Screenings

The 48-Hour Film Project
Fourteen years ago, Washington D.C. filmmaker Mark Ruppert enlisted his friends to see if they could make a complete, six- to seven-minute film in only 48 hours. Quickly growing to a world-wide phenomenon, the 48 Hour Film Project stages competitions in Rome, London, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Boston and now, for the first time, Santa Rosa.
 So on Aug. 16 to 18, while the rest of us were going to weddings, barbecues and back-to-school sales, 15 groups of amateur filmmakers scattered across Sonoma County carefully watched the clock as they attempted to create a complete, scripted movie in under 48 hours.
 Signing up in advance, teams ranged from a family group of just three people to more than 19 individuals wearing hats as director, producer, screenwriter, actor, cameraman, sound technician, makeup and costume designer, location scout or even an “egg-sandwich lady.”
 The Santa Rosa clock started ticking as a representative from each team gathered around the Charlie Brown and Snoopy statue in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square Park. Local coordinator Alessandro Squitti had each team randomly draw a film genre out of a hat. Those who picked Drama, Comedy and Buddy movie seemed pleased with their assignments, and when Jodi Brock picked Horror as her film genre, she was overjoyed. “I really wanted horror and the chance to do makeup—it just seemed to float into my hand.”
 Director Randy Hall’s Sebastopol-based “Kye-MEER-Uh” team wasn’t quite as thrilled with its Western or Musical assignment. But “we can make it work,” screenwriter Tom Kendrick wrote in his production notes. “Randy and I holed up for 30 minutes and sketched out a short outline. We had the bones, but got stuck in the middle of the story.” Then “some magical moments occurred” as others pitched in to smooth out the script’s rough edges. Tom sent the first draft to Randy at 12:15 Saturday morning and then tried to sleep, finally coming up with a 4 a.m. solution that worked.
Compounding the challenge, each of the teams had to  incorporate a Santa Rosa landmark in their film and include three distinct “elements” — a former reality show contestant character named Grant or Gretta Parchley; a bandage as a prop; and the line “Hold this. I’ll be right back.” Failure to include any of these elements disqualified a film from completion.
 A dozen of the teams turned their finished product in by the 7:30 Sunday night deadline, earning a chance to win a slot in the Los Angeles competition (LA winners go on to screen their film at Cannes). Winners are selected by a panel of professional filmmakers but audiences have the chance to pick their favorite films at the local screenings held at Santa Rosa’s Summerfield Cinemas.
 The premiere screening of 14 films was quickly sold out so an additional screening was added the same evening, and a Best of Screening, featuring the films meeting all of the contest criteria, is coming up at Summerfield Cinemas on Sept 7, at 8 p.m.
 The discerning audience had obvious favorites:
• Susie Heyden’s Team Five Productions’ film “Putt Putt” in the Crime/Gangster genre drew kudos for its underwater fight sequence.
• Alexander Silva-Sadder’s All the Way Pictures’ dark comedy “The Cleaners” created chuckles with its blood-spattered serial murders for literal envelopes of cash.
• The camerawork, editing, direction and acting by Kirk Demorist’s Sonoma Media Arts group in their thriller/suspense film “Factory Girls” was Hollywood quality.
• The great silent acting by Räven Green and the magical realism in the vacation/holiday film “French Exit” by Jeff Bodean’s Black Birds team was astoundingly good.
•The ambitious film-within-a-film western constructed by Randy Hall’s creative Kye-MEER-Uh crew proved the value of collaboration as the screenwriter got drafted for a major speaking role in “The Streets of Santa Rosa.”
• The McGuffin-like mystery of the cardboard box carried to his father’s house by the just released convict in “Eight” by Sam Euston’s SRJC Digital Arts team The Droppler Collective artfully proved suspense can continue even after the closing credits.  
• Jodi Brock’s ghost-like transformation of her daughter for the onscreen role of the scary little girl validated her desire to make a horror film with The Second Unit’s movie, “The Presents.”
• Mark Garoutte’s whole family (aka Radioactive Studios) got involved creating the European-inspired, Russian language film “Oboyee” (Wallpaper).
However, the greatest amount of delight came from three humorous entries — for as comedians constantly remind us, the most difficult challenge for filmmakers to pull off well is humor:
• The obvious delight playing the title character in Nicholas Shutes’ Bear State Studios’ comedy “Grant Parchley: Acting Extraordinaire” made this has-been reality show contestant turned Hollywood-wannabe into a memorable comedy event.
• The long-take reaction shots and the unexpected talking dogs ending in Evan Donn’s It Donned on Me fantasy “Fired By Dogs” elicited simultaneous laughter and respect from the audience.  
• The biggest laughs came for the farcical Sci-Fi search for Bigfoot (aka Sasquach) in the wild jungles of Santa Rosa in Seth Friesen’s San Fiasco production “Survival.” This team even managed to continue the laughter into the final credits.
 
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