Windsor teams film a flick from scratch in just 48 hours

From concept to final cut, teams of moviemakersfinished an entire flick in just 48 hours.

The Mark Boscariol 48-Hour FlickFestkicked offFridayand finished Sunday night. Each group used the same theme, character name and even a specific prop to tell the story.

"I think it's going to be really interesting to see how the same few things can be interpreted differently," saidGemmaCunial, who is on one of the teams in the competition.

No prep work allowed

Cunial wrote her team's five-minute movie in just a few hours as groups couldn't do any prep work in advance.

"I think the biggest challenge is just the last-minute setup and trying to organize actors and locations," she said. "You can't use an old script, you can't tell actors they're going to play a certain character. They have come in completely blank."

Cunial's in the first year of her masters at the University of Windsor for film. It's her first time entering this 48-hour flick fest where sheserved as the primary writer and director for her team'sfilm.

Another challenge, she said, is last-minute location selection. During the 12 hours of shooting, rain started coming down. So, the group quickly relocated to a parking garage to finish the final scene.

"Brilliant, let's go," said Cunial. "It's coming up with these quick ideas and just going, no questions asked."

'No sob stories'

All of the 48-Hour FlickFest movies will be screened during the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF), which runs Nov. 1 through Nov. 10.

WIFF executive director Vincent George said the competition is meant to make it "accessible to anybody and everybody."

"It's meant to the type of boot-strapping filmmaking where anyone that's got access to an iPhone or a camera of any sort can participate,"George added.

That seems to be resonating with people as there are some new teams this year, similar to Cunial's, who areparticipating for the first time. There are a total of 10 groups this year.

The competition is open to anyone novice or professionalin Canada and the U.S. Each team is responsible for sourcing its own equipment and the 48-hour deadline is non-negotiable.

"No sob stories of any kind will be accepted," the rules read.