The 5th Annual 24 Speed Filmmaking Competition

This past weekend the school held another successful 24 Speed competition, and as a special treat we had two alumni give a talk about the film business as a way to kick things off. Kevin Williams ’07 splits his time between working as an assistant director on independent films and with working production on reality shows (the latter only because the pay is decent), and he traveled all the way from New York city. Gustav Lindquist ’07 works as an assistant to the Creative head at Dreamworks studios, look for his name to be among those credited at the end of Monsters vs. Aliens. He made the trip all the way from L.A.

L-R Kevin Williams '07 & Gustav Lindquist '07

The two gave a casual talk to a small audience about the film business and life in the big city. Due to his work at Dreamworks, Gustav also discussed the new 3d technology that is becoming so prevalent; he even passed out a bunch of 3d glasses and played 3d movies off the internet. Gustav explained that 3d seems to be the next big thing, so much so that we could be having football games broad casted in 3d to our homes in the not too distant future. Gustav also brought along a Monsters vs. Alien poster which he signed and gave to Prof. Sharon Zuber.

Alumni back for 24 Speed Weekend (L-R Zach, Gustav, Kevin, Jeremy)

The 24 Speed contest then began soon after the talk (6pm Friday February 20th). 12 teams were present for the delivery of the requirements, which were as follows:

PROP: an old photo from special collections

LINE OF DIALOGUE: “what, you thought you needed another challenge or something?” (line taken from that classic action flick known as Speed, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock).

GENRE: RANDOM: pulled out of a hat.

24 Speed Participants just before the start of the contest

The genre’s pulled and used were as follows Buddy film, Biography, Heist, Chick Flick, Disaster, Film Noir, Gangster, Sci-fi, and Action/Adventure. Only 9 genres are listed because by the end of the contest at 6pm the following day, only 9 teams had successfully completed a film. Out of those 9, only 6 of the films made it in at the 6pm deadline meaning that three of the films were not eligible for the judges’ awards. Time, of course, was one of the biggest challenges of the contest, and participants had to make sure to finish early enough to account for rendering and the printing of films to a mini-dv tape (which was the contest’s only acceptable format).

Team Rifthead Productions in the editing room.

As for the judging this year, we had a real celebrity judge in the form of the two time Oscar nominated documentarist Nathaniel Kahn. The two films getting the nod being My Architect and Two Hands: The Leon Fleischer Story. Mr. Kahn is also a member of the Academy board meaning that he votes for the films that are Oscar nominated, so we did indeed have an official judge of the highest distinction.

The Oscar Nominee Nathaniel Kahn

The great thing about Nathaniel Kahn was that his passion and love for filmmaking really showed through in both his judging of the contest films and his interaction with students. I was fortunate enough to attend a small lunch with Mr. Kahn and was quite impressed with his eagerness to advise and motivate anyone to pursue their dreams in film production, and it was great to see and hear him discuss and judge the 24 speed films with such care and interest. Mr. Kahn was quite an addition to 24 speed, and certainly made the event even more special than it already was.

Also judging this year we had Prof. Arthur Knight, Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Film Studies program, Steven Koernig ’08 alum currently working at the Colonial Williamsburg Studios, and myself, Zach Keifer ’07.

(L-R Zach Keifer, Nathaniel Kahn, Prof. Arthur Knight, Steven Koernig)

It was certainly a tough group this year, with all the teams putting together wonderful films. The Judges Award was given to “Escape from Vesuvius,” a Buddy Film by One Way Productions. The Rifthead Productions team also scored big with their biographical film “Shadows of Shadows” which won the Audience Award (an award open to all 9 films), the Excellence in Sound Award, and the Xanadu Editing Ignited Award. Special Mention for Outstanding Cinematography was given to “Lockdown” a Heist film by Lock/Load productions. Also, a Special Mention for Makeup was given to “Bleeding Hearts” a chick flick film by South of Somewhere Productions. Lastly, the best use of prop award (given by representatives of the Library’s special collections) went to “Pizzapocolypse” a disaster film by team Zarklis, Trick My Fritzl Productions.

Team One Way Productions poses with their Judges' Award for Best Film

Both Shore Productions and Kite Flying Society each successfully completed their films before the 6pm deadline. The first team’s submission being a film noir entitled “Hollow Heroes,” while the second team’s film was a Sci-fi titled “Listerine & Oreos.” The two other teams that screened were team Amor de Rey with their Gangster film “Slippery Bridge,” and Team Flipper with their Action/Adventure film “Run, Banana, Run.”

All of the 9 films were very entertaining, and quite an achievement for the 24 hour time limitation. They are all available for viewing at this website: 24 Speed Films . Please check them out and support W&M filmmakers.

In total, 39 people were officially signed up to participate in the competition. With somewhere around 115 people attending the screening. And so, a very special thanks goes out to the group of people who were responsible for making this event happen. Additional Special thanks goes out to Prof. Dan Cristol whose good friendship with Nathaniel Kahn was the reason he came to be a judge.

L-R Adam Stackhouse '04, Prof. Sharon Zuber, Kevin Heraldo '04, Erica Westmoreland '07

For more info on this event, please check out this website: 24 Speed. And to view past films of previous competitions please go here: 24 Speed Archive.