A team of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville mass communications students and alumni, under the direction of instructor Cory Byers, proved victorious at the St. Louis 48 Hour Film Project held in June.
The crew of 10 and cast of nine created Recipe for Disaster, a spy/espionage film. The short film took home awards for Best Film, Best Actress, Best Make Up and Group C Audience Choice.
The 48 Hour Film Project starts on a Friday evening when every team is given the same character/job (Sam/Samantha Cantwell, a chili contest winner), prop (a towel), and line (You and I need to talk.). Each team randomly draws two genres. They choose to use one or the other, or both. Each team then has 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and submit a four to seven-minute film.
“We already do quite a bit of hands-on work in our mass communications production classes,” explained Byers, “but this is another way for students to learn by doing. The film project offers first-hand experience working with a crew from concept through completion. The two biggest factors in the film-making industry are who you know, and what you can do. This project allows students to network and collaborate with others, and gives them real experience fulfilling a particular crew or cast role.”
Senior mass communications major Emily Rork, of Hillsboro, was the assistant editor and worked on the credit sequence and craft services.
“This was such a cool experience, and I’m excited to be a part of more projects in the future,” Rork said. “Our team was fun, talented and easy to work with, which made the win even more exciting! There were a lot of fantastic films submitted, so I was over the moon to have won.”
Chicago native and mass communications senior Michael Watkins played the role of Vic in the spy film.
“Working with Cory and the whole New Sequence team was an amazing experience, and I’m reminded why I love this work so much,” Watkins said. “This experience taught me that something great can be accomplished in just 48 hours.”
“One of the things that went into developing our idea was understanding what plays well with 48 hour film audiences, which is comedy, action and horror,” Byers explained. “We also had to think about what other teams may be doing since we all had the same elements. It’s hard to do a straight-up drama or action movie with a chili contest winner, so we liked the idea of setting up the story as a serious action/espionage film, then adding a few twists for humor at the end. Overall, we wanted to make a fun, entertaining film that didn’t overstay its welcome.”
Crew members included Byers (producer, director, editor), Rork (assistant editor, credit sequence, craft services), alumnus Eric Peterson (director of photography), alumna Kiara Laack (assistant camera), student Tyler Pearl (audio), Kevin Minor (boom operator), alumna Ashley Mitchell (production designer, makeup artist), alumna Rachel Rogers (still photographer), alumnus Levi Malan (music) and Scott McCall (writing team).
Cast members included Watkins (Vic), alumna Monica Buschor (Samantha), alumna Jennifer Hodges (Aphrodite), Kevin Minor (spy), and Tyler Pearl, Ashley Mitchell, Rachel Rogers, Nathan Cox and Nicolas Cox (guards).
Photo: Celebrating their 48 Hour Film Project success are team members (front L-R) Eric Peterson and Cory Byers, and (back L-R) Michael Watkins, Monica Buschor, Kiara Laack, Ashley Mitchell and Emily Rork.