California Lutheran University 48 Film Jam
48 hours to bring an idea from the inside of the brain onto to the big screen. Five creatives from California Lutheran University’s Multimedia department joined together to take on this monumental challenge. Before the first weekend of March in 2019, my classmates and I had little in common. By the end of the 48 hours, though, we had a unique connection that was gained through collaboration, shared stress, too little sleep, and too much Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Spring 2019 48 Hour Film Jam poster.
The 48 hours actually started at hour 49 when all of the teams gathered together for the film fest kickoff event. To add to the challenge and force us to think on our feet, fully reach our creative potential and mitigate any pre-production teams didn't find out what genre their film had to be until the day of. The team lead/ producer picked two genres out of a hat at random and the team then decided whether to combine them together or just use one of them. Teams were also given a line of dialogue and two character names that have to be used in the film. We B Rollin’s producer Brandon drew romance and mystery out of the hat to be our guiding lights. The team jumped to the challenge and decided to create a mystery romance, heavy on the mystery. The result was the film: Blink.
The Blink title card.
After selection we went straight to the drawing board (which in this case was a dry erase board) and started bouncing ideas off of each other, building off everyone’s unique perspectives and storytelling techniques. After about two hours we were able to nail down something that resembled a story. We were even able to to put together a storyboard.
The next step was to crack out the gear and familiarize ourselves with it. For most of us it was the first time using pro grade gear which was a huge learning opportunity for us which we were all excited for. We shot the majority of the film on a Canon C300 with some footage also done on an iPhone Xs MAX.
After the framework for the story was set and all the batteries were fully charged it was off to the races. Although with a somewhat fleshed out script we were constantly making changes as we went to adjust for time and out technical abilities to film certain scenes. We quickly leaned why multiple takes were a thing and that acting was harder than it looks. We were allowed to use people outside of the team to be in the movie but due to the timing and people we knew we all ended being in the movie ourselves which made for shooting each scene multiple times so that we could get all of the giggles out.
Stills from Blink.
After we wrapped filming we jumped into more editing, adding special effects, and making the score which for Blink was surprisingly a lot. Personally, for me, this was the most interesting part of the 48 hours as I learned the most new technical skills during this time. We also gave a fellow student who wasn’t participating in the film jam at the time a call to give us a hand with the music.
The Blink movie premiere at the Thousand Oaks AMC.
The 48 hours culminated a week later when the school rented out a theatre at the Thousand Oaks AMC where all of the films were shown on the big screen which was absolutely incredible, making the lack of sleep and stress worth it. Before the showing there was also a red carpet ceremony to celebrate all of the film makers which was a unique experience that I won’t soon forget.
Seeing yourself on screen the big screen is a strange feeling for the first time and I saw why some actors say that they can’t watch movies they’re in. The cringe was real but we all made it through.
At times it seemed much longer and at others much much shorter but when the 48 hours were up we turned in Blink. It’s by no means good and after a first go through a second is near impossible, It was an incredible experience though for all those involved as each of us learned something new. We pushed each other's and ourselves, playing off of each other's strengths, and we were able to let loose and let the creativity flow. I’ll be forever thankful for those 48 hours and the lessons I learned about dealing with stress, working with others and making a movie.
The We B Rollin’ team.