Duel" took about 30 seconds to be nearly fully formed. Other images take massaging.

An excellent source for learning to think in these terms is the book "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" by Chris Van Allsburg. (Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395353939/qid=1081265347/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-1968676-4984660 ) Each page consists of one title, one sentence, and an image. Taken together, these three simple things evoke a complex story that the observer cannot help but fill in, or at least dwell upon. From these mere wisps, stories are made.

That's where I get my ideas.

MELROSE MAC

THE ARCLIGHT CINEMAS

FILMTEES.COM

CELTX.COM

Interested in making a 48-Hour Film?

The rules are simple: Make a film, any film, in 48 Hours from the first frame shot to the final edit!