AMHERST — A team of local actors, producers, editors and directors put their skills to the test over the weekend in what they say is an ultimate challenge for filmmakers: Create a short film in 48 hours.
For the third year in a row, Matt Heron Duranti and Sari Gagnon rallied a group of 45 creative types from across the Northeast to take part in the “48hour Film Project.” The regional competition, based in New Haven, Connecticut, requires participants to create a short film from start to finish in 48 hours and hand-deliver it to contest officials by 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
Duranti and Gagnon’s team, Classic Stanley, began competing in 2014. It is one of 40 teams taking part with the New Haven branch of the competition. Last year, the group was nominated for 14 awards and won second place in the competition.
“We’re really gunning for first place this year,” Gagnon said. “We’re an all-or-nothing kind of team.”
Contest winners are given prizes like editing software and sound software, but those are things Gagnon said she uses already at her production company. What drives the team to take the challenge every year is the chance to have a film shown at Cannes Film Festival and an opportunity to meet up with friends each year to test each other’s abilities and create a piece of art.
“We really are a quirky little film community,” Gagnon said. “It’s a reunion, it’s a chance to see people I don’t really see all the time.”
Duranti and Gagnon own Counterfeit Cow Productions, a production company in Amherst best known for its documentary “Homeless in a College Town” and for “Hope,” the cow statue and piggy bank in downtown Amherst that raises awareness about homelessness.
They draw on friends and colleagues they meet through their business to assemble the team of volunteer filmmakers each year.
The competition will hold four screenings that feature 10 films each night. The film created by Classic Stanley will be shown in a theater on the Yale University campus on Wednesday, and an awards ceremony will take place Aug. 25.
Classic Stanley films from 2014 and 2015 can be viewed at http://gagnonsari.wix.com/classicstanley.
The group set up shop at Amherst Media Saturday afternoon, swarming the building in yellow Classic Stanley T-shirts. Gagnon, the executive producer, fielded questions and gave directions to crew members, acting as a dispatcher as she sent cast and crew to different shooting locations around town.
“I haven’t slept since 7 o’clock Friday morning,” Gagnon said. “Competitions like this have a way of testing your skills and creativity. There is so much pressure and you have to be very creative and adaptable … You have to do what you have to do to get it done.”
Filmmakers are required to start from scratch Friday at 7 p.m. and meet Sunday’s deadline.
To ensure the film is created within the time frame, each team must draw a film genre from a hat. Teams are required to incorporate a prop given to them by contest organizers and use a specific character name and occupation.
Classic Stanley drew “road movie” for its genre and raced to write the film. It’s about a man on a journey to spread his father’s ashes and is titled “Five of Cups.” In the 4-to-7-minute film, the team must incorporate a fortune teller and a character named Leon or Leona.
Actors, makeup artists, camera and sound operators converged on Amherst Media Saturday to shoot the film, trying to make the most of precious daylight hours. They shot at the nearby Amherst Motel on Route 9, on a hilltop, in the Amherst Media parking lot and around Amherst in several car scenes.
Gagnon said the crew hoped to wrap shooting at 10 p.m. Saturday and hand the responsibility over to the editors, who will piece together footage to create the film.
Dan Marcowski, an editor from Stamford, Connecticut, likened the experience to doing summer theater as a kid.
“You’re kind of thrown together where you don’t know everyone. It’s that same energy,” Marcowski said. “And you find you really want to finish it. You’ve looked at the script and you’ve seen something in your mind already. You want to make that thing come out.”
For actor Stephen Edwards, of New Haven, the experience was welcoming and positive, notable in an industry where competition is the norm. Edwards joined Classic Stanley for the first time this weekend and was an actor in a car scene in the film. He said he bonded with crew members just after a day of working together.
“This is my first time with this group,” Edwards said. “And everybody is rooting for everyone. There’s no competition. It’s so fun.”
Anna Bedell, a makeup artist for the film, agreed, reaching to hold Edwards’ hand. She said the actor already felt like family to her, as did the rest of the crew.
“It’s unusual, you don’t always find this,” Bedell said. “Sari has a knack for connecting people who are going to be lifelong friends.”