Film: 48 Hour Film Project

Director, Paul Aspuria

The 48 Hour Film Project pushes the creativity of filmmakers around the world by giving them 48 hours to write, produce, shoot, and edit a short film. The films produced are nothing short of amazing considering most of the filmmakers were running on little or no sleep to make the deadline. On Friday, June 10, 2011 the 48 Hour Film Project came to San Francisco.

Filmmakers at Lot 46

I had the opportunity to participate with Film Antics in our 5th, that's right 5th, 48 Hour Film Project. This year our team consisted of Paul Aspuria (Director), Raymund Aranda (Producer/Actor) aka The Debonair Rogue, Vivek Mohan Kumar (Director of Photography), James Davis (Actor), and Kelly Dessoye (Actress). Being veterans of the 48 Hour Film Project, has it's benefits. One benefit is learning what worked and didn't work from previous projects so that we could work more efficiently.

Me typing at Starbucks.

Paul and I arrived at Lot 46 on Geary Street amid a throng of anxious filmmakers. It was dark, it was crowded, and it was hot. In the past, Paul was the one who would pull the genre out of the envelope. The last two times he picked Romance. This time he asked me to go up to see if our luck would change...I pulled Dark Comedy. Whew!!! I was scared I would pull Western/Musical. We decided to do a night shoot for the first time. The key to our success would be to keep things simple in every aspect of writing, producing and filming. Paul started writing the script for Graduation Buzz as we sat down and ate our dinner at Lori's Diner. He was able to write the script in 2 hours. I sat down at Starbucks and between sipping my double tall soy white chocolate mocha I proceeded to type out the script. It took me 30 minutes...not bad.

DP, Vivek Mohan Kumar

We began shooting at 11:30 p.m. around Union Square. Apart from a couple of homeless people asking for money, intoxicated bar hoppers, an irate tennant, cabbies thinking we needed a ride (where are they when you actually need them), and lack of sleep, the shoot went rather well. We wrapped just as dawn started to change the color of the sky...5:30 Saturday morning.

Lead Actress, Kelly Dessoye

Paul worked on editing Graduation Buzz between naps on Saturday. I came over to work on the paperwork while he put the finishing touches on the piece Saturday night. Like most of the teams, we were usually scrambling to finish the project on Sunday to make the deadline of 7:30 p.m. This was the first time we would finish without having to rush to turn in the project. Yay!!!

Paul directing Lead Actor,  James Davis.

Graduation Buzz premiered at the 48 Hour Film Project screening on Thursday, June 16, 2011. If you couldn't make the screening watch Graduation Buzz below. Enjoy, like, and share it with anyone and everyone!!!