Lansing resident Andrew Oberlin films a scene with a puppet on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing on Sunday as a part of the East Lansing Film Festival 48/5 Film Contest. Participants in the contest had 48 hours to write, film and edit a five-minute film with specific criteria. Oberlin and his teammates, history senior Andrew Childers and East Lansing resident Jordan Kimmey (not pictured) were making a comedy called “Apuppetheid” about puppet discrimination.
What do a mango, a bookstore and the phrase, “It’s the difference between night and day,” have in common?
Not a whole lot, but that didn’t stop Ace Aviation, one of nine teams that managed to put together a five-minute film in just two days this past weekend, from using those same elements to craft a coherent civil rights inspired comedy with a puppet as its main character.
The film was part of the East Lansing Film Festival 48/5 Film Contest, which took place from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Sunday. Each team had 48 hours to complete a five-minute film that incorporated these seemingly unrelated elements.
The contest’s winner will be announced tonight after the films are screened for the public at 7:30 p.m. in room 106B of Wells Hall.
Building a plot
Childhood friends and teammates, history senior Andrew Childers, Lansing resident Andrew Oberlin and East Lansing resident Jordan Kimmey created the film “Apuppetheid” during their fourth time competing in the 48/5 competition.
One broken windshield, several shattered DVDs, a handful of equipment malfunctions and 48 hours later, a visibly stressed and excited Childers handed in the film at 6:04 p.m. Sunday.
“Honestly, right now I feel so relieved,” Childers said after learning the film would be accepted despite arriving late. “While (the DVD) was burning, we took as many other DVDs as we could find and shattered them on the ground. We had such a catharsis just screaming at each other.”
But Childers won’t be able to rest easy until the winners are announced. The top prize is $100 and the top three films will be shown at the 13th annual East Lansing Film Festival, which is scheduled to be held Nov. 10-18, 2010.
Overcoming mistakes, bad luck and the human element is precisely what the film contest is about, East Lansing Film Festival Director Susan Woods said.
“The whole thing about the 48/5 film contest is not to say you are great filmmaker or storyteller,” Woods said. “It’s about being able to do it in 48 hours with these elements against all odds. You’ve got equipment failures, you’ve got editing failures … and the challenge of being able to work with other people.”
No teams submitted their films before 5 p.m., and the majority came in after 5:40 p.m., just 20 minutes before the deadline.
Last year, Ace Aviation was 15 minutes late with their film — a sci-fi flick featuring zombies in a bowling alley.
“They screened it anyway, but we didn’t win anything. We were told we could have got either first or second place,” Oberlin said.
The 48/5 competition is held three times each year — during the fall, spring and summer — depending on interest. This fall, only three genres were included in the competition: Comedy, drama and thriller. Teams supplied their own equipment.
After gathering at 6 p.m. Friday at Beggars Banquet, 218 Abbot Road, teams were handed a packet containing “elements” they would need to incorporate in their film. The only difference between the assignments for each team was the genre, which was randomly chosen.
“Comedy is a blessing,” Oberlin said.
But appeal is only one aspect the judges will critique.
“The most important part, where the points are heaviest, are effectively integrating the elements into the film,” Woods said.
The Shoot
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Film studies junior Danielle Schwartz, a three-time 48/5 entrant, said her team, Blue Left Shoelace — and most teams with previous experience — had a prescribed method of creating their film.
“I find it to be effective to, as soon as we get the elements, to secure a location,” Schwartz said. “Then brainstorm, write all night and film all day Saturday and Sunday and edit while we go.”
Ace Aviation brainstormed and wrote the script Friday night, deciding to use puppets as their main characters.
“That way we don’t have to rely on finding really good actors — that’s always a problem in 48 hours,” Childers said.
Still, they needed a few actors, such as Haley Atkin, a friend of Childers who recently arrived from New York.
“I got a text message last night and it’s like ‘We need a girl to pretend be the girlfriend of a puppet’ and I was like ‘Awesome,’” Atkin said Saturday.
Setbacks popped up throughout filming, including bookstores that refused the team a place to film and a broken windshield resulting from a particularly hard mango toss, but the team said the real problems happened in editing.
The cutting room floor
Ace Aviation found its most challenging task in the back room of Oberlin’s Lansing apartment. The team spent several hours Saturday night and Sunday editing footage.
“That’s one of the hardest parts to do because after a while, it makes sense in your head,” Childers said. “But in truth, it doesn’t flow that well.”
The tedious nature of editing, combined with the occasional differences of opinion, found them turning to an old-fashioned remedy to keep the peace.
“We had to keep laughing,” Childers said. “(Oberlin) and I started arguing more and more as we got into the editing process and Jordan had to step in and say ‘Alright guys, we’re all friends, try to keep that in mind.’”
At the end of the experience, cathartic yelling aside, it was about the fun of meeting a challenge.
“At one point we woke up early, went to Taco Bell, then came back and threw mangos at the wall,” Childers said. “It’s not epic poetry, we’re trying to make it more or less fun.”
