Lee University Cinema Program hosts 48-hour Film Friendsy Competition

All photos by Senior Reporter Annie Youther

Over the weekend, the Cinema Program hosted its third annual 48-Hour Film Friendsy Competition. In the span of 48 hours, six teams conceptualized, wrote, produced, filmed and edited a five-minute film for a panel of judges to score.

Four of the teams were composed of current Lee students, and for the first time in Film Friendsy history, a Lee alumni team and a high school team from Walker Valley were invited to participate. 

Cinema professor Beecher Reuning explained the guidelines of the event:

“28 students signed up this year, and I put them on four teams of seven. Everyone gathers on Friday, and we provide a prop and a line of dialogue that everyone has to use, and then each team is given two different genres to choose from,” said Reuning. “After that, the teams have two days to make a film. They have to submit the films by 5 p.m. on Sunday. Once the films are submitted to me, I send the films to our judges. We’ll all come together again on Monday night for the awards party where the judges will give American Idol style feedback after each film. Then we give out two crazy, ridiculous awards.”

These “crazy, ridiculous awards” are the Creative Under Pressure Awards, which are given to the teams who executed the most creative and ambitious idea and integrated the prop and line of dialogue most effectively. The Best Frantic Filming Award is given to the team with the best technical quality, overall story, creative ambition and integration of ideas. The panel of judges includes local CEO and entrepreneur Rob Alderman, movie fanatic and critic Britain Miethe and vampire novelist Jenna Kraft. 

“The ultimate goal of the Film Friendsy is my two favorite things about cinema, and that’s creativity and collaboration,” said Reuning.

At the beginning of the weekend, each team was assigned a faculty coach to guide them through their brainstorming process and assist them with locations and access around campus. Rondall Reynoso, a professor from the visual art department and a first-time Film Friendsy coach, assisted a team of students with their vampire film “Drawing Blood.” 

“Everything about film surprises me. I do 2-D art, so film is very different,” said Reynoso. “I was impressed by how professional the members of the team were and how they broke it down and split the parts up so well. They’re really good at what they do. They asked me a few questions, but they did 99.99% themselves.” 

Just before the awards ceremony, Jacob Opperman, a junior cinema major and the director of photography for one of the teams, shared his 48-hour filming experience:

“We didn’t have a script locked in until 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, and then we still had to make a shot-list. I didn’t get into bed until about 4 a.m., and then we had to turn around and shoot it at 6:30 the next morning. I literally got half an hour of sleep the first night. I’d say over 48 hours, I got about six hours of sleep,” said Opperman. “I’m about 8-10 confident that we’re going to win. We’ll see.”

Opperman’s team took home the B.F.F. Award for their spy film “Going Gray,” while the alumni team was given the C.U.P. award for “Eyes on the Prize,” a treasure hunt film set in an arcade. 

“I feel amazing,” said writer and editor for “Going Gray,” Nathanael Lirio. “I got two hours of sleep during the entire film festival, but I worked with the most amazing people. They were phenomenal. It was awesome.” 

The Cinema Program hosts the 48-Hour Film Friendsy every fall to encourage students, both within the department and across campus, to come together and create something meaningful with peers they have never met. After the event, the program’s sense of community is reinforced, and new friendships are formed.

“There’s a connection among years and skill levels that takes place because we are putting teams together — two or three seniors, with two or three juniors, with two or three sophomores or two or three freshmen — so we’ve assembled these teams of people that have never met each other, and who are now, for 48 hours, stuck to each other sides and working through the creative process under a lot of pressure. So that builds relationships,” said Reuning. “After this event, you absolutely see friendships start forming between students who are brand new and students who are about to graduate; they’re laughing and cutting up, and they actually know each other now and may stay in touch for a while longer.”