DUBOIS – Students from the John Russo Movie Making program at DuBois Business College’s main campus arrived Friday night in Pittsburgh to receive their instructions for the annual 48-Hour Film Festival. They have traveled back to DuBois to complete their film before returning back to Pittsburgh Sunday to deliver their film.
The 48-Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which the DuBois Business College film students make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours.
On Friday night, they received a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in their movie. Forty-eight hours later, the movie must be complete. Then it will show at The Hollywood Theater in Pittsburgh sometime next weekend.
The DBC group will be competing with more than 600 other filmmakers at this event.
The 48-Hour Film Project’s mission is to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers. Through its festival/competition, the project encourages filmmakers and would-be filmmakers to get out there and make movies. The tight deadline of 48 hours puts the focus squarely on the filmmakers—emphasizing creativity and teamwork skills. While the time limit places an unusual restriction on the filmmakers, it is also liberating by putting an emphasis on “doing” instead of “talking.”
Back in May 2001, Mark Ruppert came up with a crazy idea to try to make a film in 48 hours. He quickly enlisted his filmmaking partner, Liz Langston, and several other DC filmmakers to form their own teams and join him in this experiment.
The big question back then was: “Would films made in only 48 hours even be watchable?” The answer was a resounding yes, and now 10 years later and with more than 400 competitions having taken place around the world, it is amazing to consider the success of the project.
The 2012 DuBois Business College team will not only be competing against filmmakers from across the state, but they will also be competing against their predecessors from the John Russo Movie Making program. Each time that a team from DBC has competed in the film festival, they have come away with some type of award or recognition. In the past, the students have won awards for Best Cinematography, Best Costume, First Runner-up overall and Honorable Mention.